AWS::EC2::KeyPair - AWS CloudFormation
SyntaxPropertiesReturn valuesExamplesSee also

AWS::EC2::KeyPair

Specifies a key pair for use with an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instance as follows:

  • To import an existing key pair, include the PublicKeyMaterial property.

  • To create a new key pair, omit the PublicKeyMaterial property.

When you import an existing key pair, you specify the public key material for the key. We assume that you have the private key material for the key. AWS CloudFormation does not create or return the private key material when you import a key pair.

When you create a new key pair, the private key is saved to AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, using a parameter with the following name: /ec2/keypair/{key_pair_id}. For more information about retrieving private key, and the required permissions, see Create a key pair using AWS CloudFormation in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

When AWS CloudFormation deletes a key pair that was created or imported by a stack, it also deletes the parameter that was used to store the private key material in Parameter Store.

Syntax

To declare this entity in your AWS CloudFormation template, use the following syntax:

JSON

{
  "Type" : "AWS::EC2::KeyPair",
  "Properties" : {
      "KeyFormat" : String,
      "KeyName" : String,
      "KeyType" : String,
      "PublicKeyMaterial" : String,
      "Tags" : [ Tag, ... ]
    }
}

YAML

Type: AWS::EC2::KeyPair
Properties:
  KeyFormat: String
  KeyName: String
  KeyType: String
  PublicKeyMaterial: String
  Tags: 
    - Tag

Properties

KeyFormat

The format of the key pair.

Default: pem

Required: No

Type: String

Allowed values: pem | ppk

Update requires: Replacement

KeyName

A unique name for the key pair.

Constraints: Up to 255 ASCII characters

Required: Yes

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

KeyType

The type of key pair. Note that ED25519 keys are not supported for Windows instances.

If the PublicKeyMaterial property is specified, the KeyType property is ignored, and the key type is inferred from the PublicKeyMaterial value.

Default: rsa

Required: No

Type: String

Allowed values: rsa | ed25519

Update requires: Replacement

PublicKeyMaterial

The public key material. The PublicKeyMaterial property is used to import a key pair. If this property is not specified, then a new key pair will be created.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

Tags

The tags to apply to the key pair.

Required: No

Type: Array of Tag

Update requires: Replacement

Return values

Ref

When you pass the logical ID of this resource to the intrinsic Ref function, Ref returns the name of the key pair.

For more information about using the Ref function, see Ref.

Fn::GetAtt

KeyFingerprint

If you created the key pair using Amazon EC2:

  • For RSA key pairs, the key fingerprint is the SHA-1 digest of the DER encoded private key.

  • For ED25519 key pairs, the key fingerprint is the base64-encoded SHA-256 digest, which is the default for OpenSSH, starting with OpenSSH 6.8.

If you imported the key pair to Amazon EC2:

  • For RSA key pairs, the key fingerprint is the MD5 public key fingerprint as specified in section 4 of RFC 4716.

  • For ED25519 key pairs, the key fingerprint is the base64-encoded SHA-256 digest, which is the default for OpenSSH, starting with OpenSSH 6.8.

KeyPairId

The ID of the key pair.

Examples

Create a new key pair and specify it when launching an instance

The following example omits the PublicKeyMaterial property to create a new key pair, and specifies the key pair when launching an instance.

JSON

{
    "Resources": {
        "NewKeyPair": {
            "Type": "AWS::EC2::KeyPair",
            "Properties": {
                "KeyName": "MyKeyPair"
            }
        },
        "Ec2Instance": {
            "Type": "AWS::EC2::Instance",
            "Properties": {
                "ImageId": "ami-02b92c281a4d3dc79",
                "KeyName": {
                    "Ref": "NewKeyPair"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

YAML

Resources:
  NewKeyPair:
    Type: 'AWS::EC2::KeyPair'
    Properties:
      KeyName: MyKeyPair
  Ec2Instance:
    Type: 'AWS::EC2::Instance'
    Properties:
      ImageId: ami-02b92c281a4d3dc79
      KeyName: !Ref NewKeyPair

Import an existing key pair and specify it when launching an instance

The following example uses the PublicKeyMaterial property to import an existing key pair, and specifies the key pair when launching an instance.

JSON

{
    "Resources": {
        "ImportedKeyPair": {
            "Type": "AWS::EC2::KeyPair",
            "Properties": {
                "KeyName": "NameForMyImportedKeyPair",
                "PublicKeyMaterial": "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAICfp1F7DhdWZdqkYAUGCzcBsLmJeu9izpIyGpmmg7eCz example"
            }
        },
        "Ec2Instance": {
            "Type": "AWS::EC2::Instance",
            "Properties": {
                "ImageId": "ami-02b92c281a4d3dc79",
                "KeyName": {
                    "Ref": "ImportedKeyPair"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

YAML

Resources:
  ImportedKeyPair:
    Type: AWS::EC2::KeyPair
    Properties:
      KeyName: NameForMyImportedKeyPair
      PublicKeyMaterial: ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAICfp1F7DhdWZdqkYAUGCzcBsLmJeu9izpIyGpmmg7eCz example
  Ec2Instance: 
    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance
    Properties: 
      ImageId: ami-02b92c281a4d3dc79
      KeyName: 
        Ref: ImportedKeyPair

See also