Cannot connect to Windows Azure Virtual Machine via SSH - api

Question

I'm testing the IaaS part of Windows Azure and I have successfully deployed various Virtual Machine instances by means of the REST API. The XML body of the POST request for launching the VM is the following:
<Deployment xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Name>Azure</Name>
<DeploymentSlot>Production</DeploymentSlot>
<Label>Azure IM created VM</Label>
<RoleList>
<Role i:type="PersistentVMRole">
<RoleName>IMVMRole</RoleName>
<OsVersion i:nil="true"/>
<RoleType>PersistentVMRole</RoleType>
<ConfigurationSets>
<ConfigurationSet i:type="LinuxProvisioningConfigurationSet">
<ConfigurationSetType>LinuxProvisioningConfiguration</ConfigurationSetType>
<HostName>AzureNode</HostName>
<UserName>user</UserName>
<UserPassword>Prueba+1111</UserPassword>
<DisableSshPasswordAuthentication>false</DisableSshPasswordAuthentication>
</ConfigurationSet>
<ConfigurationSet i:type="NetworkConfigurationSet">
<ConfigurationSetType>NetworkConfiguration</ConfigurationSetType>
<InputEndpoints>
<InputEndpoint>
<LocalPort>22</LocalPort>
<Name>SSH</Name>
<Port>22</Port>
<Protocol>TCP</Protocol>
</InputEndpoint>
</InputEndpoints>
</ConfigurationSet>
</ConfigurationSets>
<Label>Azure IM created VM</Label>
<OSVirtualHardDisk>
<MediaLink>https://XXXXXXX.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/0b11de9248dd4d87b18621318e037d37__RightImage-Ubuntu-12.04-x64-v13.4.vhd</MediaLink>
<SourceImageName>0b11de9248dd4d87b18621318e037d37__RightImage-Ubuntu-12.04-x64-v13.4</SourceImageName>
</OSVirtualHardDisk>
<RoleSize>Small</RoleSize>
</Role>
</RoleList>
</Deployment>
However, when I try to connect to the VM via SSH with Putty, it shows the following message when I try to authenticate via user/password (note that in the XML body I have specified that DisableSshPasswordAuthentication = false): "Disconnected: No supported authentication methods available (server sent: publickey)".
Thank you so much to the whole stackoverflow community for your help.
Abel.

Answer 1

In case anyone is trying to connect to a VM via the command line and not getting through at all after having successfully connected via SSH before:
Go to "Reset password" in the "Support + Troubleshooting" section of the VM's menu, then choose Mode "Reset public SSH key" and "Update". This will not remove or change the key provided during the initial deploy, so you can connect as you did before after the successful reset.