Centralized SSH Key Management for AI Compute Instances

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

When you're managing multiple AI Compute Instances, particularly in a cloud environment, it's essential to have an efficient way to manage SSH keys so that you can securely access these instances when needed. Centralized SSH Key Management allows you to define SSH keys once and then associate them with user accounts or instances across your infrastructure. This is beneficial for security as it simplifies key rotation, revocation, and audits.

For instance, with AWS, you could use the `aws.ec2.KeyPair` resource to create a new SSH key pair, and then use the `aws.ec2.Instance` to create compute instances that are associated with the SSH key pair for centralized management. With Google Cloud (GCP), you might use the `gcp.oslogin.SshPublicKey` resource to manage SSH keys for OS Login, which allows centralized administration of user accounts and SSH keys.

Assuming you are using AWS, I will provide you with a Pulumi program in Python that creates an SSH key pair and then launches an EC2 instance using that key pair. This program will import the required `pulumi_aws` package to work with AWS resources.

Below is a detailed Pulumi program that carries out the aforementioned process:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_aws as aws

# Create a new SSH key pair
ssh_key_pair = aws.ec2.KeyPair("keyPair",
    key_name="my-ai-keypair",
    public_key="ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQ..."
)

# Output the name of the key pair to be used when connecting to instances
pulumi.export('key_pair_name', ssh_key_pair.key_name)

# Launch an AI Compute instance and associate it with the SSH key pair
ai_compute_instance = aws.ec2.Instance("aiComputeInstance",
    instance_type="t2.medium",  # Choose your instance type according to your AI workload
    ami="ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0",  # This AMI ID is for Ubuntu 18.04 in the us-west-2 region. Update accordingly
    key_name=ssh_key_pair.key_name,
    tags={
        "Name": "My_AI_Compute_Instance"
    }
)

# Output the public IP to use when connecting via SSH
pulumi.export('ai_compute_instance_public_ip', ai_compute_instance.public_ip)
```

In this program:

- We first create the `KeyPair` resource using `aws.ec2.KeyPair`. You need to replace the `public_key` parameter with the actual public key content you wish to use.
- We then output the key name. This is useful because you'll need the key name to reference it when connecting to instances via SSH.
- The `Instance` resource creates a new EC2 instance of type `t2.medium`. This instance size is chosen as an example and should be adjusted based on the compute requirements of your AI workload.
- We associate the previously created SSH key pair with the new EC2 instance by setting the `key_name` attribute to the name of our SSH key pair.
- The AMI ID used is for a specific Ubuntu 18.04 image in the AWS `us-west-2` region; you'll need to provide the correct AMI ID for your desired region and operating system.
- We tag the instance for better resource identification and management in the AWS Console.
- Finally, we're outputting the instance's public IP address, which allows us to connect to it remotely via SSH.

Remember to keep your public and private SSH keys secure. The public key is safe to share, but your private key should never be transmitted or exposed. The program above assumes you have the AWS CLI configured with the proper access credentials to run the Pulumi automation.