Getting "server refused our key" when connecting to GCP VM using Putty

After adding our keys to the compute engine metadata, while connecting from putty, you get an error message "No supported authentication methods available (server sent: publickey)"

This is after following several documentation from all over the internet. 

• I made sure, the keys are correctly added to the metadata.
• Made the private keys has permissions for putty to read
• os login is disabled

but still the putty doesn't ssh into the VM

solution:

it sounds abstract, but "upgrading" the putty to the latest version resolved the connection issue in a blink. Just documenting it, so it could help someone struggling with the putty connection issue

mCollins

posted on 02 Feb 24