Web Hosting - How to use SSH access

Objective

OVHcloud web hosting plans provide you with access to a storage space you can use to put your website and application files online. You can access this space via FTP or SSH credentials.

Find out how to connect and use SSH access on an OVHcloud web hosting plan.

Requirements

An OVHcloud web hosting plan with SSH access.

Warning

SSH access to an OVHcloud web hosting plan is possible from the Pro plan and above.

OVHcloud Control Panel Access

Direct link: Hosting plans
Navigation path: Web Cloud > Hosting plans > Select your web hosting plan

Instructions

To log in and use SSH access to your web hosting plan, you will need the following:

The active SSH user
The password associated with this SSH user
The SSH server address of your web hosting plan
The connection port to your web hosting plan’s SSH server

1 - Make sure that SSH access is enabled for the SSH user you have chosen

Click on the tabs below to view each of the 3 steps.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Go to the Hosting plans page, then select the web hosting plan concerned.

On the new page, the information related to your storage space will appear.

In the table, locate the SSH column to check that the SSH user (in the Login column of the table) concerned has SSH access enabled. If this is not the case, the words Disabled will appear.

If the SSH access of the user concerned is Disabled in the table, perform the following steps:

1: Click the ... button to the right of the user’s line, then Edit.
2: In the window that pops up, in the Connection protocols section, select the FTP, SFTP and SSH choice, then click Next.
3: Check the summary of the requested change, then click Confirm.

If you cannot enable it, please ensure that your OVHcloud web hosting plan has SSH access.

2 - Retrieve the information you need to log in via SSH

Click on the tabs below to view each of the 3 steps.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Go to the Hosting plans page, then select the web hosting plan concerned.

On the new page, retrieve the elements described in the following table:

Element	Description
SSH server address	Locate `SSH server`. It is in the form `ssh.clusterXXX.hosting.ovh.net` (where each of the 3 `X` corresponds to a number between `0` and `9`).
SSH server connection port	Locate `SSH port`. The default SSH port number is `22`.
Active SSH user	In the table at the bottom of the page, find them in the `Login` column. As a reminder, this user must have active SSH access.
SSH user password	If you have forgotten this password, click the `...` button to the right of the row corresponding to the user concerned in the table at the bottom of the page, then `Change password`.

3 - Log in to your Web Hosting plan’s storage space via SSH

To connect via SSH, use a terminal to interact directly with your storage space via command lines.

Info

Command terminals are installed by default on macOS, Linux and Windows 10. An older Windows environment will require the installation of software such as PuTTY or the addition of OpenSSH functionality.

There are now two ways of connecting to your web hosting plan via SSH.

Please click on your preferred connection method below to see explanations.

From a terminal

Warning

There is no superuser (or root) access via SSH on our shared hosting plans.

Once the terminal is open, use the following command, replacing the yourlogin, ssh.clusterXXX.hosting.ovh.net and 22 elements with those corresponding to your SSH credentials.

ssh yourlogin@ssh.clusterXXX.hosting.ovh.net -p 22

After sending the command, you will be prompted to enter the SSH user password.

From a software application

Once you have opened the software (e.g. PuTTY), enter your SSH connection details. Since this procedure involves several steps, we cannot detail this in this documentation. Here is a reminder of the information you will need to enter:

SSH server: Enter the SSH server address retrieved in the part 2. Depending on which software you are using, the field may be labelled as "Server address" or "Host Name".
Connection port: Enter the SSH connection port retrieved in part 2.
SSH login: Enter the SSH user. Depending on the software application you use, this field may be labelled as "Login" or "Username".
SSH user password: Enter the password associated with the SSH login.

Once you have logged in, continue to the next section.

4 - Interact with your storage space via SSH

To interact with your storage space, you will need to use commands. These have a direct meaning derived from English. Use the list below if you need to. Important: this information is not exhaustive.

Command	Meaning	Description
pwd	Print working directory	Displays the working directory you are in.
cd `arg`	Change directory	Enables you to change the working directory to the one entered, replacing `arg`.
cd `..`	Change directory	Enables you to change the working directory, one level up in the tree-view of your directories.
cd	Change directory	If you do not specify an argument, you can move to the root of your storage space (home).
ls	List	Lists the contents of your working directory. Add the attributes to modify the result of the command (like `ls -ulhG`).
chmod `right` `arg`	Change mode	Change the rights of the file or directory mentioned as an `arg` argument.
mkdir `arg`	Make directory	Enables you to create a directory with the argument name `arg`.
touch `arg`	Touch	Creates an empty file with the name mentioned in the `arg` argument, if a file with this name does not already exist.
rm `arg`	Remove	Removes the file mentioned in the `arg` argument.
rm -r `arg`	Remove	Removes the directory mentioned as an `arg` argument, as well as all of its contents, recursively.
mv `arg1` `arg2`	Move	Renames or moves an element (specified as `arg1`) to a new area (specified as `arg2`).

You can also launch a script using a specific PHP version. For example, for PHP version 7.1, use the following command. Adapt its elements to your personal situation.

/usr/local/php7.1/bin/php myscript.php

Depending on the PHP version you want to use, the runtime environment may need to be modified for compatibility reasons. Refer to our documentation "Web Hosting - Environment, PHP version, .ovhconfig" to find out more.

Info

Files and/or folders can also be copied using the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP). This protocol uses SSH protocol to securely duplicate content between:

A local computer/device and a remote server
Two remote servers

Find more information on using the scp command with our OVHcloud web hosting plans in our guide "Web Hosting - Copy files using SCP command".

Go further

Web Hosting - Environment, PHP version, .ovhconfig

For specialised services (SEO, development, etc.), contact OVHcloud partners.

If you would like assistance using and configuring your OVHcloud solutions, please refer to our support offers.

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