Instance console ¶

Last changed: 2024-04-17

Accessing the console ¶

You can access a graphical console for your instances from the Console tab in the Instances panel. For this to be meaningful, you must configure a user and a password in your instance, as most images come with unconfigured passwords, relying on ssh keys for authentication.

Dashboard console access

Console limitations ¶

The web-based console offered in the dashboard is the last resort to be considered and is not suited for any productional use. Instead, we recommend that you use standard remote protocols for accessing the instances depending on the operating system running on your instance.

Example remote protocols ¶

Depending on use case and operating systems used, here are some suggestions you may consider for accessing your instances:

Protocol	Description
Secure shell (ssh)	Secure shell is always available by default in linux based instances. It’s command based, and does not offer a graphical console. Authenication is key based.
Virtual Network Computer (vnc)	VNC is a platform independent method to access a remote machine with graphical console. Clients and servers are available on most operating systems. This protocol is used by ubuntu’s remote desktop function.
x2go (x2go)	X2Go gives remote access to the Linux graphical user interface. It’s very easy to configure, as it runs over the SSH protocol. In fact, it works out of the box after installation. It’s session based, so you can resume your work after a disconnect. Clients are available on all operating systems.
Team Viewer (teamviewer)	Team Viewer is proprietary protocol offering remote control of a remote machine. Clients and servers are available for many operating systems
Remote Desktop Protocol (rdp)	RDP is a proprietary protocol from Microsoft, and while clients are available for most systems the server is exclusivly Windows based.

Please note that all the above-mentioned protocols require you to modify or create security groups. In addition, Linux-based cloud images will not have a graphical console installed by default. If you want to use a graphical console, you need to install the appropriate packages.