I have a Raspberry Pi Zero W (PiZeroW-1, Raspbian Buster)on a local network behind a 4G router with CGNat. To be able to communicate with it from elsewhere I have setup a reverse ssh tunnel that is launched automatically after booting by systemd, by means of a ssh server on a second raspberry pi (PiZero2-1, Raspbian Bullseye) that can be accessed externally through port 22 forwarded to port 2222 on the second router:
/etc/systemd/system/ssh_reverse_tunnel.service:
[Unit]
Description=reverse ssh tunnel service
After=multi-user.target
Requires=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1
User=pi
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ssh -tt -R 19999:localhost:22 [email protected] -p 2222
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
After booting I can access from the second Raspi the one behind the 4G router without any issue by means of:
pi@PiZero2-1:~ $ ssh localhost -p 19999
After a few hours (sometimes a few days), the tunnel stops working from the second Raspi side:
pi@PiZero2-1:~ $ ssh localhost -p 19999
ssh: connect to host localhost port 19999: Connection refused
When this happens, the tunnel is still working from the first Raspi side:
pi@PiZeroW-1:~ $ systemctl status ssh_reverse_tunnel
● ssh_reverse_tunnel.service - reverse ssh tunnel service
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/ssh_reverse_tunnel.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-12-20 18:01:41 CET; 1min 8s ago
Main PID: 597 (ssh)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 725)
CGroup: /system.slice/ssh_reverse_tunnel.service
└─597 /usr/bin/ssh -tt -R 19999:localhost:22 [email protected] -p 2222
dic 20 18:01:41 PiZeroW-1 systemd[1]: Started reverse ssh tunnel service.
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: Linux PiZero2-1 5.10.63+ #1488 Thu Nov 18 16:14:04 GMT 2021 armv6l
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: [1B blob data]
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: [1B blob data]
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: permitted by applicable law.
dic 20 18:02:04 PiZeroW-1 ssh[597]: Last login: Mon Dec 20 17:54:58 2021 from 95.127.169.53
pi@PiZeroW-1:~ $ ps -ax | grep ssh
426 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd -D
619 ? Ss 0:01 /usr/bin/ssh -tt -R 19999:localhost:22 [email protected] -p 2222
639 ? Ss 0:00 sshd: pi [priv]
669 ? S 0:01 sshd: pi@pts/0
730 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent x-session-manager
801 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent -s
1029 ? Ss 0:00 sshd: pi [priv]
1035 ? S 0:00 sshd: pi@pts/2
22544 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto ssh
... but it is not working from the other end.
If I reboot the second Raspberry (PiZero2-1), the problem persists. If I reboot the first Raspberry (PiZeroW-1), the problems disappears (till a few hours or a few days later).
Anybody has some idea about the possible origin of the tunnel stalling ? I have been stuck here for several days and right now the only solution I can realize to guarantee to keep the communication open is to program to reboot the first Raspi from time to time...
BTW: the 4G router and its corresponding local network is to be located in my second home, 600 kms away from where I normally live. I must guarantee that once started the communication will not stop.
