ERROR: (gcloud.compute.ssh) [/usr/bin/ssh] exited with return code [255]

ssh gcloud
Anh Nguyen picture Anh Nguyen · Oct 4, 2014 · Viewed 54.1k times · Source

I kept getting kicked out of my compute engine instance after a few seconds of idle with the indicated error (255). I used 'gcloud compute ssh' to log in. I am using the default firewall setting, which I believe would be good enough for ssh. But if I am missing something, please so indicate and suggest the fix for this error. Basically I can't get any efficient work done at this point having to ssh in so many times.

Thanks in advance.

Anh-

Answer

Agile Bean picture Agile Bean · Apr 4, 2018

gcloud denies an ssh connection if there was a change in the setup, e.g. after you changed your default zone or region, or you created another instance. Then, you must update the ssh keys in your metadata by

sudo gcloud compute config-ssh

If this complains about different entries in your config file where your ssh key entries are stored, ~/.ssh/config, delete this file and execute the above command again.

If you have installed gcloud without sudo, you can omit sudo.

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