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Connect to a GNU+Linux server

New server instances usually takes between 1 - 20 minutes to finish installation and come online, depending on system image, startup scripts and server size. Once online you can connect to GNU+Linux servers over SSH.

Windows client

It's recommended to authenticate with a SSH key pair when connecting to a GNU+Linux server. To do that, you first need to generate a SSH key pair. Windows clients can use PuTTYgen to generate a key pair. Open the program and click on "Generate", copy the public key and upload it to dashboard. Make sure to also save local copies of your public and private keys as files.

Once you have uploaded your public key, deploy some server instances and select your new key to be installed. Now you are ready to connect. Open up PuTTY, fill in your servers IP address and use "root" as user name. To authenticate with SSH keys, head over to Connection -> SSH -> Auth in PuTTY. Browse for your private key file and click open. Go back and connect and a terminal should open with access to your server. 

GNU+Linux client

To generate a SSH key pair. GNU+Linux users can use one of the following commands in their favorite terminal emulator:

# RSA key with 4096 bit length
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

# ECDSA keys, more secure than RSA
ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521

# New 256bit algorithm, secure but limited support
ssh-keygen -t ed25519

# DSA key, (cracked, do not use)
ssh-keygen -t dsa

Once you have generated a SSH key pair you will have two files, one with the private key and one with the public key. The public key will usually have .pub as file extension. Now, copy the public key and head over to dashboard, paste the public key into the data field, finally name your key and click upload. This will make your public key available for installation on new server instances.

Connect to your server with the ssh command:

ssh -i /path/to/private/key.file root@<server_ip>
Password authentication

For password authentication, the user name on GNU+Linux instances are "root" and for Windows instances the user name is "Administrator". The default password can be found on the server management page, click on a server to view additional information and it's password.

Important! Change your default password as soon as possible in order to prevent unauthorized access.

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