Connect through a Bastion
A Bastion opens a terminal (SSH) or a desktop (Remote Desktop) on any of your servers from this panel, in your browser. It works over your private network, so a server needs no public IPv4 address, and there is nothing to install. Every session is recorded for you to replay.
Bastion is in early access. If Bastion does not offer you one yet, ask us to join.
What it costs
£8.00 a month for one Bastion, which reaches every server on your account. You pay the first month when you order. Your Bastion is ready a few minutes after that invoice is paid. It renews monthly until you delete it.
Add the Bastion key to your servers
The images we offer do not accept passwords over SSH. Your Bastion therefore
logs in with a key of its own, the Bastion key. It is shown on
your Bastion's page and saved to your account's SSH keys as
vpsgb-bastion. Add it once to each server you want to reach:
- On a server you can already log in to, run the one-line command shown on the Bastion page, as the user you will connect as.
- On a server you cannot log in to, install it from the server's Reset access tab; see Reset a password or SSH key. This restarts the server.
The private half of the key never leaves our systems. Only your Bastion uses it.
Connect
- Open the server in Servers.
- Under Connect, choose Bastion.
- Check the user name. Choose Bastion key, or A password I type if that server accepts passwords.
- Press Connect. Click in the terminal to type into it.
A password or key passphrase is typed into the terminal itself and goes to your server. It never passes through our website and is never stored.
Remote Desktop (for Windows servers) always asks for its login in the page.
Replay a session
Your Bastion's page lists every session: when it was made, which server it reached, and as which user. Choose Replay to watch one. Recordings are kept for 30 days, and only you can watch them. We open one only as part of an abuse investigation, and we tell you if we do.
Delete it
Open your Bastion and choose Delete this Bastion. Its monthly invoice stops, and its recordings are deleted with it. Your servers are not touched, apart from the firewall rules and key that let the Bastion in, which are removed.