How do I add new user accounts with SSH access to my Amazon EC2 Linux instance?

I'm trying to access new user which is created in AWS instance using SSH, but it throws an error when i execute the command ssh -i new_keypair.pem

Error : Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic)..

I followed each and every steps as mentioned in AWS document

Please Let me know is there any additional configurations are required to access newly added user using SSH..

2 Answers

Add the newly created user in /etc/ssh/sshd_config as mentioned below. It's also working fine.

AllowUsers root new_user

AllowGroups root new_user

SSH to your EC2 Instance as standard ec2-user

sudo adduser -m testuser sudo su - testuser mkdir .ssh chmod 700 .ssh touch .ssh/authorized_keys chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys 

On your local pc, if you don't have them already, generate rsa keys (always give enter on default options)

ssh-keygen -t rsa cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 

Copy the output (something like this)

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDTvTnCzaaIPChWXgvxlyswcNzzTjlYUcfNExm6zGGJRtEcjvHMpV6vg9XMOb9ZgRNhgpWQqitQ9yLy+mjznDerfuK9RsEIdu5wb7uVFXs6TGHy8b9sqid0PH6PYuWiZ1/pA6cRrtQudeqlZuVV5wyimPFKZONW3v+BOp+AtIvChPhZI+rWn0T3vxi2NTHfdqW93VqsQ7ReEkzd1RGxJZ+1X0kADmCJKjwAoju0DvvVz3/xdsc2UT3rjRsUTxDR1bH4GBQr7U1pwCGAqZqvEl72TLpUdWRECG42qIPsut95c237gtzkwlU7iAOeiPWJduMV/bPxXnrB/YqF+XwRMuiz testuser@testEC2

and paste into the .ssh/authorized_keys of your testuser of testinstance (using vi or nano or whatever)

from your client ssh to your ec2

ssh testuser@ip.e.c.2 

This will work. I don't really get the Amazon way of sharing and setting up pem keys. I think it is easier for their automated systems but not for sysadmins. You can use your public key that way on all the servers you need to admin.