Ch 9.4 Managing Users and Authentication - shutdown SSH access to servera

[hkane]

I am attempting Ch 9.4 and after finishing step 8 and running the playbook I get errors that servera.lab.example.com is unreachable.

I tried backing up a few steps and re-running the playbook from step 4.

I tried restarting my lab environment.

I tried logging into the servera and using systemctl to start ssh and sshd.

I tried doing the lab "finish" command and it also cannot run because it cannot ssh into servera.

I tried running the lab "start" command and redoing the lab but it fails with the same error.

<EDIT> I also tried searching this forum for similar issues but couldn't find anything like this. Search feature isn't great.</EDIT>

I can ping the server, but I cannot ssh in with the devops, student, or root username. The error I get is: "port 22: connection refused"

The full error on the playbook reads:
fatal: [servera.lab.example.com]: UNREACHABLE! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: ssh: connect to host servera.lab.example.com port 22: Connection refused", "unreachable": true}

Any guidance or suggestions for next troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated. 

[Chetan_Tiwary_ · Accepted solution]

@hkane The lab is working fine without any issues :

The issue that you got may arise due to previous lab works , any previous troubleshooting errors, or unintentional messing up with the services etc.

You can delete your lab and recreate a fresh lab and then retry this lab - it will work.

[hkane]

Ok, I will try that. I knew that would work as a solution but I was hesitant to delete my work from previous chapters.