Power & console
Start/stop/restart, VNC, when to use which.
From /dashboard/services → your VPS:
Power buttons
- Start — boot a stopped VM.
- Stop — graceful shutdown (signals the OS).
- Restart — graceful reboot.
- Force stop — power cut, no shutdown signal. Use when the OS has hung.
- Force restart — power cycle. Same caveat.
Force operations skip the OS shutdown, so any unflushed buffers are lost. Use only when graceful didn't work after a minute or two.
Console (VNC)
The Console tab opens an in-browser VNC window into the VM. Direct hypervisor access — works even when networking inside the VM is broken.
Use it for:
- Debugging boot failures
- Rescuing a misconfigured firewall (you locked SSH out)
- Single-user mode for password resets
- Watching an OS reinstall complete
The console is real — what you type in there really goes to the VM. Treat it like sitting at the keyboard.
Status
- Running — VM is on and the hypervisor confirms it.
- Stopped — cleanly powered off.
- Suspended — VM frozen mid-execution (rare; usually a billing state, not a power state).
- Pending — provisioning, reinstalling, or moving nodes.
When you can't log in
Order to try:
- Console first — confirms the VM is actually up and the OS is loaded.
- From the console, check the network with
ip a(Linux) oripconfig(Windows). - Check the firewall rules. New VPS?
sudo iptables -L/ufw status— port 22 should be open. - If you've locked yourself out and can't recover from console, reinstall the OS as the nuclear option. Backups first.