Randomly generated SSH key pairs left behind on AWS EC2 after Packer is done

[Amedee Van Gasse]

I'm using Packer to create AMIs on AWS EC2.

I understand that Packer uses a randomly generated SSH key pair to connect to an EC2 instance that will be the AMI.

Now I have seen in the AWS console, in Key pairs, that there are dozens of leftover key pairs, all named packer_<some-long-hexadecimal-id>.

I know that I can manually delete these keys, but is there a way to tell Packer to delete the key pair on AWS when it is done?

[Amedee Van Gasse]

Packer version: 1.6.6

My operating system: Ubuntu

[Amedee Van Gasse]

Might be left behind after Packer failed due to other reasons and didn't clean up.

Was answered on Stack Overflow:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67111053/temporary-ssh-key-pairs-left-behind-on-aws-ec2-after-packer-is-done?noredirect=1#comment118635799_67111053