Unable to create a proper PEM for Redis Desktop Manager

Question

On Ubuntu, I have a problem to establish a connection to redis server using SSH tunnel and SSH key with Redis Desktop Manager (RDM).

What are the symptoms?

I can connect to the server where redis is running using "plain" ssh and my id_rsa,
other utilities which use either the SSH agent or keys in .ssh can connect to this server and create tunnels (e.g. DB apps),
I can connect with RDM to redis servers using SSH tunnel and password (so the question is not a duplicate of Unable to establish an SSH tunnel using Redis Desktop Manager); but this is not a perfect solutions, because I would rather use private/public keys authorization,
I cannot convert keys in .ssh to a working PEM format required by RDM: any PEM files I've generated using different methods I googled are rejected by RDM with a message Connection: Disconnect on error: SSH Connection error(Authentication Error): Unable to extract public key from private key file: Unable to open private key file,
I tried entering either a path to id_rsa (~/.ssh/id_rsa) or just a path to a directory where my private key is stored (~/.ssh).

So, does anyone have an idea how to properly convert my SSH keys to a PEM format RDM needs and accepts?

Can openssl read the private key? **Please do not post the results, but run the command** `openssl pkey -in ~/.ssh/my_key.pem -text` .... And what format does the key say it's in... **Do post this result** `grep BEGIN ~/.ssh/my_key.pem` — RubberStamp, Dec 02 '18 at 12:57
yes, openssl can read the file, `grep` returns `-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----` — jacek.ciach, Dec 03 '18 at 22:59
I'd like to add, that I tried to put both public and private key into the same file. I did not work as well. — jacek.ciach, Dec 03 '18 at 23:00

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 05 '18 at 13:58

7

Workaround: copy your id_rsa file into a directory without "." in its name...

edited Dec 05 '18 at 13:58

Jeff Schaller

answered Dec 05 '18 at 13:35

nimai

Please note, that the file *must not* be sym-linked. It has to be copied or hard-linked. – jacek.ciach Dec 05 '18 at 15:33

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 28 '21 at 19:16

If you installed rdm as a snap you will need to run the following command.

sudo snap connect redis-desktop-manager:ssh-keys

2 Answers2