48.2. About IdM and OpenSSH
During an IdM server or client installation, as part of the install script:
- An OpenSSH server and client is configured on the IdM client machine.
- SSSD is configured to store and retrieve user and host SSH keys in cache. This allows IdM to serve as a universal and centralized repository of SSH keys.
If you enable the SSH service during the client installation, an RSA key is created when the SSH service is started for the first time.
When you run the ipa-client-install install script to add the machine as an IdM client, the client is created with two SSH keys, RSA and DSA.
As part of the installation, you can configure the following:
-
Configure OpenSSH to automatically trust the IdM DNS records where the key fingerprints are stored using the
--ssh-trust-dnsoption. -
Disable OpenSSH and prevent the install script from configuring the OpenSSH server using the
--no-sshdoption. -
Prevent the host from creating DNS SSHFP records with its own DNS entries using the
--no-dns-sshfpoption.
If you do not configure the server or client during installation, you can manually configure SSSD later. For information on how to manually configure SSSD, see Configuring SSSD to Provide a Cache for the OpenSSH Services. Note that caching SSH keys by SSSD requires administrative privileges on the local machines.