i'm trying to enable key based login for root login over ssh

but after generating the keys to /root/.ssh/
and creating the folder /root/.ssh/authorized_keys/
and copying the public key over to that folder, i noticed that the /root/.ssh/ contents are wiped periodically.

what am i doing wrong?

edit+: looks like what i was doing wrong was that the folder is actually supposed to be a file.. and i have not yet at least had the contents suddenly disappearing again