Browser console: reach your VPS even when SSH doesn't work

The console in the customer area gives you direct access to the VPS screen. It doesn't go through the VPS network, so it works even when you can't connect over SSH because of the firewall, a mistake in the SSH configuration or a blocked IP address.

Terminal or Graphical console?#

Open My services, click your VPS and stay on the Console tab. At the top you switch between two modes:

Both consoles work independently of the VPS network, firewall and SSH server. All you need is for the VPS to be running.

When to use the console#

• You turned on a firewall (UFW or rules in the Firewall tab) and cut off your own SSH access.
• Fail2ban blocked your IP address.
• You edited /etc/ssh/sshd_config and the SSH server won't start.
• You broke the network configuration (netplan, /etc/network/interfaces).
• The VPS won't boot and you want to see the error message.

Logging in to the console#

1. In the Console tab, click Terminal.
2. Wait until the “connecting…” status disappears. A login prompt appears, for example my-vps login:. If the screen is empty, click into it and press Enter.
3. Type root and press Enter.
4. At the Password: prompt, enter the root password and press Enter. The password doesn't show while you type.
5. The root@my-vps:~# prompt appears. Now you type commands just as over SSH.

To log out, type exit.

In the Graphical console, click into the image first, otherwise the keyboard doesn't respond. The graphical console sends keys by their position on the keyboard and the VPS system uses the English layout. Characters like @, /, - or the letters y and z may therefore come out differently. Switch your computer's keyboard layout to English (EN/US), or use the Terminal, which doesn't have this problem.

Pasting text: in Terminal, right-click and choose Paste. Pasting from the clipboard doesn't work in the Graphical console; you have to type the text.

Power: Start, Restart, Stop#

The power buttons are in the Console tab in the top right corner, next to the VPS status label (Running, Stopped …). You have to confirm a restart or shutdown in a dialog. A member of a shared service sees them only with the Start, stop and restart permission.

“Hard” means the same as pulling a computer's plug: data that applications didn't manage to save is lost. So it's better to stop databases and game servers with a command inside the VPS first. The gentlest shutdown is the poweroff command right inside the VPS: the system shuts down with no time limit and you then turn the VPS on with the Start button.

Recovery procedures#

After logging in to the Terminal, follow the procedure for whatever went wrong.

The UFW firewall locked you out#

Allow SSH and check the rules:

ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw status verbose

• ufw allow 22/tcp – allows incoming connections to TCP port 22 (SSH).
• ufw status verbose – prints the firewall status and all rules.

If you're not sure, turn the firewall off temporarily with ufw disable and set it up again following the UFW firewall guide.

If the rules in the customer area's Firewall tab locked you out, you don't need the console: fix the rule right in that tab (see Firewall in the customer area).

Fail2ban blocked your IP address#

fail2ban-client unban <YOUR_IP>

• fail2ban-client – controls the running fail2ban.
• unban – unblocks the address in all jails at once, meaning both sshd and the stricter recidive.
• <YOUR_IP> – the public IP address of your internet connection, for example 198.51.100.25.

fail2ban-client status sshd lists the blocked addresses. You'll recognize yours by the time it was blocked (grep "Ban " /var/log/fail2ban.log | tail). Details in the Fail2ban guide.

The SSH server won't start after a configuration change#

sshd -t

• sshd -t – checks the SSH server configuration. If it's fine, it prints nothing. On an error it prints the file and line number.

Fix the error in an editor (for example nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/<FILE_NAME>.conf), run sshd -t again and then restart SSH:

systemctl restart ssh

• systemctl restart ssh – restarts the SSH server service (on both Ubuntu and Debian it's called ssh).

If you changed the SSH port and the VPS starts SSH through a socket (the default on Ubuntu 24.04; check with systemctl is-active ssh.socket), run systemctl daemon-reload and systemctl restart ssh.socket instead. Otherwise SSH stays on the original port.

Broken network configuration#

Undo the change you made last (for example, delete the new file in /etc/netplan/ or in /etc/network/interfaces.d/). If the VPS uses netplan, apply the configuration again with netplan apply. With ifupdown (no /etc/netplan/ folder), restart the VPS with the Restart button. How to add addresses is described in the IPv6 and additional IP addresses guide.

Verification#

The console works if, after clicking Terminal, you see the login: prompt and, after logging in, the root@…:~# prompt.

Troubleshooting#

The console stays “disconnected”#

Check that the VPS is running (status Running). Start a stopped VPS with the Start button. Then click Reconnect. The console won't connect during a backup restore either: “The VPS is locked right now (a backup restore is running)”. Wait for the restore to finish.

The screen is black or empty#

Click into the console and press Enter. The system is often just waiting and prints the login prompt only after a key press. If the Graphical console stays black, switch to Terminal.

Login incorrect#

You entered the wrong password. In the Graphical console, check the keyboard layout (see above). If you changed the password with passwd, the new password applies, not the one behind the Show button in the Password row. If you don't know the root password and don't have an SSH key either, contact us (support).