Cloud troubleshooting guide

This page contains basic troubleshooting steps for issues that come up frequently when using cloud. The steps include solutions you can try yourself, plus important information gathering steps and advice for when its time to submit a ticket. Not all issues can be solved on the user side, some things require system administrator level access to resolve; if you work through the guide and it advises you to submit a ticket, it is likely an issue not easily solved on the user side.

Issue: I can't login to Cloud

1. You need to specifically apply for a cloud project in order to login to cloud. If you have not formally applied for and been granted a cloud project you will not be able to login (you will get the error message “Invalid Credentials”). You can apply for a cloud project here: CC cloud project and RAS request form
2. If you have applied for a cloud project it can take a few days for your request to be approved, at which point you will receive a confirmation email with important information for accessing your project. If you have not received this confirmation email, and more than 3 business days have passed since you submitted your request, it is recommended that you submit a ticket to cloud@computecanada.ca with your name, institution and the email address you used to submit the request.
3. Make sure you are logging into the correct cloud. Your confirmation email for your cloud project will tell you which cloud is hosting your project. Login links for the different clouds can be found on the Cloud Wiki page in the section “Using the Cloud”.
4. If you have a confirmed cloud project and are unable to login, check the System status page to see if there is an incident affecting service on your cloud.
5. Ensure you are using the correct username. You need to use your Compute Canada username, (same as you would use to login to HPC cluster), do not use your associated email address . You can test logging in with this link to see whether it is an issue with your username and/or password.
6. If you are having issues with an incorrect or forgotten password, the instructions for getting your password reset are at this link
7. If you have followed these steps and still can’t login to your cloud project it's time to submit a ticket. Email cloud@computecanada.ca with any info collected during troubleshooting, username, project name and cloud name.
8. More information for contacting support and ticket submission best practices etc. can be found on the Compute Canada Technical Support page.

Issue: I can't reach my virtual machine

1. If you are having any issues connecting to you virtual machine (VM, also known as "instance") or hosted service, the first step is to check the Compute Canada System Status page. If there is an incident on your hosting cloud you may need to wait till the incident is resolved before connecting to your hosted service/VM.
2. If there is no incident for the cloud hosting your project on the System Status page, you need to confirm that you can reach the dashboard for your cloud project. (ex. Use this link to login to Arbutus:https://arbutus.cloud.computecanada.ca.) Login links for other clouds can be found on the cloud wiki page. If you cannot reach the login page to your cloud dashboard and you have verified your internet connectivity (ex. you can reach google) then it is recommended that you submit a ticket. To submit a ticket to the cloud queue, email: cloud@computecanada.ca. Include your name, username, hosting cloud and project name, and the steps you have taken to trouble-shoot thus far. For more information on submitting support tickets see the Technical Support page on the Compute Canada wiki.
3. If you are able to reach the login page for your cloud but are having trouble actually logging in, please see the “Can’t login to Cloud” guide in the upper section on this page for next steps.
4. If you are able to login to your cloud dashboard, there are a few things there that you can check to see if your VM is actually running:
1. Navigate to the Instances screen on your left side menu. Look at the Power State for your VM. It should be “Running”. If it is not in the “Running” state (for example “Shut Down”, you can try and restart it using the actions menu on the far right hand side, select either “Start Instance” or “Resume Instance” depending on what options are available to you.
1. You can look through the action logs to try and figure out why it was taken out of the running state. From the instances screen, click on your Instance name (VM name) and then click on the “Action Log” tab. This will show all the actions that have been used on your VM. If there is an action you don’t recognize you can contact support (email: cloud@computecanada.ca) to try and figure out who it was, just be sure to include your name, username, hosting cloud, project name and the user ID from the action log for the action you want to investigate.
2. The “log” tab from the same screen will show you the console log for your VM, so you can look through that log for error messages as well.
2. If you are unable to restart your VM then it's recommended that you submit a ticket. To submit a ticket to the cloud queue, email: cloud@computecanada.ca. Include your name, username, hosting cloud, project name and VM ID (You can find this by clicking on your instance, then looking at the overview tab), the steps you have taken to trouble-shoot and the issue you are seeing. For more information on submitting support tickets see the Technical Support page on the Compute Canada wiki.
5. Can you reach your VM with Secure Shell (SSH) protocol?
   1. If you can’t reach your application or web service hosted on your VM, but you have followed steps 1-4 and your VM is running, then you need to try to connect using SSH. You can find instructions for doing this in the Cloud Quick Start Guide, scroll down to the section near the bottom of the page to “Connecting to your VM with SSH”.
   2. If you are getting a login prompt verify you are using the correct key pair and username. You can check you are using the correct key pair by clicking on “instances” under “compute” on the open sack page, look under the column “Key Pair”, and make sure you are using that key pair to login. The username will be dependant on the operating system of your VM (Note: If you explicitly change your username with a custom CloudInit script then it will be what you have changed it to):

      Operating System	Username
      Debian	debian
      Ubuntu	ubuntu
      CentOS	centos
      Fedora	fedora

   3. If you are not getting a login prompt, you can double check your security settings:
      1. Verify your own ip address has not changed. You can check your own ip address at this link https:/ipv4.icanhazip.com/. Your ip address must be unblocked in the security settings in order to reach your VM, so if it has changed you will need to add a new rule to your security group.
      2. Check that your ip address is unblocked for SSH connections to your VM. You can do this by clicking on “Network” in the left-hand side navigation panel, then “Security groups”. Click “Manage Rules for the security group for your VM (unless you have setup a separate group for your VM, this will be the “default group”. You can check this by going to the instance overview page). There should be a TCP rule there to allow ingress ssh at your-ip-address/32. If this rule is not there click add rule, select SSH from the list, then enter your-ip-adress/32 in the CIDR field box at the bottom and click “Add”.
6. If you have completed all these steps and still cannot connect to your instance, it’s time to submit a ticket. Send an email to cloud@computecanada.ca and provide the cloud name, project name, instance UUID (you can find this by clicking on Instances -in the compute menu on the left hand side- then clicking on the specific instance name you are having trouble with, then look at the ID field in the overview tab for that instance. The UUID will be a long alpha-numeric sequence) , and all information collected from the above steps.
7. More information for contacting support and ticket submission best practices etc. can be found on the Compute Canada Technical Support page.