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    • OCI: sftp or ssh Connections Failing With "ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote"

    edited Feb 3, 2025 9:30AM in Linux

    Applies To:

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
    Linux OS

    Symptoms:

    Intermittently unable to ssh to the server. The following error shows:

    # ssh server.example.com
    
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host.

    Cause:

    Too many connections trying to authenticate simultaneously, surpassing the MaxStartup value in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

    As per sshd_config(5) manual page:

    MaxStartups
    
        Specifies the maximum number of concurrent unauthenticated connections to the SSH
    
        daemon.  Additional connections will be dropped until authentication succeeds or the
    
        LoginGraceTime expires for a connection.  The default is 10:30:100.

    
        Alternatively, random early drop can be enabled by specifying the three colon sepa‐
    
        rated values start:rate:full (e.g. "10:30:60").  sshd(8) will refuse connection
    Tagged:

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