Wednesday, October 5, 2022

[SOLVED] How do I resolve Invalid SSH Key Entry error when starting App with GCE

Issue

I'm trying to launch my app on Google Compute Engine, and I get the following error:

Sep 26 22:46:09 debian google_guest_agent[411]: ERROR non_windows_accounts.go:199 Invalid ssh key entry - unrecognized format: ssh-rsa AAAAB...

I'm having a hard time interpreting it. I have the following startup script:


# Talk to the metadata server to get the project id
PROJECTID=$(curl -s "http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/project/project-id" -H "Metadata-Flavor: Google")
REPOSITORY="github_sleepywakes_thunderroost"

# Install logging monitor. The monitor will automatically pick up logs sent to
# syslog.
curl -s "https://storage.googleapis.com/signals-agents/logging/google-fluentd-install.sh" | bash
service google-fluentd restart &

# Install dependencies from apt
apt-get update
apt-get install -yq ca-certificates git build-essential supervisor

# Install nodejs
mkdir /opt/nodejs
curl https://nodejs.org/dist/v16.15.0/node-v16.15.0-linux-x64.tar.gz | tar xvzf - -C /opt/nodejs --strip-components=1
ln -s /opt/nodejs/bin/node /usr/bin/node
ln -s /opt/nodejs/bin/npm /usr/bin/npm

# Get the application source code from the Google Cloud Repository.
# git requires $HOME and it's not set during the startup script.
export HOME=/root
git config --global credential.helper gcloud.sh
git clone https://source.developers.google.com/p/${PROJECTID}/r/${REPOSITORY} /opt/app/github_sleepywakes_thunderroost

# Install app dependencies
cd /opt/app/github_sleepywakes_thunderroost
npm install

# Create a nodeapp user. The application will run as this user.
useradd -m -d /home/nodeapp nodeapp
chown -R nodeapp:nodeapp /opt/app

# Configure supervisor to run the node app.
cat >/etc/supervisor/conf.d/node-app.conf << EOF
[program:nodeapp]
directory=/opt/app/github_sleepywakes_thunderroost
command=npm start
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=nodeapp
environment=HOME="/home/nodeapp",USER="nodeapp",NODE_ENV="production"
stdout_logfile=syslog
stderr_logfile=syslog
EOF

supervisorctl reread
supervisorctl update

# Application should now be running under supervisor

My instance shows I have 2 public SSH keys. The second begins like this one in the error, but after about 12 characters it is different.

Any idea why this might be occurring?

Thanks in advance.


Solution

Once you deployed your VM instance, its a default setting that the SSH key isn't configure yet, but you can also configure the SSH key upon deploying the VM instance.

To elaborate the answer of @JohnHanley, I tried to test in my environment.

  1. Created a VM instance, verified the SSH configuration. As a default configuration there's no SSH key configured as I said earlier you can configure SSH key upon deploying the VM

  2. Created a SSH key pair via CLI, you can use this link for instruction details

  3. Navigate your VM instance, Turn off > EDIT > Security > Add Item > SSH key 1 - copy+paste generated SSH key pair > Save > Power ON VM instance

  4. Then test the VM instance if accessible.

Documentation link How to Add SSH keys to project metadata.



Answered By - Jeffrey D.
Answer Checked By - Dawn Plyler (WPSolving Volunteer)
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