Preloading agent keys in Activator

[shoebear]

Is there a way to load agent key(s) when starting Activator, similar to PuTTY's pageant? When you start pageant, you can specify at least one keyfile, and pageant will load it and ask for a passphrase at startup. From then on, you're covered.

I've played with Activator, and I have not been able to get it to do this. The real-world problem this causes occurs when I open multiple server sessions at once when there is no agent key in Activator. Each session pops up a window asking for the key passphrase, and I have to enter it for each session. If the agent key is preloaded and authenticated in Activator, however, the sessions log right in with no problem.

Of course, I can load the agent key(s) manually upon reboot, but this is hard to remember and takes extra time.

I looked in the VanDyke help text, and I could find nothing about the Activator command line format, arguments, or flags.

Thanks for your help!

[shoebear]

An alternative solution, continuing the example I gave above about opening multiple windows at once:

When I enter the key passphrase for one of the prompts, if SecureCRT/FX would check for other open passphrase prompts on the same key and close them automatically, and use the now-authenticated key, I would only have to enter the passphrase once. This could be a good solution, especially if I use multiple private keys, as it would only prompt for a passphrase when I actually use the key. So if I have 20 keys but typically use only 3 -- I would only need to enter the three I use under the alternate solution. If I preloaded all 20 at system startup, I would have to enter all 20 passwords. Of course, I could also preload only the 3 keys I commonly use instead of all 20. So either solution could work well.

[rtb]

Hi shoebear,

Thanks for the question.

I have created a feature request in our SecureCRT enhancement database to add the ability to pre-load private keys to the agent. Should we add this capability in the future, we will post to this thread.

In the meantime, you may want to consider enabling Connect to multiple sessions sequentially which is located in the Terminal / Advanced category of the Global Options dialog.

Does this option help get you closer to your goal?

[shoebear]

Thanks! The "open multiple sessions sequentially" does work around the problem, although it makes it a bit slower to open a bunch of sessions. So I would appreciate having the ability to preload keys in Activator at some point in the future.

[rtb]

You are welcome shoebear.

We will post to this thread if we add the feature. If you would like to be notified directly, please complete and submit the form at the following location:

Submit Feature Request

[mdella]

So I've been doing this all by hand and today just finally got frustrated with the entire thing... Started doing a bunch of research and this is the only thread I've found on this particular topic so far...

Any I was wondering the exact same thing. I've been playing with it myself but haven't figured out how to preload my 5 keys without having to actually log into 5 servers to do it (since 3 are only accessable via a jump box, I can't even do that, I literally have to use the Tools -> Manage Agent keys... to add my missing three keys).

BTW I'm personally running v8.3.1 of SecureCRT.

Marcos