--- title: "How to use rescue mode on a VPS" description: "Find out how to activate the OVHcloud rescue mode to troubleshoot your VPS and run system checks" url: https://docs.ovhcloud.com/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/virtual-private-servers/rescue lang: en lastUpdated: 2025-01-12 --- # How to use rescue mode on a VPS ## Objective Rescue mode is a tool provided by OVHcloud to boot your VPS into a temporary operating system. You can then access your system in order to run diagnostic tasks and resolve various issues, for example: - [Resetting your user password to regain access](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/replacing-user-password.md) - Diagnosing network problems - Repairing a broken operating system - Fixing a misconfigured software firewall - Testing disk performance If you are facing a problem with your system, performing checks in rescue mode helps to determine whether it is related to software installed on the VPS or caused by a more profound issue. Before contacting our support teams, gather test results and exclude software errors using rescue mode. :::warning If you have any services still online, rescue mode will interrupt them as the server is being rebooted into the auxiliary rescue environment. ::: **This guide explains how to boot a VPS into rescue mode in your OVHcloud Control Panel and how to use it to access your file system.** ## Requirements - A [Virtual Private Server](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/vps/) in your OVHcloud account *** ### OVHcloud Control Panel Access - **Direct link:** VPS management - **Navigation path:** Bare Metal Cloud > Virtual private servers > Select your VPS *** :::warning OVHcloud provides services for which you are responsible with regard to their configuration and management. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that they function correctly. This guide is designed to assist you in common tasks as much as possible. Nevertheless, we recommend contacting a [specialist service provider](https://partner.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/directory/) or reaching out to [our community](https://community.ovhcloud.com/community/en) if you experience any issues. ::: ## Instructions ### Activating rescue mode On the `Home ` tab, click on `... ` next to "Boot" in the section **Your VPS** . ![Rescue](/images/assets/screens/control-panel/product-selection/bare-metal-cloud/vps/cp-rescue.png) Select `Reboot in rescue mode ` from the menu and click `Confirm ` in the popup window. ### Using rescue mode After initiating the reboot, a progress bar will indicate the duration of the task. Note that this can take several minutes. :::info You will receive an automated email with the SSH credentials for rescue mode access. Please wait for the email to arrive before taking any further action. This email can also be viewed in your OVHcloud Control Panel : Click on the name associated with your NIC handle (Customer ID) in the menu bar in the top right-hand corner, then select `Service emails `. ::: :::warning Please note that if you are no longer the technical contact of the server, you will not receive the email. For more information, refer to our guide on [Managing contacts for your services](/en/guides/account-and-service-management/account-information/managing-contacts.md). ::: You will then need to [access your server via SSH](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/ssh-introduction.md), using the temporary password generated for the rescue mode. Example: ```bash ssh root@vps-x11x11xyy.vps.ovh.net ``` ```console root@vps-x11x11xyy.vps.ovh.net's password: ``` :::info Your SSH client will normally block the connection at first due to a mismatch of the ECDSA fingerprint. This is because the rescue mode uses its own temporary SSH server. To resolve this, you need to edit the file `known_hosts` of your local `.ssh` folder.\ You have two options: - **Delete the fingerprint from the file.** Your SSH client will then add a new fingerprint entry for the server when you are no longer using rescue mode. For a detailed explanation, refer to the section "Login and fingerprint" in our [SSH introduction guide](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/ssh-introduction.md). - **Temporarily disable the fingerprint.** Open the file `known_hosts` with a text editor and identify the fingerprint string of your server by its IP address. Add the character `#` at the start of the line. As a result, this line is now a "comment" and will be ignored by applications reading the file. Remember to revert this change before rebooting the VPS. ::: For most changes you make to your server via SSH while in rescue mode, you will need to mount the system partition. Once you are connected, verify the attached disks with this command: ```bash lsblk ``` The result will look similar to the following example output: ```console NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS sda 8:0 0 2.9G 0 disk └─sda1 8:1 0 2.9G 0 part / sdb 8:16 0 160G 0 disk ├─sdb1 8:17 0 159.9G 0 part ├─sdb14 8:30 0 4M 0 part └─sdb15 8:31 0 106M 0 part ``` In rescue mode, `sda` is the rescue mode disk and `sda1` is the primary rescue partition mounted on `/`. In this example, the primary disk of the VPS is `sdb` and the system partition is `sdb1` (indicated by the size). Mount this partition with the following command: ```bash mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ ``` Your files are now accessible from the mount point `/mnt`: ```bash cd /mnt ``` ```bash ls ``` You should then see your file system displayed: ```console bin boot dev etc home lib lib32 lib64 libx32 lost+found media mnt opt proc root run sbin snap srv sys tmp usr var ``` Before you can write to this partition, you need to open it for write access with the following command: ```bash chroot /mnt ``` You can now apply changes to your system, for example [reset user passwords and SSH keys](#gofurther). Once you have completed your actions in rescue mode, reboot the VPS again in the regular mode from the OVHcloud Control Panel. ![rescue mode control panel](/images/assets/screens/control-panel/product-selection/bare-metal-cloud/vps/cp-reboot.png) ### Troubleshooting boot issues If you encounter errors when rebooting a VPS, use the following procedure: - Check the KVM in the OVHcloud Control Panel for relevant information as to why the VPS is unable to start. Consult our [KVM guide](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/virtual-private-servers/using-kvm-for-vps.md) for help with this feature. - If the KVM shows that the VPS is stuck in boot or unable to find the disk, ensure you have [boot logs enabled](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/virtual-private-servers/bootlog-display-kvm.md). Relay the pertinent logs to our support teams for further investigations by [creating a support request](https://help.ovhcloud.com/csm?id=csm_get_help). [](#) ## Go further [Getting started with SSH](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/ssh-introduction.md) [Recovering server access if your user password is lost](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/replacing-user-password.md) [How to replace an SSH key pair](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/replacing-lost-ssh-key-pair.md) [Checking the file system on a VPS](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/virtual-private-servers/check-filesystem.md) Join our [community of users](https://community.ovhcloud.com/).