My first step after installing a new Linux server is usually to setup SSH. I have setup key based authentication a couple times, but am still getting the hang of it. If you run into any problems, see the additional explanation at the end of this post. Here are the steps for a client using Putty on Windows and a server running CentOS.

1. Run ssh-keygen -t rsa. This will create the private and public key files. Be sure to use the default file location.
2. Run cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.