Using the VNC Console and Recovery Mode

The web console

Every VPS has a built-in browser console. Open it with the Console button at the top of the service page or the Web Console card under Actions. It connects to the VM's virtual display (VNC), so it works even when networking, SSH or the firewall are misconfigured. Linux servers can also switch to a text-based Terminal Console.

You can turn the web console off, or require 2FA for it, from the Web Console Access panel on the service page. If it is turned off, the card shows Console Disabled.

When to use it

• You changed an SSH config and locked yourself out.
• You enabled a firewall rule that blocked your IP.
• The VM does not appear to be on the network.
• You need to interact with the bootloader (GRUB).
• You need to reset the root password from single-user mode.

Tips

• The console captures keyboard input only when focused. Click into the window before typing.
• Some browser extensions intercept keyboard shortcuts. If a shortcut is not reaching the VM, try a private window.
• To paste, use Ctrl + V (or Ctrl + Shift + V if that doesn't work).
• The toolbar has Ctrl+Alt+Del, fullscreen, pop-out and power buttons.
• The console link is tied to your panel login and expires quickly. Never share it.

Recovery Mode

If your VPS will not boot at all (broken bootloader, corrupt filesystem, forgotten root password, misconfigured fstab), Recovery Mode reboots the VM from a small Linux rescue ISO so you can fix it. Your disk is not modified by entering recovery mode; only the boot order changes.

Open the recovery page

From the VPS service page, click the Recovery Mode card under Actions. The panel checks the current state and lists the available rescue ISOs.

Enabling recovery mode

1. Pick a recovery ISO. The panel marks a sensible default as Recommended.
2. Click Boot into Recovery Mode and confirm.
3. The VPS reboots from the ISO. Click Open VNC Console to work in it.

Typical rescue workflow

1. Log in at the rescue prompt (usually no password is required, or one is shown on the boot banner).
2. Identify your disk: lsblk — usually /dev/vda1 or /dev/sda1.
3. Mount it: mount /dev/vda1 /mnt
4. To reset a forgotten root password, chroot into the disk:

   mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
   mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
   mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
   chroot /mnt
   passwd root
   exit

5. To repair a filesystem: fsck -y /dev/vda1 (run while it is not mounted).
6. To copy data off, use scp or rsync from the rescue environment.

Disabling recovery mode

When you are done, return to the Recovery Mode page and click Disable Recovery Mode. The VPS reboots back into your normal operating system. Run umount /mnt and exit any chroots first to avoid filesystem problems.

Recovery mode reboots the VPS immediately. If anything important is running, shut it down cleanly first. The rescue boot is like pulling the power and inserting a USB stick.