First steps with your VPS

A VPS is a server of your own: you choose the operating system and you have full root access. That also means the responsibility for what runs on it is yours — this page covers the first steps.

Getting your access details

1 VPS servers are prepared by our team, not instantly by a robot. After payment you receive an e-mail with the IP address, user and password.
2 If the e-mail hasn't arrived, check spam first and then open a ticket — we resend the details after confirming your identity.

What you chose when ordering

1 Operating system — Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux and others; there are also Windows Server options.
2 Datacentre — picked at order time, from several locations.
3 Control panel — optional. You can run with cPanel, Plesk or Webuzo, or with none at all and manage everything by command line.

Connecting for the first time (Linux)

1 From macOS or Linux, open a terminal. On Windows, use PowerShell or PuTTY.
2 Connect with the details you received: 
ssh root@YOUR.SERVER.IP
3 Change the root password immediately with passwd, and keep it somewhere safe.
Before disabling password login, set up your key — and test it. Switching off PasswordAuthentication without a working SSH key locks you out of your own server. Open a second session and confirm the key works before closing the first one. If you do get locked out, we can help, but recovery may mean reinstalling.
Backups on a VPS are your responsibility. The daily backups included with shared hosting don't apply to an unmanaged VPS. Plan your own — a snapshot before every major change is the cheapest insurance there is.

Didn't get your access details, or locked out of the server? Talk to us.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

When something goes wrong: Common VPS and Cloud errors: SSH, memory, disk and reboots.

Before taking on administration, see Managed or unmanaged VPS: which to choose and who does what.

To check whether a VPS is the right tier: Shared hosting, VPS, Cloud or dedicated: the full comparison.

VPS AND CLOUD SERVERS

For when shared hosting is no longer enough.

Dedicated resources, root access and freedom to install whatever you need. With the same support team behind it.

See servers

Linux or Windows · scale when you need to

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