create a key with the ssh-keygen utility:
# ssh-keygen -t rsa -N '' (note: these are two single quotes)
Shows:
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
Press enter to take the default settings (these are located between the brackets); When changing the name remember to include the path, in the above example it would be /root/.ssh/newkeyname
And output will show as:
Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/newkeyname.
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/newkeyname.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx root@yourserver