Connect via SSH (1st connection VPS Cloud / VPS Lite Linux)

This guide explains how to establish the first SSH connection to your VPS Cloud / VPS Lite.

Running a command with root privileges

You need to enter sudo -i to load the full root environment, giving you a complete interactive session as root with root's home directory and environment variables. Learn more

on macOS or Linux

To connect, you need to open a Terminal window and enter the following command:

ssh -i [key path] [user]@[server]

• [key path] = link to the file containing the private key; as a reminder, when ordering your VPS Cloud / VPS Lite, you were prompted to generate a key pair or upload your own public key (permissions should be sufficient, e.g., 0700)
• [user] = see below for default usernames
• [server] = server's IPv4 address (indicated on the Manager)

Example: ssh -i c:/path/key ubuntu@192.168.1.1

In case of "WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!" error, run the command chmod 400 [key path].

on Windows

Windows does not allow native SSH connections: enable Bash shell (Windows 10 minimum) or download the following two free software: PuTTY & PuTTYgen

To start, your private key needs to be converted for use with PuTTY.

To do this, open PuTTYgen and click the "Load" button to load your private key. Then save your private key using the "Save private key" button.

Now open PuTTY and provide the following details:

Under Session (on the left panel):

• [HostName] = server's IPv4 address (indicated on the Manager)
• [Port] = leave the default port, which is 22
• [Connection type] = specify "SSH" here

Under Connection / SSH / Auth (on the left panel):

• load your private key generated via PuTTYgen using the "Browse" button under "Private key file for authentication"
• press the "Open" button at the bottom of the window, a terminal will open and ask for your username (user = see below)

Default [user] usernames for unmanaged Cloud servers:

Table of Linux distributions