Getting started with a VPS – Support Guides

Learn the basic steps for getting started with a VPS.

A Virtual Private Server is a virtualized dedicated server that gives you greater flexibility and control over traditional web hosting solutions. Unlike the hosting plans managed by OVHcloud, where management tasks are taken care of, the administration of a VPS is entirely your responsibility. As a system administrator, you are responsible for configuring, maintaining, and securing the server to ensure its proper operation and reliability.

NOTE: OVHcloud provides services for which you are responsible for their configuration and management. You are therefore responsible for their proper functioning.

This tutorial is designed to help you as much as possible with common tasks. If you are having difficulty performing these actions, please contact a specialized service provider. OVHcloud can't provide you with technical support in this regard.

Requirements

A Virtual Private Server in your OVHcloud account
Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
Login credentials received via email after the installation

Instructions

OVHcloud Control Panel overview

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, navigate to the Bare Metal Cloud universe. Select Virtual private servers and choose your service.

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On the next screen, you will see a dashboard (the Home tab) containing important information about your service. You can also perform essential operations from here.

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Use the tabs below to explore each panel available in the VPS dashboard.

Name

If you click on the more options ... button and then select Change name, you can enter a name for this VPS. This is useful for easier Control Panel navigation in case you are managing multiple VPS services but it has no impact otherwise. However, the internal name of the service remains in the format vps-XXXXX.vps.ovh.us.

Boot

The boot mode indicated is either the normal mode, in which the system loads the installed operating system (LOCAL), or the rescue mode provided by OVHcloud for troubleshooting purposes. Use the more options ... button to restart the VPS or boot it into rescue mode.

You can find further information in our rescue mode guide.

OS/Distribution

This is the operating system currently installed. Use the more options ... button to reinstall the same OS or select a different one from the available options.

NOTE: A reinstallation will erase all data currently hosted on the VPS (additional disks excluded).

If you have ordered a Windows VPS, you can only choose a Windows OS for reinstallation. Correspondingly, if Windows was not selected in the order process, it cannot be installed after the VPS is delivered.

Once an operating system is installed, you assume the responsibility to implement security updates. You can find further information below and in our guide on how to secure a VPS.

Zone & Location

These sections provide information on the location of your VPS. This might be useful, for example, to identify potential impacts on your service mentioned in incident and maintenance reports.

Model

This item shows the commercial reference which identifies the VPS model corresponding to the VPS offers on our website.

vCores / Memory / Storage

The current resources of your VPS are displayed here and can be upgraded separately by clicking on the respective button. Note that upgrades are limited by the chosen VPS model and might only be available by upscaling the service to a higher range.

To learn more about upgrading your configuration, see this guide.

Additional disks

Add additional disks to your VPS to increase your server’s storage capacity beyond that included in the initial configuration. For example, you can store backup data.

IPv4

The primary public IPv4 address of the VPS is configured automatically at installation. Find out more information about IP management in our guide on how to configure IP aliasing.

IPv6 / Gateway

Here you will find the public IPv6 address and the associated gateway address. These are automatically attached to the VPS at installation. See our guide on how to configure IPv6 for more information.

Secondary DNS

This feature is useful for hosting DNS services. Our guide on how to configure OVHcloud secondary DNS on a VPS describes it in detail.

These options refer to additional VPS services that can be ordered in the OVHcloud Control Panel. To learn more about adding additional disks, see our product page and this guide.

Snapshot

A snapshot on a VPS is an instant backup of the server’s state, which allows quick recovery of the system in the event of a problem. The Snapshot option allows you to create a manual snapshot as a singular restore point.

To learn more about snapshots, click here.

Automated backup

The Automated backup option allows you to schedule regular backups of your VPS (excluding additional disks). Compared to manual snapshots, this feature increases data security by retaining several restore points at regular intervals.

To learn more about automated backups, click here.

These sections show the most important information regarding the billing of your service. Please find all the information about this topic in the corresponding documentation.

Reinstalling and restarting your VPS

Reinstalling your VPS

You can carry out reinstallations in your Control Panel. Click the more options ... button to the right of OS/Distribution, then Reinstall my VPS.

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In the popup window, choose an operating system from the drop-down list. The options represent images compatible with an OVHcloud VPS and are immediately functional after installation.

If you have selected a compatible operating system, you can provide a public key to be installed automatically. You have two options:

Manually copy the key string and paste it into the field Your Public SSH key.
If you have previously stored a public key in your OVHcloud Control Panel, select the desired key from the drop-down menu SSH key to pre-install.

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To find out more about this topic, consult our How to create and use keys for SSH authentication guide.

If you have selected an SSH key and you do not need a password to log in, activate the option I do not wish to receive my VPS authentication codes by email.

NOTE: The reinstallation will overwrite all data on the server. We recommend taking a snapshot of your VPS before you continue so that you can return to the previous state if you encounter any issues.

Licenses

Some proprietary operating systems or platforms such as Plesk or cPanel require licenses that generate additional fees. Licenses can be managed from the OVHcloud Control Panel: Go to the Bare Metal Cloud section, then click on Licenses in the left-hand navigation.

To have a Windows operating system running on a VPS, it has to be selected in the order process. A VPS with another OS installed cannot be reinstalled with Windows in the way described above.

Please note that this process may take a few minutes.

