Using your server
Everything you need after your server is running. If something here does not match what you are seeing, email [email protected] — it means our docs are wrong.
Getting into your server
The console is the easy way
Open your dashboard, find your server and click Open console. You get a terminal in the browser. Log in as root with the console password you chose when you created the server. No key files, no SSH client, nothing to install — and it works even when SSH does not.
Forgot the console password?
You cannot recover it; it is stored hashed on the server itself and we do not keep a copy. Click Set console password in the console panel to choose a new one. Your server restarts for a few seconds and your files are untouched.
Connecting over SSH (optional)
You need the -i flag
SSH will not find your key on its own. The command must point at the key file you downloaded. Leaving out -i is the single most common reason for "Permission denied (publickey)" — the key is fine, SSH simply never looked at it.
On Windows
Save the key into your user folder, then connect with the exact command shown on your server card in the dashboard. If Windows complains the key is too open, the file permissions need tightening — the console works regardless while you sort it out.
Your console password does not work over SSH
That is deliberate. A password on a public SSH port gets brute-forced within hours. SSH accepts keys only; the password works on the browser console, which is not exposed to the internet.
Uploading files
From the dashboard
Open the console, log in, then click Upload a file. Your server downloads it into whatever directory you are sitting in, up to 100 MB. Watch the console and you will see it arrive.
Why you have to be logged in first
We never push files into your server. It fetches them itself, using a link that works once and expires in ten minutes. That means we hold no key to your machine — so the download has to run from a shell you are already logged into.
Bigger files, or lots of them
Use SFTP with the key on your account. Any SFTP client (WinSCP, FileZilla, Cyberduck) works: point it at the address and port on your server card, choose the key file, and drag files across. That is a direct transfer with no size limit from us.
Putting something online
Nothing is public until you publish it
Anything your server listens on stays private by default. Open the Ports panel, enter the port your app runs on (3000, 8080, whatever you chose) and click Publish. You get back an address and port to share.
Ports 80 and 443 are not yours to take
The server has one public address shared across the platform, so your service gets its own port number rather than the standard web ports. If you need a real domain on port 443, point it at our web hosting instead and keep the VPS for the parts that are not a website.
Backups
Take one before you change anything risky
The Backups panel makes a full copy of your disk. Your server shuts down for a few seconds while the copy is taken, so the backup is consistent rather than a smear of a running system.
Restoring is checked first
A restore replaces everything written since that backup. We verify the backup is a sound filesystem before it touches your live disk — a damaged backup is refused rather than written over a working server.
Deleting a server deletes its backups
They cannot be restored without the server they belong to. The delete confirmation says so, and it asks you to type the server name for exactly this reason.
What is blocked, and why
Outbound email (SMTP)
Ports 25, 465, 587 and 2525 are blocked outbound. One compromised server sending spam gets the whole platform’s address blacklisted, which would break email for every customer we host. Use a transactional email API such as Postmark, Resend or SendGrid over HTTPS — which is what we would recommend even if the ports were open.
Reaching other customers
Your server cannot see other servers, our internal services, or the sites we host. That is enforced at the network level and tested, not just promised.
Resource limits
Memory, CPU and disk are capped at the kernel level. You cannot exceed your tier, and equally no neighbour can take resources from you.
Paying and renewing
Prepaid terms, nothing automatic
You buy 3, 6 or 12 months up front by bank transfer. Six months saves 5%, twelve saves 10%. Nothing renews behind your back and you are never charged without sending a transfer.
If your term runs out
We email you before it does. If it lapses, the server is suspended — stopped, not deleted — and your data is kept for 14 days. Pay any time in that window and the server comes back exactly as it was, and restarts itself.
Renewing early does not waste time
A new term stacks on top of whatever you have left, so there is no penalty for paying ahead.
Errors you might see
Permission denied (publickey)
SSH did not use your key. Add -i followed by the path to the key file you downloaded. Copy the full command from the dashboard, which includes it.
REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED
Your computer remembers a different server on that port. It is not an attack if you have just rebuilt or replaced a server. Run ssh-keygen -R followed by the address and port shown in the warning, then connect again.
Connection refused, just after creating a server
Give it a few seconds. Your dashboard only shows Running once the server is genuinely accepting connections, so if it says Running and you still cannot connect, open the console and look at the boot log.