# Use the serial console

> Reach your server's console from the browser when SSH won't connect, log in with a password, and fix the usual lockouts.

Source: https://vpsnine.com/help/serial-console · Updated: 2026-10-10

The serial console is the server's own terminal, the one you'd see on a screen plugged into a physical machine. It doesn't go through the server's network, so it works when SSH doesn't: after a firewall rule that shut you out, a broken `sshd_config`, a network change that went wrong, or a boot that stops before the network comes up.

## Set a password while you still can

The console logs you in with a password, not an SSH key. New servers have SSH key login for root and no root password, so the console has nothing to accept until you set one. Do it now, over SSH:

```bash
passwd root
```

If you log in as your own user and use `sudo`, set that user's password instead with `passwd`. Make it long and keep it in your password manager. This doesn't turn on password logins for SSH; the console and SSH are configured separately.

## Open it

In the panel, open the server and choose **console**. The server has to be running. A terminal opens in the page and says `connected` within a few seconds.

If the screen stays blank, press **Enter**. The console only shows what the server writes to it, and the login prompt it printed before you connected won't appear again until you ask for it.

The console is in the panel only. The [vps9 CLI](https://vpsnine.com/help/install-the-vps9-cli) doesn't have a console command.

## Limits

- One console per server at a time. If it's open in another tab, close that one first.
- A session closes after 15 minutes with no typing and no output, and after 2 hours whatever you're doing. The page tells you why it closed and offers a **reconnect** button, which starts a new session in the same window.
- Paste less than 64 KiB at a time. A bigger paste closes the session.
- We don't keep what you type or what the server prints. The server's event list records that a console session ran, how long it lasted, how many bytes went each way and why it closed.
- Full-screen programs like `nano`, `htop` and `less` work, but the server doesn't know the size of your browser window. If they look cramped, set it with `stty rows 40 cols 120`, using numbers that fit.

## Common fixes

- **A firewall rule locked you out.** If it's the [panel firewall](https://vpsnine.com/help/server-firewall), change it in the panel; you don't need the console at all. If it's `ufw` on the server, log in on the console and run `ufw allow OpenSSH`, or `ufw disable` while you sort the rules out.
- **sshd won't start after an edit.** `sshd -t` prints the line it doesn't like. Fix it, then run `systemctl restart ssh`.
- **The network config is broken.** `ip a` shows what the interface has now. On Ubuntu, the config is under `/etc/netplan/`, and `netplan try` applies a change and rolls it back after two minutes unless you confirm it. On Debian 12 it's usually `/etc/network/interfaces`.
- **The disk is full.** Run `df -h` to see which filesystem, then `du -xh / | sort -h | tail` to find what's using it.

If the page says the server's console did not answer, check that the server is running, then press **reconnect**. If it still shows nothing after you reboot the server from the panel, [open a support ticket](https://my.vpsnine.com/support/new?category=server) for that server.