On your client machine (e.g. Laptop)
Start Bitvise Client Key Manager, and click “Generate New”
Select Algorithm “RSA” and Size 4096 (or any other)
Set a Passphrase if required. Enter some comments, and click Generate.
After Key is generated, select it, and click on “Export”. In the Export options, make sure you select “Export public key” and underneath it “OpenSSH format”. Click on Export and save the file somewhere.
On the CentOS Server
Upload the file to your CentOS server, then execute following commands:
mkdir -p ~/.ssh cat saved_file >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Ensure correct SELinux settings
restorecon -R ~/.ssh
Set correct file permissions
chmod 700 ~/.ssh chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Delete the uploaded file from the server
After this, log off and log on back using Bitvise SSH Client with “Initial method” as “publickey” and select the appropriate Key from the “Client Key” dropdown . If Key was recognized you will be asked for passphrase. If no passphrase was set, you should see the terminal open.