Troubleshooting Steps

If sshd cannot start

• Check that sshd_config is in place
• Check that host keys are generated and have correct file permission:
• Check if private host keys are protected:
  • The file owner of private host key files cannot be other accounts than current user, Administrators group, Local system account, or an user account in local Administrators group
  • Other accounts than current user, Administrators group, Local system account, or an user account in local Administrators group should not have any access to private key file
• Check if "NT service\sshd" have read access to public key files

Trouble shooting steps for typical connection issues:

• Server side - run sshd in debug mode
  • net stop sshd
  • In an elevated admin console - sshd.exe -d
  • This will dump debug logs real time on console
• Client side - start ssh.exe in verbose mode
  • ssh.exe -v ...
  • This will dump verbose logs on console

Trouble shooting more complex issues:

• Server side
  • stop sshd and ssh-agent services
  • delete sshd.log and ssh-agent.log (in logs directory)
  • set LogLevel to DEBUG (or DEBUG2/DEBUG3 for higher levels of logging) in sshd_config
  • run the scenario. sshd.log and ssh-agent.log will contain sshd and ssh-agent related traces respectively
• Client side
  • set LogLevel to DEBUG (or DEBUG2/DEBUG3 for higher levels of logging) in ssh_config
  • Run ssh.exe in verbose mode as detailed above