debops / debops/debops

Bootstrap: Is it possible to specify a specific ssh key rather than default id_rsa?

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change priority: medium tag: provisioning
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Description

I was reading this paragraph:

Ansible commands are executed on the Ansible Controller from unprivileged account alice. 
This user has an SSH key pair stored in ~/.ssh/id_rsa or has its SSH key available in the 
SSH Agent. An administrator account with the same name will be created on the remote 
host during the bootstrap process.

https://docs.debops.org/en/master/debops-playbooks/guides/getting-started.html?highlight=ansible_ssh_host

I see the default behavior is to use the ~/.ssh/id_rsa however is it possible to override this and specify a specific key e.g. ~/.ssh/ubuntu instead? That way I can share a key among specific hosts and not all of them. And also not share my ~/.ssh/id_rsa if I don't want to.

I'm also not that clear on why the authorized_keys of both alice@ and root@ contains so many entries, maybe all my keys in .ssh? Shouldn't it just contain the one and also can it be specified exactly?

I'm a bit confused by what is happening basically. Please can you explain or point to the relevant docs which I couldn't find on the first pass.

Also, is there any documentation about what steps bootstrap.yml and common.yml actually do? I find I'm flying a little blind as I don't know what is actually happening on my servers lol.

Many thanks.

-Mike

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the linked getting-started guide and inspect bootstrap.yml and common.yml to trace SSH key selection and the authorized_keys entries mentioned in the issue. Document whether a specific key can be selected, why the entries are present, and what those playbooks do, with examples that let readers verify the behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
ansible
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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