Nortel Networks NN47250-500 Creating public-private key pairs

528 Managing keys and certificates
NN47250-500 (Version 03.01)
Creating public-private key pairs
To use a self-signed certificate or Certificate Signing Request (CSR) certificate for WSS authentication, you
must generate a public-private key pair.
To create a public-private key pair, use the following command:
crypto generate key {admin | domain | eap | ssh | web}
{128 | 512 | 1024 | 2048}
Choose the key length based on your need for security or to conform with your organization’s practices. For
example, the following command generates an administrative key pair of 1024 bits:
WSS# crypto generate key admin 1024
admin key pair generated
Some key lengths apply only to specific key types. For example, 128 applies only to domain keys.
SSH requires an SSH authentication key, but you can allow WSS Software to generate it automatically. The
first time an SSH client attempts to access the SSH server on a WSS, the switch automatically generates a
1024-byte SSH key. If you want to use a 2048-byte key instead, use the crypto generate key ssh 2048
command to generate one.
Note. After you generate or install a certificate (described in the following sections), do
not create the key pair again. If you do, the certificate might not work with the new key, in
which case you will need to regenerate or reinstall the certificate.