Troubleshooting SSH connection issues on Elastic Metal servers

Reviewed on August 11, 2025

Problem

You are unable to connect to your Scaleway Elastic Metal server via SSH.

Symptoms

• SSH connection times out or is refused.
• You receive an authentication failure when entering credentials.
• You see a "Permission denied" error when using an SSH key.
• SSH hangs indefinitely without a response.
• The server is unreachable via its public IP.

Possible causes

• The SSH service is not running or is misconfigured.
• The server is not accessible due to firewall or network restrictions.
• Incorrect SSH credentials or key configuration.
• The server is in rescue mode and requires a different login method.
• A recent security policy change has disabled SSH access.
• You recently changed your SSH keys, and they have not been added to the Elastic Metal server.

Solution

Check network connectivity

• Try pinging the server: ping <server-ip>.
• Use traceroute <server-ip> to diagnose potential routing issues.
• If using a Private Network, verify that you are connecting from the correct subnet.

Check SSH key and credentials

• Ensure you are using the correct SSH key associated with your Scaleway account.
• Run SSH with verbose mode (ssh -v root@<server-ip>) to diagnose authentication errors.
• If logging in with a password, check that password authentication is enabled in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

Check firewall and security settings

• List firewall rules using iptables -L -v -n or ufw status.
• If necessary, temporarily disable the firewall using systemctl stop firewalld or ufw disable.
• Ensure SSH is allowed on port 22 (or your custom SSH port if changed).

Ensure the server is in normal mode

• If the server is in rescue mode, reboot it into normal mode.
• Rescue mode may require different credentials (visible in your Scaleway console) to log in.

Verify the SSH service status

• Use the remote console from the Scaleway dashboard to access your server.
• Run systemctl status ssh to check if the SSH service is running.
• If the service is stopped, restart it using systemctl restart ssh.

Add the new SSH key to the existent system

• Reboot in rescue mode as explained in this documentation
• Mount filesystem in rescue mode to access data and files by folowing these steps
• Modify the "authorized_keys" file to add your new SSH public key at the end