Greetings All,

I have had the following problem for quite some time now and not been able to resove it so I thought I would ask here;

I am trying to SSH into a clients VPS server and it works to start with. Then I reuild it to exactly the same OS and I cannot for the life of me login to SSH... I changed the SSH port using HyperVM's filemanager, restarted SSHD, rebooted the server several times, had my tech do absolutely everything he can and still no luck...

Can anyone at all help with this?

Thanks.

A couple things need to happen to get clues about why the connection is being refused.

First, run:
$ nc -zvw 2 server.ip.here 22

Is the connection refused? If yes, you've got packet filtering happening at some point along the way, and need to fix that before continuing. If no, read on...

Check the logfile that sshd is logging to on the server. On RHEL-family systems, this is /var/log/secure. This will provide useful information about why the connection is being refused.

First of where do I run that if I cannot connect to the server via SSH?

I checked the file you gave above and got the following message;

Something else is, I can't access it but my colleagues can.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

You have to change the port number in sshd_config file and not in ssh_config..

Not being funny but I wouldn't be posting here if I hadn't done that.

I have over 6 or 7 years in the hosting industry covering most server type issues and never had this problem.

Thanks.

Run the nc (netcat) scan from the client. The idea here is to establish whether or not tcp 22 is open to you.

I cannot SSH into the server though...

I have tried it from my command prompt and the command center in HyperVM and they both return saying unknown action.

Thanks.

tuftystick,

1. your colleagues can login successfully
o where are they connecting from? home? the noc? the host node?

2. is a firewall configured at any point between the internet and the sshd?

are your colleagues monitoring the firewall logs or the system logs when you are trying to connect?

what is the output of the netcat command when you run it from the command line.

show us so we can better help you.

1. Home
2. No
3. They are tailing everything that would store an SSH connection
4. bash: netcat: command not found

Thanks.

netcat is called nc

or nmap

or telnet

replace qbox.fakelabs.org with the server you are trying to connect to.

show us the output of that. you can remove the ip addresses when u paste it.

o can you connect to any other sshd server ?
o did they grep the logs for your ip address?

That is what I receive SSH'ing into the Host Server.

1. I can connect to the Host Server & our Private VPS

Thanks.

You can also test if a port is open using telnet.

telnet <hostname> 22
for example. You won't complete an ssh connection, but you should see a message indicating the version of ssh for example. That tells you that the port is open on the server and you are reaching the server.

If you do reach the server, try "ssh -v user@hostname" or even "ssh -vv user@hostname". That will give verbose information on why a connection is being refused. The -vv (verbose verbose) option will include information from both sides of the connection.

Also check the logs on the server. Some things that can cause a refusal are: a change in the fingerprint of the client; reverse dns loopup failure (if strict is indicated in sshd_config); the client has a new key pair; the user's home directories permissions are too permissive; the user's ~/.ssh/ or ~/.ssh/id_rsa has group or other read permissions.

Also check the "AllowUsers", "AllowHosts", "DenyUsers" & "DenyHosts" in sshd_config. Using "AllowUsers" will deny all other users.

An entry in authorized_keys can contain allowed hosts (or ip addresses) or commands that are allowed for that user. If you are using public key authentication, check that file. The manpage for sshd or ssh_config may have more information about the format. (I don't remember which one does)

Sometimes, deleting a stale entry in known_hosts on the client can clear up problems. You probably would have the client indicate which entry caused the problem if that is the case.

I tried logging into the server via the nodes ssh and it's worked...

Just seems like if I connect like 3 times successfully in a night, it then stops me...

Thanks.

Once I stop being allowed to login to one VPS I can't login to any of the others...

But I can login to the Node hosting the VPS's and our private VPS which is off network.

Thanks.