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Connect via SSH (First VPS Cloud / VPS Lite Linux connection)

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

 

Run a command with root privileges...

From a Terminal type application (command line interface, CLI / Command Line Interface) on your device, for example the application PuTTY (to download and install on Windows) or Terminal (installed by default on macOS), run sudo -i to load the full root environment, giving you a complete interactive session as root with the personal directory and root environment variables.

 

... on macOS or Linux

To connect, you must open a Terminal window and run 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 invited to generate a key pair or upload your own public key (the rights must be sufficient, 0700 for example)
  • [user] = see below the default usernames
  • [server] = server IPv4 address (indicated on the Manager)

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

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

 

... on Windows

Windows does not allow SSH connection natively: activate the Bash shell (Windows 10 minimum) or download the following two free software: PuTTY & PuTTYgen

To begin, your private key must be converted to be used 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 elements:

Under Session (in the left sidebar):

  • [HostName] = server IPv4 address (indicated on the Manager)
  • [Port] = leave the default port, i.e. 22
  • [Connection type] = specify "SSH" here

Under Connection / SSH / Auth (in the left sidebar):

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

 

Default username [user] for unmanaged Cloud servers with:

Linux distribution table

Linux distributionDefault user
AlmaLinuxalmalinux
Arch Linuxarch
CentOScloud-user
Debian 7 "Wheezy" and earlier versionsroot
Debian 8 "Jessie" and later versionsdebian
Fedorafedora
FreeBSDfreebsd
Ubuntuubuntu
OpenBSDopenbsd
openSUSE Leap 15opensuse
openSUSE 42root
RancherOSrancher
SUSE Linux Enterprise Serverroot

The user is always the default user of the distribution.


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