You have subscribed to a cloud service and build a Linux Virtual Machine (VM) from an existing image on the cloud …now you need to connect to your linux machine using a putty ( ssh client)…but most of the could providers provide a private key with the .pem extension which putty cannot authenticate directly as putty needs a .ppk extention.
The below steps will help to convert the .pem to .ppk and authenticate your session through putty.
Step 1: Connecting to Your Linux Shell Instance from your windows machine
First need to download and install putty & puttygen using the below link
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
Next use PuTTYgen to create a *.ppk file from the *.pem file provided by the cloud service provider.
select “Conversions – Import key” from the top bar and choose the *.pem file to convert to .ppk . A popup will appear in which select “Save private key”
The created *.ppk file will be used in PuTTY.exe to load the specific user Private Key to connect to the specified instance
In PuTTY.exe, enter the Public IP address provided by the cloud service provider
Next Select “SSH – Auth” section in the left-side navigation and add the*.ppk file created by PuTTYgen previously.
Next go back to the “Session” section on the left-hand navigation and click “Open.”
A window will open with a login prompt; enter “root” if the installed vm image is CentOS or Redhat
Which will take you to the shell prompt of the installed VM Machine.