Installation of SSH Keys on Linux - A Step-By-Step Guide. Outlined below is a step-by-step guide detailing the process of installing SSH Keys on a Linux server: Step One: Creation of the RSA Key Pair. The first step in the installation process is to create the key pair on the client machine, which would, more often than not, be your own system. Creating a User Account. When you first started your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system after installation, you were given the opportunity to create one or more user accounts using the Setup Agent.If you did not create at least one account (not including the root account) you should do so now.