🗝️Troubleshoot SSH Connection
Introduction
This guide is designed to help you troubleshoot and restore SSH access to your Validator node when it was previously working but is now unreachable.
♻️How to SSH into VPSCommon Steps
✅ Verify the username for the VPS you're connecting to
e.g.)
nodeadmin
✅ Check your SSH key pair file names
Private key must match the server's authorized key.
✅ Confirm correct permissions
private key should be read-only:
chmod 400
✅ Ensure the public key exists on the server in the correct location
✅ Confirm the private key file exists locally
Is it correctly referenced by your SSH command.
🏠 Local IP address
Many ISPs assign dynamic IP addresses to customer routers.
A change in your IP may cause your cloud provider’s firewall to block your SSH attempts.
🩹Symptoms:
Your SSH terminal or remote connection application sits idle and eventually shows Connection timed out
messages.
Terminal or remote terminal application will how a blank screen only
No password or key prompts appear
Not entering the SSH connection string and attempting to run commands locally instead of through your SSH tunnel.
💡 Example:
ssh -i ~/.ssh/my_identity_file [email protected]
ssh: connect to host 13.13.13.13 port 22: Operation timed out
🔧 How to Fix It
Update Firewall Rules
Update your firewall or security group rules to allow SSH access from your new IP
AWS: Update the Security Group
DigitalOcean: Update Firewall settings
Hetzner: Follow DigitalOcean-style firewall update workflow
Refer to the Cloud Provider Specific Guides.
Try connecting again after updating the rules.
🔐 SSH Key Issues
📍 Local Key Issues
Ensure the private key file:
Still exists in the expected location
Has not been renamed or moved
Is intact and not corrupted
Has the proper permissions
Important: Once resolved, create a backup of your SSH keys if you haven’t already.
📡 Remote Key Issues (Accessing via Console)
If you can still access your VPS through your cloud provider's web console:
Re-Attempt to create an SSH connection to your node.
📡 Cloud Provider Outage
Visit your cloud provider’s main dashboard
Look for service alerts
If the console is also unreachable, check external outage reports
Google
Twitter
🖥️ VPS-Specific Issue
From the cloud console, check the status of your VPS instance
Ensure it’s running and not reporting hardware or OS-level errors
🌍 Local Internet Outage
If you cannot connect to any external site or service, confirm your own network is online
Restart your router/modem if necessary and try again later
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