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I'm trying to ssh into a google cloud instance "ajc2" that I was given owner access to. This is the command that I am using: 

gcloud compute --project "clear-mountain-94802" ssh --zone "us-central1-c" "ajc2" --ssh-flag="-vvv"

I have already run through "gcloud init" and "gcloud auth login" successfully.

It looks like the ssh keys were generated successfully and my .ssh folder has permissions set to 700. All files inside the folder have permissions at least 600 or higher. I'm not sure why I'm getting the error Permission denied (publickey). Does anyone have insight into this?

I'm unable to paste the code to serverfault because it thinks that it is SPAM, so I've linked the original post that I made on google groups that includes the code: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gce-discussion/ex8roHMubLY

andrewfu:fwdrestartingvnc andrewfu$ pwd
/Users/andrewfu/Downloads/fwdrestartingvnc
andrewfu:fwdrestartingvnc andrewfu$ gcloud compute --project "clear-mountain-94802" ssh --zone "us-central1-c" "ajc2" --ssh-flag="-vvv"
OpenSSH_7.6p1, LibreSSL 2.6.2
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 48: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to 35.232.179.72 port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_engine type 0
debug1: key_load_public: No such file or directory
debug1: identity file /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_engine-cert type -1
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.6
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2.8
debug1: match: OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2.8 pat OpenSSH_6.6.1* compat 0x04000000
debug3: fd 5 is O_NONBLOCK
debug1: Authenticating to 35.232.179.72:22 as 'andrewfu'
debug1: using hostkeyalias: compute.638568653107616640
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type ECDSA in file /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from compute.638568653107616640
debug3: order_hostkeyalgs: prefer hostkeyalgs: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521
debug3: send packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug3: receive packet: type 20
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug2: local client KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: curve25519-sha256,[email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha256,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,ext-info-c
debug2: host key algorithms: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ecdsa-sha2-nistp384,ecdsa-sha2-nistp521,[email protected],[email protected],ssh-ed25519,rsa-sha2-512,rsa-sha2-256,ssh-rsa
debug2: ciphers ctos: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected]
debug2: ciphers stoc: [email protected],aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,[email protected],[email protected]
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1
debug2: compression ctos: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: compression stoc: none,[email protected],zlib
debug2: languages ctos: 
debug2: languages stoc: 
debug2: first_kex_follows 0 
debug2: reserved 0 
debug2: peer server KEXINIT proposal
debug2: KEX algorithms: [email protected],ecdh-sha2-nistp256,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
debug2: host key algorithms: ssh-rsa,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256,ssh-ed25519
debug2: ciphers ctos: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: ciphers stoc: aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,arcfour256,arcfour128,[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],aes128-cbc,3des-cbc,blowfish-cbc,cast128-cbc,aes192-cbc,aes256-cbc,arcfour,[email protected]
debug2: MACs ctos: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: MACs stoc: [email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],[email protected],hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,[email protected],[email protected],hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-ripemd160,[email protected],hmac-sha1-96,hmac-md5-96
debug2: compression ctos: none,[email protected]
debug2: compression stoc: none,[email protected]
debug2: languages ctos: 
debug2: languages stoc: 
debug2: first_kex_follows 0 
debug2: reserved 0 
debug1: kex: algorithm: [email protected]
debug1: kex: host key algorithm: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256
debug1: kex: server->client cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug1: kex: client->server cipher: [email protected] MAC: <implicit> compression: none
debug3: send packet: type 30
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_ECDH_REPLY
debug3: receive packet: type 31
debug1: Server host key: ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 SHA256:gO6j1NcV2hOFWMbe+JguVd3iqqV2c2Loo7CD+B4LgJU
debug1: using hostkeyalias: compute.638568653107616640
debug3: hostkeys_foreach: reading file "/Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts"
debug3: record_hostkey: found key type ECDSA in file /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts:1
debug3: load_hostkeys: loaded 1 keys from compute.638568653107616640
debug1: Host 'compute.638568653107616640' is known and matches the ECDSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_known_hosts:1
debug3: send packet: type 21
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 1
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug3: receive packet: type 21
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug2: set_newkeys: mode 0
debug1: rekey after 134217728 blocks
debug2: key: /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_engine (0x7ff9f540e110), explicit
debug3: send packet: type 5
debug3: receive packet: type 6
debug2: service_accept: ssh-userauth
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug3: start over, passed a different list publickey
debug3: preferred publickey,keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_lookup publickey
debug3: remaining preferred: keyboard-interactive,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering public key: RSA SHA256:W0uL2eaHbndzPnMB070+ZzPHHLDY2v4pgtnPRXHlpc0 /Users/andrewfu/.ssh/google_compute_engine
debug3: send_pubkey_test
debug3: send packet: type 50
debug2: we sent a publickey packet, wait for reply
debug3: receive packet: type 51
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
[email protected]: Permission denied (publickey).
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.ssh) [/usr/bin/ssh] exited with return code [255].
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  • How was the VM created?
    – kasperd
    Commented Aug 27, 2018 at 8:09
  • I see in the Google group link, you were able to get this to work by adding your public key under metadata->metadata tab. Moreover, it is important that you specify USER@INSTANCE when connecting to the instance (in case your local machine username does not match up with the username on google cloud). To mark this case as solved, can you please add your final observations as a new answer to your question ?
    – mehdi sharifi
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 15:47

2 Answers 2

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3

Are you sure you're using the proper username? Try connecting from the Google Console using SSH in a browser window. As soon as you're connected, issue a whoami command to see what's the username. Then try to connect via ssh with the exact same username. If you try with a different username, it won't work. If you execute it from your local linux machine, most probably it will try to connect with your local linux user which most probably is different than the username on the linux machine in Google Cloud

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Notice the USER@INSTANCE in the following command spec:

gcloud compute ssh [USER@]INSTANCE [--command=COMMAND] [--container=CONTAINER] [--dry-run] [--force-key-file-overwrite] [--internal-ip] [--plain] [--ssh-flag=SSH_FLAG] [--ssh-key-file=SSH_KEY_FILE] [--strict-host-key-checking=STRICT_HOST_KEY_CHECKING] [--zone=ZONE] [GCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG …] [-- SSH_ARGS …]

I see you specifying only the "instance" part, "ajc2", instead of user@ajc2 , replace 'user' with the google username that has permission to this instance, IOW, the correct username

Your original command: gcloud compute --project "clear-mountain-94802" ssh --zone "us-central1-c" "ajc2" --ssh-flag="-vvv"

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  • I am still low on reputation, but wanted to point out that double07robinhood's answer worked for me!
    – yoraish
    Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 21:27

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