Unable to login to the cloned linode vis Bitvise SSH

suddenly unable to login to the cloned backup linode via Bitvise SSH

You don't say what errors you're getting (if any, hope there are, for troubleshooting) in Bitvise.

I'd also check things server side, logging into the server with Lish:

https://www.linode.com/docs/platform/manager/using-the-linode-shell-lish/

and then:

1 - Is sshd running at all?

systemctl status sshd

2 - Check that the firewall allows ssh connections

This is distro specific, for Debian / Ubuntu

ufw status

You're looking for "allow port 22"

3 - Watch sshd logs for any errors as you're trying to connect with Bitvise:

journalctl -f -u sshd

Thank you, kmansoft, very much for your detailed answer!

Bitvise SSH errer I received:
Connection failed. FlowSocketConnector: Failed to connect to target address. Windows error 10061: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.
The ssh2 session has been terminated.
---- I have the discourse forum and etherpad editor installed and they started running automatically after rebooting.
Currently I can not enter a command in the linode Lish console even the CTRL+C keys pressed
, because the the discourse forum daemon is runing .
When rebooting into "rescue" mode, enter Lish console, run the commands you suggested,
e,g,
root@ttyS0:/dev# systemctl status sshd
it showed : systemctl: command not found

I am trying to remove the discourse forum to test, will get back later.
Thank you again!

Connection failed. FlowSocketConnector: Failed to connect to target address. Windows error 10061: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

OK, sounds like the firewall on your Linux system is set to not allow (actually reject, not just ignore) ssh connections, maybe other connection types (port numbers) as well.

This is a valuable data point.

What I'd do next:

1 - Check the firewall on the Linux system.

The command above ufw status was for Debian / Ubuntu.

Sounds like you may be running some other distribution. There should still be a command to check firewall settings / status.

For ssh, you want to allow incoming connections to port 22.

2 - Check if ssh (sshd) is running.

The command above systemctl status sshd was for most modern Linux distributions.

Maybe try service ssh status.

Even if that's not it, there should still be a command on your distribution to check the status of running services, you want the ssh (sshd) service.

Hi kmansoft,

To bypass firewall issue, I disabled the firewall @ the primary linode (dryquill.com)
by using the command: sudo ufw disable,
shut down the both the dryquill.com and linode12536566
then clone dryquill.com to linode12536566.
after cloning finished, try to login linode12536566 at Bitvise, the error came up , it reads:

"Connection failed. FlowSocketConnector: Failed to connect to target address. Windows error 10060: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
The ssh2 session has been terminated."
Could you please shed light on this?
Thanks!

I have checked SSH status for the primary linode (dryquill.com) and the cloned backup linode(linode12536566) at https://www.infobyip.com/sshservertest.php
dryquill.com : connected
linode12536566:Cannot connect to its_IP_address

What's wrong with the cloned SSH feature?

I am unable to run linux commands , such as
systemctl status sshd
because I can not get in the SSH console

Update:

I have made progress on this issue.
After booting in rescue mode,
run the command: service ssh restart

then open Bitvise, it came up with a User Authentication window for a password.
After entered the password from the primary linode, the "Authentication failed" message shown up.
I am working on this , and will report it later.

After changing the password, the cloned linode can be accessed via the Bitvise SSH.
Thanks a lot for your help!