Error: "Connection refused" while establishing SSH connection to VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle node.

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

SSH connection to VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle fails to establish with Network error: Network error: Connection refused.

• Service sshd in failed state from Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance console.
• Run sudo sshd -t command on the Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance console confirms that the Subsystem sftp parameter is defined twice within the same configuration file.

Environment

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.18.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the sshd_config file contains a duplicate definition for the SFTP subsystem.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, remove the duplicate subsystem entry from the SSH configuration file:

1. Log in to the VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle appliance via the virtual machine console.
2. Open the SSH configuration file in a text editor.
   

   vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Locate the duplicate SFTP subsystem line and comment it out so it looks like the following: #Subsystem sftp /usr/libexec/sftp-server
4. Save the file and exit the text editor.
5. Restart the SSH service to apply the changes
   

   systemctl restart sshd