diff --git a/.github/actions/ssh-access/action.yml b/.github/actions/ssh-access/action.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..22877bd23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/actions/ssh-access/action.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+#
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+
+name: ssh access
+description: Sets up SSH access to build VM with upterm
+inputs:
+  action:
+    description: |
+      Action to perform: options are "start" and "wait"
+      "start" will install, configure and start upterm.
+      "wait" will wait until a connection is established to upterm and will continue to wait until the session is closed.
+    required: false
+    default: 'start'
+  limit-access-to-actor:
+    description: 'If only the public SSH keys of the user triggering the workflow should be authorized'
+    required: false
+    default: 'false'
+  limit-access-to-users:
+    description: 'If only the public SSH keys of the listed GitHub users should be authorized. Comma separate list of GitHub user names.'
+    required: false
+    default: ''
+  secure-access:
+    description: |
+      Set to false for allowing public access when limit-access-to-actor and limit-access-to-users are unset.
+    required: false
+    default: 'true'
+  timeout:
+    description: 'When action=wait, the timeout in seconds to wait for the user to connect'
+    required: false
+    default: '300'
+runs:
+  using: composite
+  steps:
+    - run: |
+        if [[ "${{ inputs.action }}" == "start" ]]; then
+            echo "::group::Installing upterm & tmux"
+            if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "linux-gnu"* ]]; then
+                # install upterm
+                curl -sL https://github.com/owenthereal/upterm/releases/download/v0.7.6/upterm_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar zxvf - -C /tmp upterm && sudo install /tmp/upterm /usr/local/bin/ && rm -rf /tmp/upterm
+        
+                # install tmux if it's not present
+                if ! command -v tmux &>/dev/null; then
+                    sudo apt-get -y install tmux
+                fi
+            elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
+                brew install owenthereal/upterm/upterm
+                # install tmux if it's not present
+                if ! command -v tmux &>/dev/null; then
+                    brew install tmux
+                fi
+            else
+                echo "Unsupported $OSTYPE"
+                exit 0
+            fi
+            echo '::endgroup::'  
+            echo "::group::Configuring ssh and ssh keys"
+            # generate ssh key
+            mkdir -p ~/.ssh
+            chmod 0700 ~/.ssh
+            if [ ! -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa ]; then
+                ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -N "" -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
+            fi
+            if [ ! -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 ]; then
+                ssh-keygen -q -t ed25519 -N "" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
+            fi
+            # configure ssh
+            echo -e "Host *\nStrictHostKeyChecking no\nCheckHostIP no\nTCPKeepAlive yes\nServerAliveInterval 30\nServerAliveCountMax 180\nVerifyHostKeyDNS yes\nUpdateHostKeys yes\n" > ~/.ssh/config
+            # Auto-generate ~/.ssh/known_hosts by attempting connection to uptermd.upterm.dev  
+            ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 uptermd.upterm.dev || true
+            # @cert-authority entry is a mandatory entry when connecting to upterm. generate the entry based on the known_hosts entry key
+            cat <(cat ~/.ssh/known_hosts | awk '{ print "@cert-authority * " $2 " " $3 }') >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
+            authorizedKeysParameter=""
+            authorizedKeysFile=${HOME}/.ssh/authorized_keys
+            if [[ "${{ inputs.secure-access }}" != "false" ]]; then
+                ssh-keygen -q -t ed25519 -N "$(echo $RANDOM | md5sum | awk '{ print $1 }')" -C "Prevent public access" -f /tmp/dummykey$$
+                cat /tmp/dummykey$$.pub >> $authorizedKeysFile
+                rm /tmp/dummykey$$ /tmp/dummykey$$.pub
+            fi
+            limit_access_to_actor="${{ inputs.limit-access-to-actor }}"
+            if [[ "${limit_access_to_actor}" == "true" ]]; then
+                echo "Adding ${GITHUB_ACTOR} to allowed users (identified by ssh key registered in GitHub)"
+                curl -s https://github.com/${GITHUB_ACTOR}.keys >> $authorizedKeysFile
+            fi
+            limit_access_to_users="${{ inputs.limit-access-to-users }}"
+            for github_user in ${limit_access_to_users//,/ }; do
+                if [[ -n "${github_user}" ]]; then
+                    echo "Adding ${github_user} to allowed users (identified by ssh key registered in GitHub)"
+                    curl -s https://github.com/${github_user}.keys >> $authorizedKeysFile
+                fi
+            done
+            if [ -f $authorizedKeysFile ]; then
+                chmod 0600 $authorizedKeysFile
+                authorizedKeysParameter="-a $authorizedKeysFile"
+                echo -e "Using $authorizedKeysFile\nContent:\n---------------------------"
+                cat $authorizedKeysFile
+                echo "---------------------------"
+            fi
+            echo '::endgroup::'  
+            echo "::group::Starting terminal session and connecting to server"
+            tmux new -d -s upterm-wrapper -x 132 -y 43 "upterm host ${authorizedKeysParameter} --force-command 'tmux attach -t upterm' -- tmux new -s upterm -x 132 -y 43"
+            sleep 2
+            tmux send-keys -t upterm-wrapper q C-m
+            sleep 1
+            tmux set -t upterm-wrapper window-size largest
+            tmux set -t upterm window-size largest
+            echo '::endgroup::'  
+            echo -e "\nSSH connection information"
+            shopt -s nullglob
+            upterm session current --admin-socket ~/.upterm/*.sock
+        elif [[ "${{ inputs.action }}" == "wait" ]]; then
+            # only wait if upterm was installed
+            if command -v upterm &>/dev/null; then
+                shopt -s nullglob
+                echo "SSH connection information"
+                upterm session current --admin-socket ~/.upterm/*.sock || {
+                    echo "upterm isn't running. Not waiting any longer."
+                    exit 0
+                }
+                timeout=${{ inputs.timeout }}
+                echo "Waiting $timeout seconds..."
+                sleep $timeout
+                echo "Keep waiting as long as there's a connected session"
+                while upterm session current --admin-socket ~/.upterm/*.sock|grep Connected &>/dev/null; do
+                    sleep 30
+                done
+                echo "No session is connected. Not waiting any longer."
+            else
+                echo "upterm isn't installed"
+            fi
+        fi
+      shell: bash
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-integration-skywalking-e2e.yml b/.github/workflows/test-integration-skywalking-e2e.yml
index 303cfb3b7..034848ba5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-integration-skywalking-e2e.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-integration-skywalking-e2e.yml
@@ -46,13 +46,21 @@ jobs:
           repository: ${{github.event.pull_request.head.repo.full_name}}
           ref: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
 
+      - name: Setup ssh access to build runner VM
+        uses: ./.github/actions/ssh-access
+        with:
+          limit-access-to-actor: true
+
       - uses: apache/skywalking-infra-e2e@v1.2.0
         with:
           e2e-file: ${{matrix.case.e2e}}
 
-      - name: Setup tmate session
-        uses: mxschmitt/action-tmate@v3
+      - name: Wait for ssh connection when build fails
+        uses: ./.github/actions/ssh-access
         if: failure()
+        continue-on-error: true
+        with:
+          action: wait
 
       - name: Cleanup
         if: ${{ failure() }}