Unable to SSH to Azure VM on Port 22 in UAE North Region

IP address

Hello Sushant,

Thank you for sharing the details.

Based on the information provided, the VM appears to be running, and the Resource Health status shows as healthy, however the SSH connection on port 22 is either timing out or being refused. This behavior is usually related to networking rules, routing configuration, firewall settings, or the SSH service inside the VM not listening on the expected port.

As a starting point, I would recommend checking the Boot diagnostics screenshot and logs from the Azure portal to confirm that the VM has completed the boot process successfully and that there are no operating system level errors reported during startup. This can help identify whether the VM has fully booted and the OS services are running normally.

Reference: How to use boot diagnostics to troubleshoot virtual machines in Azure

Please also verify the VM Resource Health status in the portal and confirm that it reports the VM as healthy without any platform related issues..

Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-health/resource-health-overview

To further isolate the issue, you may use Azure Network Watcher to validate the network path. Tools such as IP Flow Verify can help determine whether traffic on port 22 is being allowed or blocked by a Network Security Group.

Reference: IP flow verify overview

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/network-watcher/connection-troubleshoot-overview

If possible, please try accessing the VM using the Azure Serial Console and verify that the SSH service is running inside the operating system. You can check the service status using commands such as:

sudo systemctl status ssh

To confirm whether SSH is listening on port 22: sudo ss -lntp | grep ssh

If the SSH service is not running or not listening on the expected port, it may indicate a configuration issue inside the VM.

It would also be helpful to verify the Linux firewall configuration inside the VM. If a firewall such as

sudo ufw status

sudo netstat -tulnp | grep sshd

Reference: Azure Serial Console for Linux

Check Linux Firewall Configuration: IIf a firewall such as ufw or iptables is enabled on the VM, ensure that it is not blocking port 22.

sudo ufw status

sudo netstat -tulnp | grep sshd

In some scenarios, restarting the VM or redeploying it to a new Azure host can resolve underlying platform or networking issues. You may try performing a restart or redeploy operation from the Azure portal to see if the connectivity issue improves.

Redeploy Linux virtual machine to new Azure node

If the issue still persists after the above checks, you may also try resetting the SSH configuration from the Azure portal. Occasionally, the SSH configuration or user credentials can become misconfigured, which prevents successful login. You can navigate to VM → Help → Reset password and choose the option to reset the SSH configuration or reset the user credentials. This will restore the default SSH configuration and may help resolve authentication or configuration related issues.

How to reset a local Linux password on Azure VMs

Troubleshoot SSH connections to an Azure Linux VM that fails, errors out, or is refused

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any queries.

Additionally, could you please check the private message and provide necessary details