GPG Encryption Key Creation on ERISTwo

Introduction

GPG keys have a variety of uses including code signing and file encryption. Creating a personal GPG key on the ERISTwo Linux Cluster is relatively straightforward

Instructions

Creating a GPG key for the first time

• Open an SSH terminal on ERISTwo
• Type "gpg --gen-key" at the command line
  • You will be prompted to enter your name and email and an encryption passphrase, but otherwise can accept the default values offered for the encryption options
  • Record the key passphrase in a secure password manager application
  • Note that it will take several minutes to generate the key and no progress bar is shown
• Verify that a key has been created by listing available keys using "gpg -k"
• Immediately copy the GPG key files to a secure backup location outside ERISTwo. Any data encrypted with the key cannot be recovered if the keys are lost

See also

Backing up ERISTwo Cluster Data with Duply