This article provides multiple checks to identify the root cause of the SSH slowness.

We have tried to login/SSH to this router and it was successful after 3-4 times of trials,

SSH is taking a long time to respond.

Here is a list of checks to perform.

1. Check if there is any chassis alarm.
2. Verify RE/System CPU and check if there is any daemon spiking.
3. Take a look at the messages file and see if there is anything related. Could be sshd, login, users, or any DDOS logs.
4. Check the system user output and log out inactive users.
5. Check if there is any duplicate sshd daemon. Also, we could try to restart sshd.
6. Check the route reachability from the device to host and vice versa.
7. Check if there is any network event cause the path change or change in route.
8. If no issues are found in the device, please ask the customer to verify the jump server, the problem might not be with the router.

show system users

show log user | no-more

show system connections |match "\.22 " | match ESTABLISHED

show system processes extensive | match sshd | no-more

start shell

ps -aux | grep ssh