diff --git a/jenkins/ci-pipelines/ci_stage_3.groovy b/jenkins/ci-pipelines/ci_stage_3.groovy
index 61e9fd8..c203313 100644
--- a/jenkins/ci-pipelines/ci_stage_3.groovy
+++ b/jenkins/ci-pipelines/ci_stage_3.groovy
@@ -418,10 +418,16 @@
                     println("Waiting for VM at ${IP_ADDRESS} to be reachable")
 
                     alive = false
-                    while (!alive) {
-                        output = sh(returnStdout: true, script: "sleep 1 ; nc -zv ${IP_ADDRESS} 22 2>&1 || true").trim()
-                        println("output is [$output]")
-                        alive = output.contains('succeeded')
+                    timeout(time: 1, unit: 'MINUTES') {
+                        while (!alive) {
+                            output = sh(
+                                returnStatus: true,
+                                script: "ssh -T -i ${SSH_KEY} " +
+                                    "-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no " +
+                                    "-o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null " +
+                                    "-o ConnectTimeout=5 ubuntu@${IP_ADDRESS} 'echo Alive'")
+                            alive = (output == 0)
+                        }
                     }
                     println('VM is ready and accepting ssh connections')
                 } // stage("Spawn Remote VM")