CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sshgoogle-compute-engine
Praxiteles
Praxiteles

Reputation: 6030

Unable to connect to Google Compute Engine using "in browser" SSH

After changing two passwords, root and the default user, suddenly we notice now that the "in browser" link on Google Compute Engine fails to connect via SSH.

Strangely, however, if we use the SSH command from the command line that Google provides (i.e. $ gcloud compute ssh VM-NAME --zone VM-ZONE) - SSH works.

It appears SSH is working - but the "in browser" SSH link no longer connects. What might have gone wrong and how do we fix this?

ADDENDUM: Of note, a commenter below suggests it is not related to passwords but purely SSH keys - so it looks the answer to this question might rest around if there is a way to regenerate SSH keys on GCE instances. We are searching. If anyone knows code to regenerate SSH keys for GCE please post.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1976

Answers (2)

Sammy Villoldo
Sammy Villoldo

Reputation: 1076

GCE VMs, by default, don't allow for SSH connections with clear-text password: it uses keys instead. You can specify approved keys during VM instantiation, or at a later time, but one that is always present is the key to the user account you used when creating the machine.

As long as you haven't modified /etc/ssh/sshd_config, this should continue to be the case. Either way, one more option you can use to connect via SSH to your instance is to run the following command:

$ gcloud compute ssh VM-NAME --zone VM-ZONE

while logged in with your authorized user account.

ADDENDUM - In lieu of regenerating previous keys, you can add additional, locally-generated SSH keys on both the project, as well as on the VM level. The first applies to all VMs and grants access to project owners and editors, while the second only applies to the VM in question. Both methods add the SSH entered to the Metadata server, from which the get uploaded to the VM prior to SSH connection to all / the VM.

You can do this from the Developers Console:

  • project-level SSH keys - go to your project -> Compute -> Compute Engine -> Metadata -> "SSH KEYS" (top of the screen) -> click on "Edit"

  • VM-level SSH keys - go to your project -> Compute -> Compute Engine -> VM instances -> click on the instance name -> "SSH keys" section (scroll down) -> click "Add SSH key"

Upvotes: 1

Praxiteles
Praxiteles

Reputation: 6030

We discovered the cause was a chown command we had executed on a directory for the primary user that Google creates on the Google Compute Engine instance.

By reversing that chown back to the Google created user, Google's in-browser SSH began working again.

We used chown on an entire user directory and also an ssh config file back to the Google created user using:

chown -R user_name_com /home/user_name_com

and also on this file

chown user_name_com /etc/ssh/ssh_config

where user_name_com was our gmail email address user.

Upvotes: 0

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