How to use WinSCP to connect to a Linux VM in Yandex Cloud with a key generated at VM creation

Issue descriptionIssue description

You need to connect to a Linux VM in Yandex Cloud via WinSCP with the key generated at creation.

SolutionSolution

To connect to a Linux VM using WinSCP, specify these connection parameters:

1. File protocol: SCP or SFTP
2. Host name: IP address of the VM
3. User name: Username specified when creating the VM
4. Password: Leave blank because you are going to use SSH key authentication.

Next, click Advanced, select SSH – Authentication, then enable the Allow agent forwarding parameter in the Authentication parameters section. After that, in the Private key file field, select the SSH private key file and click OK. Now you can connect to the VM to transfer files via SCP or SFTP protocol by clicking the Login button.

This guide is relevant if you did not set a password for the user. If you have already connected to the VM using an SSH key and set a password using the sudo passwd username command, then, in item 4, Enter the user password and click Login.

For security reasons, access to the VM is possible only by an SSH key by default.