Connecting

What you need#

You reach your VPS over SSH from a terminal on your own computer. To sign in you need two things: the server's public IP address and a way to authenticate, either the root password or an SSH key. Both the IP address and the initial root password are shown on the server's detail page in the VPS Panel at vps.pyro.host, which is where all VPS management lives. macOS and Linux already include an ssh client, and recent versions of Windows do too through the built-in terminal.

Connecting over SSH#

Open a terminal and run the command below, replacing <your-ip> with the IP address shown for your server. You sign in as the root user, which has full control over the machine.

ssh root@<your-ip>

The first time you connect, SSH asks you to confirm the server's fingerprint. Type yes to accept it, and the fingerprint is saved to ~/.ssh/known_hosts so the prompt does not appear again. If you are signing in with a password rather than a key, you are then asked for the root password from the VPS Panel. Nothing shows on screen as you type the password, which is normal.

If the connection hangs or is refused, check that you copied the IP exactly and that the server has finished provisioning. Newly created servers can take a minute or two before SSH is ready.

Signing in with an SSH key#

A password works, but an SSH key is both safer and more convenient. A key pair is far harder to guess than any password, and once the key is in place you sign in without typing anything each time. The pair has two halves: a private key that stays on your computer, and a public key that you place on the server.

If you do not already have a key, generate one with ssh-keygen. The ed25519 type is a good modern default:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Press Enter to accept the default location, which writes the private key to ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 and the public key to ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub. You can set a passphrase to protect the private key, or leave it blank.

The easiest way to install the public key is to add it when you create the server in the VPS Panel, which writes it to the new machine automatically. If the server already exists, copy the key up yourself with ssh-copy-id:

ssh-copy-id root@<your-ip>

That command appends your public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the server. After it finishes, run the same ssh root@<your-ip> command and you should sign in with no password prompt.

After you connect#

Once you are in, your first job is usually to update the system so it has the latest security fixes. On a Debian or Ubuntu image that is:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

If you set up an SSH key, a good next step is to turn off password logins so only your key is accepted. You can also tighten which ports are reachable from the outside. Both of those are covered on the networking and firewall page. For details on the images you can run, see operating systems, and for a wider view of what a VPS gives you, start with the VPS overview.