Creating a Key Pair

The following New-EC2KeyPair example creates a key pair and stores in the PowerShell variable $myPSKeyPair

PS > $myPSKeyPair = New-EC2KeyPair -KeyName myPSKeyPair

Pipe the key pair object into the Get-Member cmdlet to see the object's structure.

PS > $myPSKeyPair | Get-Member

     TypeName: Amazon.EC2.Model.KeyPair

  Name                MemberType   Definition
  ----                ----------   ----------
  Equals              Method       bool Equals(System.Object obj)
  GetHashCode         Method       int GetHashCode()
  GetType             Method       type GetType()
  ToString            Method       string ToString()
  KeyFingerprint      Property     System.String KeyFingerprint {get;set;}
  KeyMaterial         Property     System.String KeyMaterial {get;set;}
  KeyName             Property     System.String KeyName {get;set;}

Pipe the key pair object into the Format-List cmdlet to view values of the KeyName, KeyFingerprint, and KeyMaterial members. (The output has been truncated for readability.)

PS > $myPSKeyPair | Format-List KeyName, KeyFingerprint, KeyMaterial

  KeyName        : myPSKeyPair
  KeyFingerprint : 09:06:70:8e:26:b6:e7:ef:8f:fe:4a:1d:bc:9c:6a:63:11:ac:ad:3c
  KeyMaterial    : ----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----
                   MIIEogIBAAKCAQEAkK+ANYUS9c7niNjYfaCn6KYj/D0I6djnFoQE...
                   Mz6btoxPcE7EMeH1wySUp8nouAS9xbl9l7+VkD74bN9KmNcPa/Mu...
                   Zyn4vVe0Q5il/MpkrRogHqOB0rigeTeV5Yc3lvO0RFFPu0Kz4kcm...
                   w3Jg8dKsWn0plOpX7V3sRC02KgJIbejQUvBFGi5OQK9bm4tXBIeC...
                   daxKIAQMtDUdmBDrhR1/YMv8itFe5DiLLbq7Ga+FDcS85NstBa3h...
                   iuskGkcvgWkcFQkLmRHRoDpPb+OdFsZtjHZDpMVFmA9tT8EdbkEF...
                   3SrNeqZPsxJJIxOodb3CxLJpg75JU5kyWnb0+sDNVHoJiZCULCr0...
                   GGlLfEgB95KjGIk7zEv2Q7K6s+DHclrDeMZWa7KFNRZuCuX7jssC...
                   xO98abxMr3o3TNU6p1ZYRJEQ0oJr0W+kc+/8SWb8NIwfLtwhmJEy...
                   1BX9X8WFX/A8VLHrT1elrKmLkNECgYEAwltkV1pOJAFhz9p7ZFEv...
                   vvVsPaF0Ev9bk9pqhx269PB5Ox2KokwCagDMMaYvasWobuLmNu/1...
                   lmwRx7KTeQ7W1J3OLgxHA1QNMkip9c4Tb3q9vVc3t/fPf8vwfJ8C...
                   63g6N6rk2FkHZX1E62BgbewUd3eZOS05Ip4VUdvtGcuc8/qa+e5C...
                   KXgyt9nl64pMv+VaXfXkZhdLAdY0Khc9TGB9++VMSG5TrD15YJId...
                   gYALEI7m1jJKpHWAEs0hiemw5VmKyIZpzGstSJsFStERlAjiETDH...
                   YAtnI4J8dRyP9I7BOVOn3wNfIjk85gi1/0Oc+j8S65giLAfndWGR...
                   9R9wIkm5BMUcSRRcDy0yuwKBgEbkOnGGSD0ah4HkvrUkepIbUDTD...
                   AnEBM1cXI5UT7BfKInpUihZi59QhgdK/hkOSmWhlZGWikJ5VizBf...
                   drkBr/vTKVRMTi3lVFB7KkIV1xJxC5E/BZ+YdZEpWoCZAoGAC/Cd...
                   TTld5N6opgOXAcQJwzqoGa9ZMwc5Q9f4bfRc67emkw0ZAAwSsvWR...
                   x3O2duuy7/smTwWwskEWRK5IrUxoMv/VVYaqdzcOajwieNrblr7c...
                   -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

The KeyMaterial member stores the private key for the key pair. The public key is stored in AWS. You can't retrieve the public key from AWS, but you can verify the public key by comparing the KeyFingerprint for the private key to that returned from AWS for the public key.

Viewing the Fingerprint of Your Key Pair

You can use the Get-EC2KeyPair cmdlet to view the fingerprint for your key pair.

PS > Get-EC2KeyPair -KeyName myPSKeyPair | format-list KeyName, KeyFingerprint

  KeyName        : myPSKeyPair
  KeyFingerprint : 09:06:70:8e:26:b6:e7:ef:8f:fe:4a:1d:bc:9c:6a:63:11:ac:ad:3c

Storing Your Private Key

To store the private key to a file, pipe the KeyFingerMaterial member to the Out-File cmdlet.

PS > $myPSKeyPair.KeyMaterial | Out-File -Encoding ascii myPSKeyPair.pem

You must specify -Encoding ascii when writing the private key to a file. Otherwise, tools such as openssl might not be able to read the file correctly. You can verify that the format of the resulting file is correct by using a command such as the following:

PS > openssl rsa -check < myPSKeyPair.pem

(The openssl tool is not included with the AWS Tools for PowerShell or the AWS SDK for .NET.)

Removing Your Key Pair

You need your key pair to launch and connect to an instance. When you are done using a key pair, you can remove it. To remove the public key from AWS, use the Remove-EC2KeyPair cmdlet. When prompted, press Enter to remove the key pair.

PS > Remove-EC2KeyPair -KeyName myPSKeyPair

Confirm
Performing the operation "Remove-EC2KeyPair (DeleteKeyPair)" on target "myPSKeyPair".
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"):

The variable, $myPSKeyPair, still exists in the current PowerShell session and still contains the key pair information. The myPSKeyPair.pem file also exists. However, the private key is no longer valid because the public key for the key pair is no longer stored in AWS.