Google Compute Engine: SSH-Error while trying to connect to an instance

Question

the last days I tried my hardest to get a ssh-connection running from my home computer to a Google compute engine instance, but couldn't make it happen. Unfortunately, the search results from the internet didn't helped my either, so I will ask you guys for help :). Every answer/suggestion is highly appreciated.

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My stats:

Home-Computer:

OS is Windows 7
Home-Computer username is not the same as my Google cloud account name

Google instance:

n1-standard-1, europe-west1-b
OS: Debian GNU/Linux 8.3 (jessie) [the default one]
External/Static IP: activated
Allowed HTTP traffic
Allowed HTTPS traffic

Others:

this is my first Google cloud experience
I'm still in my free trial period @ Google cloud plattform
I have Putty, Google SDK and Python 2.7 installed

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What I did / tried so far:

First I tried to connect to my instance using the Google shell with the command:

gcloud compute ssh instance_name --zone europe-west1-b

The shell asked me to generate shh-keys, I answered 'Yes', and I obtained a private + public key in my C:\Users\Lodrik.ssh\ directory. However, while trying to connected I got the error message:

Fatal Error: Disconnected: No supported authentication methods available (server sent: publickey)

[Error_Pic][1] // sry, not working because I have < 10 reputation points

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Second, I thought there might be a problem because my user-name from my Google account and my home-pc's user name differ. Therefore, I tried to shh-conntect to my instance, using my home-pc username:

gcloud compute ssh Lodrik@instance_name --zone europe-west1-b

As a results, I just got an error message (again -.-). However, this time it is was different one. A Putty shell opened with the message:

Using username "Lodrik". Server refused our key.

[Error_Pic_2][2] // sry, not working because I have < 10 reputation points

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Finally, I searched at stackoverflow for my problem, and found this thread (similar question + answer): Cannot connect to Compute Engine instance via SSH

Hence, I followed the steps from the thread's answer:

1) I added my public key (from ~/Lodrik/.shh/) manually via the Google cloud plattform's web-dashboard

2) I copied the shown username (from this added public key) and my instance's IP address and entered them into putty (as described in the answer)

3) I tried to connected to my instance via putty

As a result, a shell window opened and asked me for my login name. However, no matter what name I enter, I'll get the error message:

Server refused our key.

Error_Pic_3

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Questions:

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?
Why do I have to add keys manually? Shouldn't that be automatic?

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Thank's a lot for your help. If you need any more information, please ask. I'll be happy to provide it for you :)

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Best regards,

Lodrik

George George · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-18T18:42:07

There is a known issue in the latest Google Cloud SDK version, where newly created keys have bad formatting which is causing SSH issues. Our engineering team is working on fixing it as a high priority. In order to workaround the issue for the time being, I would recommend downgrading the Gcloud Version, create the keys and update again. it can be done by doing the following:

1- Delete the .ssh folder created on your local machine
2- From the command line, run the following command:
gcloud components update --version 91.0.0
3- Once done, run the following command to create your keys:
gcloud compute ssh INSTANCE_NAME
NB: you might not be able to ssh but your keys will be created
4- Run the following command:
gcloud components update
5- Authenticate to your project:
gcloud auth login
6- Try to ssh again by running:
gcloud compute ssh INSTANCE_NAME

Another workaround will be to ssh from the cloud console in your browser by clicking on the SSH button next to the instance name.

UPDATE:

A Public Issue Tracker was open here, and the issue is now fixed.

Google Compute Engine: SSH-Error while trying to connect to an instance

2 Answers