VPS Guide: Your Go-To for VPS, Ubuntu & Command Line Success

Set Up SSH Timeout on CentOS

Category: VPS Setup

Adjust SSH timeout—session idle duration—on a CentOS VPS to prevent hangups—edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config with

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

adding ClientAliveInterval 300 (5 minutes) and ClientAliveCountMax 3 (15-minute total timeout) Restart with

systemctl restart sshd

and test with

ssh user@ip

—leave idle for 16 minutes; expect disconnection Open port with

firewall-cmd --add-service=ssh --permanent && firewall-cmd --reload

On Vultr this frees resources for MySQL or FTP—verify with

ss -tuln | grep 22

ensuring sshd listens Pair with Fail2ban for security—timeout reduces stalled sessions maintaining uptime on busy servers