Ubuntu – How to configure a second SSH key + user for a single server

backupcronrsyncserverssh

I have a SSH key which is passphrase-protected. Authentication to the server is by SSH key only, password authentication is disabled. Both the server and my desktop run Ubuntu 14.04 and authentication with that key and server is tested and working.

My goal is to have cron copy files from my desktop machine to the server via rsync. I plan to create a new 'backups-user' (with limited rights) on the server, and have cron running on my desktop to copy the files to the server as this second user. That should avoid the issue of having to enter the passphrase for my primary SSH key.

My problem is that I keep getting "Permission denied (publickey)" errors when I try to ssh-copy-id the second SSH key to the server.

Both SSH keys (public and private) were created and are in ~/.ssh/ on my desktop. The user 'backups-user' was created on the server, but I cannot log in as that user yet.

Am I going about this the wrong way, or is there a better method of automating what I want to do?

Here is the output of ssh -v:

tom@desktop:~$ ssh -v backups-user@XX.XX.XX.XX
OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1f 6 Jan 2014
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to XX.XX.XX.XX [XX.XX.XX.XX] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file /home/tom/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5-etm@openssh.com none
debug1: sending SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug1: Server host key: ECDSA (redacted)
debug1: Host 'XX.XX.XX.XX' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /home/tom/.ssh/known_hosts:2
debug1: ssh_ecdsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: tom@Desktop
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: tom@Desktop
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /home/tom/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/tom/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/tom/.ssh/id_ecdsa
debug1: Trying private key: /home/tom/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

Best Answer

ssh-copy-id basically starts an SSH connection and copies over any missing keys. The problem, however, is in starting the SSH connection. Since only public-key authentication is allowed, the server can only accept the public key of backups-user. However, there are no SSH keys related to backup-user on the server. Therefore, no one (remotely) can log in as backups-user.

You will need to either temporarily allow password authentication or copy the public-key file to your home directory and use sudo cp id_rsa.pub ~backups-user/.ssh/authorized_keys on the server to copy the public key to that user's home directory.