GCP: how to use CLI to connect with SSH to newly created VM? - ssh

Question

I think I'm missing one step in the script below.
The first time I run it, the VM gets created just fine, but the connection is refused. It continues to be refused even if I wait ten minutes after creating the VM.
However, if I use the GCP console to connect manually "Open in browser window", I get the message "Transferring SSH keys...", and the connection works. After this step, the script can connect fine.
What should I add to this script to get it to work without having to manually connect from the console?
#!/bin/bash
MY_INSTANCE="janne"
MY_TEMPLATE="dev-tf-nogpu-template"
HOME_PATH="/XXX/data/celeba/"
# Create instance
gcloud compute instances create $MY_INSTANCE --source-instance-template $MY_TEMPLATE
# Start instance
gcloud compute instances start $MY_INSTANCE
# Copy needed directories & files
gcloud compute scp ${HOME_PATH}src/ $MY_INSTANCE:~ --recurse --compress
gcloud compute scp ${HOME_PATH}save/ $MY_INSTANCE:~ --recurse --compress
gcloud compute scp ${HOME_PATH}pyinstall $MY_INSTANCE:~
gcloud compute scp ${HOME_PATH}gcpstartup.sh $MY_INSTANCE:~
# Execute startup script
gcloud compute ssh --zone us-west1-b $MY_INSTANCE --command "bash gcpstartup.sh"
# Connect over ssh
gcloud compute ssh --project XXX --zone us-west1-b $MY_INSTANCE
The full output of this script is:
(base) xxx#ubu-dt:/XXX/data/celeba$ bash gcpcreate.sh
Created [https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/XXX/zones/us-west1-b/instances/janne].
NAME ZONE MACHINE_TYPE PREEMPTIBLE INTERNAL_IP EXTERNAL_IP STATUS
janne us-west1-b n1-standard-1 XXX XXX RUNNING
Starting instance(s) janne...done.
Updated [https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/xxx/zones/us-west1-b/instances/janne].
ssh: connect to host 34.83.3.161 port 22: Connection refused
lost connection
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.scp) [/usr/bin/scp] exited with return code [1].
ssh: connect to host 34.83.3.161 port 22: Connection refused
lost connection
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.scp) [/usr/bin/scp] exited with return code [1].
ssh: connect to host 34.83.3.161 port 22: Connection refused
lost connection
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.scp) [/usr/bin/scp] exited with return code [1].
ssh: connect to host 34.83.3.161 port 22: Connection refused
lost connection
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.scp) [/usr/bin/scp] exited with return code [1].
ssh: connect to host 34.83.3.161 port 22: Connection refused
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.ssh) [/usr/bin/ssh] exited with return code [255].
ssh: connect to host 34.83.3.161 port 22: Connection refused
ERROR: (gcloud.compute.ssh) [/usr/bin/ssh] exited with return code [255].
Edit: adding gcloud version info
(base) bjorn#ubu-dt:/media/bjorn/data/celeba$ gcloud version
Google Cloud SDK 269.0.0
alpha 2019.10.25
beta 2019.10.25
bq 2.0.49
core 2019.10.25
gsutil 4.45
kubectl 2019.10.25

Answer 1

The solution I found is this: wait.
For OS login, SSH starts working about 20 seconds after the instance is started.
For non-OS login, it takes about a minute.
So I just added this after gcloud compute instances start $MY_INSTANCE
sleep 20s

Answer 2

When you connect through Console it manages the keys for you.
Your last comment leads me to believe that when you connect from console you are generating an SSH key and it somehow allows you to run the script, I would recommend you to take a look at how to manage SSH keys in metadata and creating your own SSH key to access through the SDK.
If outside of the script through the SDK you cannot directly SSH either then I assume that it's because of the same reason of the generated key.
Also please make sure that when using the SDK the service account has the correct permissions.
Let me know.