How to successfully Connect to SSH in Linux lab on Qwiklabs platform.
By: Vrinda Symonds
Tags: Gcp, Ssh, Linux, Ubuntu, Qwiklabs

Despite of having required expertise to perform in the Linux environment, People lose the limited attempts to perform the free learning lab as they find it very difficult to connect to SSH in the Qwiklabs environment. Some users quit the GCP learning at this stage after getting irritated due to lot of unsuccessful attempts.

Please Read the blog post carefully, to get to know the differences in the procedure to connect to SSH. As the method has slight differences depending upon which Host OS (Windows, Linux, MAC) you are running your system on.

Here is some advice regarding the Linux Lab to help you connect the Linux SSH environment and get the full assessment score.

If you are working on the Windows Host Operating System, kindly follow the below procedure for accessing the Linux instance (using Putty)

My recommendations:

Download the PPK key given in Connection details panel. Start the PuTTY application and enter the Host name as <username>@<External IP Address>. The username and external IP address is present on the lab instruction page under the connection details panel In the category list, expand SSH Click Auth. In the Private Key Authentication, select the downloaded PPK file and click Open. In the dialog box of PuTTY Security Alert, click Yes. Please refer to the video link given below for more details.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-z6vzVwLkMvsHar5lD-C0euUGwyxxFtk/view?usp=sharing

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If you are working on the Linux Host Operating System, kindly follow the below procedure for accessing the Linux instance (using terminal/command prompt)

My recommendations:

Download the PEM key given in Connection details panel and it will be automatically saved in Downloads. Once you download a PEM key, it needs to be accessed via terminal in order to connect to the Linux instance. Now open the terminal and execute the command chmod 600 ~/<Downloads/qwiklab-XXXXX.pem> to change the permission of your downloaded PEM file. Then execute the command ssh -i ~/<Downloads/qwiklab-xxxxx.pem> <username>@<External IP Address>. The username and external IP address is present on the lab instruction page under the connection details panel. Please refer to the video link given below for more details.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QNr3ZaWXcPKHzAcdlM22VapYioHEDK_h/view?usp=sharing

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If you are working on the MAC Host Operating System, kindly follow the below procedure for accessing the Linux instance (using terminal/command prompt)

My recommendations:

Download the PEM key given in Connection details panel and it will be automatically saved in Downloads. Once you download a PEM key, it needs to be accessed via terminal in order to connect to the Linux instance. Now open the terminal and execute the command chmod 600 ~/<Downloads/qwiklab-XXXXX.pem> to change the permission of your downloaded PEM file. Then execute the command ssh -i ~/<Downloads/qwiklab-xxxxx.pem> <username>@<External IP Address>. The username and external IP address is present on the lab instruction page under the connection details panel. Please refer to the video link given below for more details.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QNr3ZaWXcPKHzAcdlM22VapYioHEDK_h/view?usp=sharing

Hope this solution helps you to move forward with your Linux lab SSH connection Step.

Keep sharing, Keep Learning.