From the OVHcloud API console:

Get the service name(s) of your VPS service(s).
GET /vps

Find the IDs of available images for your service.
GET /vps/{serviceName}/images/available

Find the OS name associated to the image ID.
GET /vps/{serviceName}/images/available/{id}

Reinstall your VPS with the new OS distribution.
POST /vps/{serviceName}/rebuild

Only the imageId is required in the Request Body.

Please note that this process may take a few minutes.

Restarting your VPS

A reboot might become necessary to apply updated configurations or to fix an issue. Whenever feasible, perform a "soft reboot" from the server's GUI (Windows, Plesk, etc.) or via the command line:

sudo reboot

However, you can force a "hard reboot" at any time in your OVHcloud Control Panel. In the Home tab, click the more options ... button next to Boot in the Your VPS section. Select Reboot my VPS.

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Click Confirm in the window that pops up.

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Logging in to your VPS

For security reasons, when you log in to your VPS for the first time, you will need to replace the password you receive via email with a strong new password. Once you have made the required changes, the interface you are using (PuTTY for example) may close automatically due to a disconnection to the server. Log in again with your new password.

When you first install or reinstall from the OVHcloud Control Panel, a user with elevated permissions is created automatically. This user will be named according to the operating system, for example, "ubuntu" or "rocky".

You will then receive an email containing the username and password needed to connect to your VPS with SSH. SSH is a secure communication protocol, used to establish encrypted connections to a remote host.

Most current desktop operating systems have an OpenSSH client installed by default. This means that your access credentials allow you to quickly establish a connection to your VPS in the appropriate command line application (Terminal, Command prompt, Powershell, etc.). Enter the following command:

ssh username@IPv4_VPS

Example:

ssh ubuntu@203.0.113.101

You can use any third-party application compatible with OpenSSH as well.

Once connected, you can replace the predefined password for the current user with a better passphrase by using this command:

passwd

On a GNU/Linux distribution, a password prompt will not display your keyboard inputs for security reasons.

Type your current password and press Enter. Enter the new passphrase and type it again at the next prompt to confirm it.

Changing password for ubuntu.
Current password:
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: password updated successfully

Activating the root user account

It is not necessary to use the "root" user account to get started with administrating your server. This account has to be enabled first in the server OS to use it. Moreover, SSH connections with the user "root" are disabled by default as a security measure.

Unless stated otherwise, all administrative actions described in our documentation can be accomplished by the default user account, i.e. typing sudo followed by the respective command.

We recommend the following steps to proceed:

Become more familiar with SSH connections by reading our guide on how to get started with SSH.
Consider using SSH keys as an advanced, more convenient method for remote connections with the help of our guide on how to create and use SSH keys.
Use our guide on how to secure a VPS to harden your system against automated brute force attacks and other common threats.

Please note that if you have selected a distribution with application (Plesk, cPanel, Docker), generic security measures might not apply to your system. We recommend referring to our guide on the first steps with preinstalled applications, as well as the official documentation of the respective publisher.

Finalize the Windows installation

After the Windows operating system is installed, you receive an email with the account name of the default Windows user.

You will then need to finish the Windows installation process by defining your display language, your keyboard layout, and your administrator password.

This is done in the VPS KVM console: Click the more options ... button next to the name of your VPS in the Your VPS panel and select KVM. Find more information about this tool in our KVM guide.

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Click here for instructions to complete the initial setup of your Windows VPS.

Local settings
Once the KVM session is established, complete the initial setup of Windows by configuring your country/region, the preferred Windows language, and your keyboard layout. Then click on the button Next at the bottom right.

Administrator password
Set a password for your Windows Administrator / admin account, confirm it, then click on Finish.

Login screen
Windows will apply your settings and then display the login screen. Click on the Send CtrlAltDel button in the top right corner to sign in.

Administrator login
Enter the Administrator password you have created in the previous step and click on the Arrow button.

Connect to the server with RDP

On your local Windows device, you can use the Remote Desktop Connection client application to connect to the VPS.

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Enter the IPv4 address of your VPS, then your username and passphrase. Usually, a warning message will appear asking to confirm the connection because of an unknown certificate. Click on Yes to log in.

You can also use any third-party application compatible with RDP. This is a requirement if your local device does not have Windows installed.

If you experience any issues with this procedure, verify that remote (RDP) connections are allowed on your device by checking your system settings, firewall rules and possible network restrictions.

Enabling Windows boot logs (optional)

Windows boot logs can be helpful for server error diagnostics.

Click here for instructions to activate boot logs.

Connect to the server

Connect to your server via a Remote Desktop or KVM session.

Open the "Run" utility
Open the Windows Start menu and click on Run.

Open "msconfig"
Enter "msconfig" and click on OK.

Activate logs
In the new window, activate the logs option next to Boot log. Click on OK.

The next time your server boots, logs will be saved into a .txt file. The file path is: C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt.

To access the log file in rescue mode, follow the instructions in the VPS rescue mode guide.

Securing your VPS

As administrator of your VPS, you are responsible for the security of the applications and data hosted on it.

Please refer to our guide on how to secure a VPS for essential advice to protect your system.

Attaching a domain name to your VPS

Securing a domain name with an SSL certificate

Making your VPS available on the web usually includes attaching a domain name to it via DNS.

Once you have configured your VPS, you may want to secure your domain name and your website as well. This will require an SSL certificate, allowing internet access to your VPS via HTTPS instead of unsecured HTTP.

You can install this SSL certificate manually, directly on the VPS. Please refer to the official documentation of your VPS distribution.

Go further

For more information and tutorials, please see our other VPS support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.