Lets make communication clear

First, create an alternate user instead of using the default "root" useradd  doneill Second, set a password for this user passwd  doneill   Third, give sudo  permission for this user. For that go this file visudo Add permission to your user  like this. Here the user name is doneill Now check whether you can run the sudo  command with username as doneill   su doneill  sudo ls If things work good, continue Now prevent SSH login as root user. vi  /etc/ssh/sshd_config Search for "Permit" word to Now restart your ssh service by below command service sshd restart Thats  it. Now please check what you have done is working fine. Don't logout now, first make sure everything is working fine. type  ssh doneill@your systemip and give the password and check if the user login works fine.