The console of your server

The console shows the screen of your server, as if a monitor and a keyboard were attached to it. You see the server start, the messages of the system and its login prompt. It works when the network of the server does not, which makes it the way in when SSH stops answering.

Open it

1. Open Servers in the console and choose your server.
2. Choose Console at the top of the page. In the list of servers, Open console is in the menu of each row.

The server has to run: a stopped server has no screen. Start it first.

Log in

The login prompt asks for a user and a password. A key does not work on a screen. A server ordered with E-mail me the root password has a root password; for a server built with SSH keys only, or when you no longer have the password, give root a new one first:

1. Open the server and choose Settings.
2. Choose Reset root password, then Set a new password.
3. Copy the password and store it. You see it once; we do not keep it.

The server has to run for this. Your SSH keys keep working as before.

The password is set by a small program inside the server, the guest agent. We install it on the first boot of every server built from 23 September 2026, from the package sources of its system, so the server has to reach those on its first boot. On an older server, install it over SSH first (apt install qemu-guest-agent or dnf install qemu-guest-agent), or give root a password yourself with sudo passwd root.

Type

Click in the screen to type in it. The screen expects a US keyboard layout: each key arrives as the key it is on a US keyboard, so with another layout some characters come out differently. Send Ctrl+Alt+Del sends that key combination to the server; on most Linux systems it restarts the server. The console stays open while the server restarts, so you see it start again.

How long a session lasts

A console session ends after an hour, and when you close the dialog. Choose Connect again to go on.

Who can open it

Only you, from your own account. Each time you open the console, it gets its own address that works once and only for a minute. The screen reaches you through our own servers and never directly. We record every time a console is opened.

When it does not open

• The server is stopped: start it and try again.
• The console is switched off for this server: switch on Enable VNC console under All server settings.
• Your servers are paused because the credit is used up: top up first.
• Otherwise wait a minute and choose Connect again. If it still does not open, ask support and name the server.