Connect to your VPS

Every VPS shows how to reach it on its Overview tab. Linux servers are reached over SSH, Windows servers over Remote Desktop (RDP). Open your project, choose VPS and select the server.

Find the connection detailsCopy Anchor Link

The Connection card on the Overview tab shows:

• SSH Host: the address to connect to.
• SSH Port: only on servers with a shared IPv4 address. These servers get their own SSH port instead of 22.
• SSH Command: the full command, ready to copy.

ssh [email protected] -p 22200

Log in with the user in the command and the root password you set when you created the VPS. On servers with a dedicated IPv4 address the command has no -p, because SSH listens on the normal port 22. In some locations Ubuntu images log in as ubuntu instead of root; use sudo for admin commands there.

The SSH tabCopy Anchor Link

• Connection Details: host, port, user and the Full Command, each with a copy button.
• Root Password: click Reset Password, type a new password or click Generate Password, then confirm. The old password stops working immediately. The same rules apply as at purchase: 12 to 30 characters with upper and lower case letters, a number and one of ! @ # $ % ^ *.
• SSH Keys (shared IPv4 servers): click Add Key, paste a public key and save. Delete a key with its delete button. On other servers, add keys yourself as shown below.
• SSH Access (shared IPv4 servers): a switch that turns SSH off completely. While it is off you cannot connect over SSH until you turn it back on.

Log in with an SSH keyCopy Anchor Link

Create a key on your computer once:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@laptop"
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Then either paste the printed line into Add Key on the SSH tab, or copy it to the server with your password:

ssh-copy-id -p 22200 [email protected]

To avoid typing the port every time, add the server to ~/.ssh/config:

Host myvps
    HostName 203.0.113.10
    Port 22200
    User root
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Now ssh myvps is enough.

The Terminal tabCopy Anchor Link

Where available, the Terminal tab opens the server in your browser, without an SSH client:

• On servers with a shared IPv4 address it is a web terminal. Click Connect.
• In some other locations it is the server Console, like a monitor plugged into the VPS. Click Connect and log in with the VPS username and password. Use the paste button to type text into the console, which also works at the login prompt.

The VPS must be running. The console is also the way back in if a firewall rule or SSH setting locks you out.

First steps after logging inCopy Anchor Link

Update the system and create a user for daily work, so you don't work as root all the time:

apt update && apt upgrade -y
adduser deploy
usermod -aG sudo deploy
mkdir -p /home/deploy/.ssh
cp ~/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/deploy/.ssh/
chown -R deploy:deploy /home/deploy/.ssh

If you turn on ufw, allow SSH before you enable it, or you lock yourself out. On a shared IPv4 server, allow the ports inside the server (22 and the internal ports you forward), not the public ones:

ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Windows: the RDP tabCopy Anchor Link

Windows servers have an RDP tab instead of SSH. It shows the Server Address, Port (3389) and Username (Administrator).

Next stepsCopy Anchor Link