Can't access instance - Server refused our key

Question

I've been access an instance in another business for some time successfully.

I've recently created a new busines and want to do the same but I keep getting "Server refused our key"

Multiple new test keys created without success.

Multiple test permissions created making no difference.

Now driving me insane for over a month.  Employed 3 AWS experts, again with no success.

As user, I would expect ubuntu to work.  ec2-user neither.

Any ideas?

P.S.  Similar posts gave no joy.

Answer

There is an extensive knowledge article https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/ec2-server-refused-our-key which steps through a lot of possible causes (and solutions) for the "server refused our key" message. Could you try working through these and see if any of them resolve your issue.

You mention your EC2 is running Ubuntu - which version is it? if you are using the absolute latest version then do you get the same error when you provision an EC2 with an older version of Ubuntu and the same key-pair?

Also, can you provision an EC2 with another version of Linux, such as Amazon Linux, and using the same key-pair? This should still work, though you would have to login as `ec2-user` instead of `ubuntu` (this would be useful in that it would show you the key is alright).

How are you connecting to your instances, is it from a Windows PC (and if so are you using PuTTY?), or from a Mac, or from another Linux host?

Can't access instance - Server refused our key

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