OCI - SSH Connection to OCI Instance Fails With the Error Message "Permission denied". (Doc ID 2553087.1)

Last updated on MAY 22, 2024

Applies to:

Symptoms

While connecting to the an OCI instance via SSH the following error is seen

$ ssh <IP> -vvv
OpenSSH_7.4p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2k-fips 26 Jan 2017
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 58: Applying options for *
debug2: resolving "<IP>" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
==============SNIPPED=========================
debug1: Trying private key: /home/opc/.ssh/id_ed25519
debug3: no such identity: /home/opc/.ssh/id_ed25519: No such file or directory
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic). <<<======

When trying to start the  SSH service the following error was logged into the messages file.

systemd: Starting OpenSSH server daemon...
systemd: /etc/ssh/sshd_config: Permission denied <<<<<============
systemd: sshd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd: Failed to start OpenSSH server daemon.
systemd: Unit sshd.service entered failed state

Cause

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