How to Activate an Emergency Console

If you have lost SSH access to your Cloud server, you can access it by the console in order to see what the problem is and fix it.

Activating the Console

To activate the console, find the server in your account then click the “Emergency Console” tab on your server’s management page. From there, click on the “Activate console” button.

Once the console is activated, you can connect to it via ssh:

$ ssh your_servers_ip@console.gandi.net

Once you are done using the emergency console, you can deactivate it from the same page within your account.

Emergency Console Password

The default password for the emergency console is the password you provided when creating your server.

You can change this password from the emergency console page by clicking “Change password.”

Troubleshooting

The emergency console will work if the VPS is running. The version of the console depends on the kernel version.

To get a working emergency console, you will have to update the console version in regard to the kernel. On the Gandi.net control panel, go to the advanced mode of the system disk, find below the list of corresponding consoles for the concerned kernel:

2.6.18 | xvc0
2.6.27 | tty1
2.6.32 | hvc0
2.6.36 | hvc0
3.2    | hvc0
3.10   | hvc0
grub   | hvc0
raw    | hvc0

Restart the VPS in order to apply the changes. If you change to the right console, it will work fine, you will be able to login in your virtual server.

Escape Commands and SysReq

The escape commands are available by typing simultaneously on ~? after a line return (Type Enter first):

root@ai2:~# ~?
Supported escape sequences:
  ~.  - terminate connection (and any multiplexed sessions)
  ~B  - send a BREAK to the remote system
  ~C  - open a command line
  ~R  - Request rekey (SSH protocol 2 only)
  ~^Z - suspend ssh
  ~#  - list forwarded connections
  ~&  - background ssh (when waiting for connections to terminate)
  ~?  - this message
  ~~  - send the escape character by typing it twice
(Note that escapes are only recognized immediately after newline.)

The Sysreq commands are available by typing simultaneously on CTRL + O (o, not zero) then type the letter H like HELP :

root@ai2:~#
SysRq : HELP : loglevel0-8 reBoot tErm Full kIll saK aLlcpus showMem Nice
powerOff showPc show-all-timers(Q) unRaw Sync showTasks Unmount
shoW-blocked-tasks

Replace H by the uppercase letter of the wanted command or a number for the loglevel.

To restart your VPS, for example, type CTRL + O then B.

SSH Key Fingerprint

The SSH key fingerprint for console.gandi.net is :

2d:e6:c0:48:5c:41:3b:95:81:0c:16:c1:32:a6:ef:8e