How can a HDInsight cluster using SSH public key be visible to multiple users?

Question

We in a team currently have 2 different Microsoft Azure accounts.

I created a HDInsight cluster and it seems to be visible to all the users.

But have a question which seems a bit confusing. If a HDInsight cluster is created using SSH Public Key how can this be shared across multiple users, since the Private Key is supposed to be available only on a single machine.

Any insights in this regard is very much appreciated

Answer 1

SSH Public key is used for accessing the cluster not for creating the cluster. A cluster is created under an Azure Subscription, anybody share the same Azure subscription can see the cluster. Unless it is a secured HDInsight cluster, a cluster has a HTTP user account (by default the username is admin), and one or more ssh user accounts. These accounts are used to access HDInsight clusters.

Answer 2

If multiple users want to SSH to a cluster created with SSH Public Key, there's no way around sharing the Private Key (which is, as you said, generally a bad practice). Alternative is to provision the cluster with SSH password that all users know.