Banned the wrong IP (maybe your own)? You can unban without restarting Fail2ban.
1. See which jails exist
sudo fail2ban-client status
2. See banned IPs in a jail
sudo fail2ban-client status sshd
Look for the Banned IP list: line.
3. Unban a single IP
sudo fail2ban-client set sshd unbanip 203.0.113.7
On Fail2ban 0.11+ you can let it find the jail automatically:
sudo fail2ban-client unban 203.0.113.7
4. Unban everything (0.11+)
sudo fail2ban-client unban --all
5. Locked yourself out of SSH?
If you can still reach a console (cloud provider web console, IPMI/KVM, or a second open
session), run the unban above. Then add your IP to ignoreip so it can’t happen again, and
reload:
sudo fail2ban-client reload
Note: unbanning removes the firewall rule immediately, but if the IP keeps failing it will be
re-banned. Whitelist it with ignoreip if it should never be banned.