Elastic VPS management — configuration and access

This page covers the operational basics for an Elastic VPS on Stack Harbor PaaS: how to configure the instance, and how to reach it once it’s running. The three access modes are SSH Gate, direct public IP (Linux), and RDP (Windows).

VPS configuration

A new Elastic VPS is added like any other layer:

1. Open the topology wizard for the environment.
2. Pick the VPS stack, choose the distribution (Linux flavours or Windows), and set the number of nodes.
3. Pick cloudlet limits — reserved for the baseline you commit to, dynamic for the upper bound the platform may allocate under load.
4. Decide whether each VPS gets its own public IP. The platform attaches one by default; you can disable that and reach the instance through SSH Gate instead.
5. Apply.

After creation, the dashboard exposes the usual surfaces on the VPS node: Settings for storage and add-ons, Config for in-place file edits, Statistics for usage history, Web SSH for an immediate console (Linux), and dashboard buttons for restart, redeploy, and backup.

Resource limits can be adjusted at any time from the topology wizard. Moving the cloudlet sliders on an existing VPS layer takes effect after a short restart cycle, the same as for a container.

Linux VPS access — SSH Gate

SSH Gate is the platform’s centralised SSH entry point. It lets you connect to any container or VPS in your account without each instance needing its own public IP. You authenticate to the gate with your account credentials and an SSH key configured under Account > SSH Keys; the gate then routes you to the target instance.

Use SSH Gate when:

• You do not want to attach a public IP to every VPS (cost or surface-area reasons).
• You want one auditable entry point in front of multiple VMs.
• You want to reach a VPS that lives in a private network without a public address.

The SSH Gate documentation page covers the exact connection string for your platform region and SSH-client configuration patterns.

Linux VPS access — direct public IP

When a VPS has a public IP attached, you can SSH to it directly:

ssh root@<public-ip>

The first time you connect, set up SSH keys, disable root password authentication, and tighten the SSH daemon to your usual baseline. Treat the VPS like any Linux VM exposed to the internet: keep packages up to date, run a firewall (firewalld or ufw, depending on distribution), and minimise the surface you expose on the public IP.

The platform’s Web SSH terminal in the dashboard is a convenient way to get a console on a new VPS before any of this is configured.

Windows VPS access — RDP

Windows VPS instances are reached over RDP. The dashboard provides the IP and the initial Administrator credentials when the instance is provisioned. Connect with any RDP client (Windows Remote Desktop, Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac, FreeRDP, etc.):

mstsc /v:<public-ip>

After the first login, change the Administrator password, configure Windows Update, and disable any local services you don’t need exposed. As with the Linux side, the platform handles the VM; the operating system inside is yours to manage.

Quick reference

Related pages

• Elastic VPS — when to pick a VPS over a container.
• Elastic VPS overview — the available distributions.
• Elastic VPS use cases — example workloads.
• Public IP and SSH Gate — the platform docs for the access primitives.