Servers

Add a server

The three-step form explained field by field, with what to do when the connection test fails.

Before you start: have the server's address, the username and either the password or the key file in front of you. The one-page checklist is What to have ready.

Open Servers in the left sidebar and click Add server. The form has three steps and shows you where you are at the top: 1. Details → 2. Login → 3. Check & save.

Nothing is saved until the last step succeeds, and nothing on your server is changed at any point. We make one connection to prove the details work, and that is all.

Step 1 — Details

Name

Anything you will recognise: Shop website, Client A prod, Mail server. This is only a label in your list. You can change it whenever you like.

IP address or hostname

The address of the machine, for example 167.99.12.34.

Find it in your hosting dashboard or the welcome email your host sent. A domain works too — example.com — as long as that domain already points at this server. If you are not sure, use the IP address; it is never ambiguous.

Username

The login name on the server. It is prefilled with root, which is correct for most servers bought from a hosting company.

AWS Ubuntu machines use ubuntu
Amazon Linux uses ec2-user
Some Debian images use admin or debian

SSH port

Hidden by default, because it is 22 on virtually every server. If your host gave you a different number, click Change and type it.

Press Next.

Choose one of three ways to log in.

Password

The root password from your host's welcome email or dashboard.

Simplest, and right for most people. Type the password for the username you entered in step 1.

Lost it? Almost every hosting company has a Reset root password button. Use it, then come back.

Paste a key

Copy the private key text from your computer and paste it here.

For when you have a key file. Open it in a text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code), select everything, copy, and paste it into the box.

You must include the first and last lines:

-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
…many lines of letters and numbers…
-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

We check what you pasted before trying it, and tell you immediately if:

you pasted the public key by mistake (the file ending .pub) — the server needs the private one, the file without .pub;
the BEGIN or END line is missing, which usually means the copy was cut short.

Upload a key file

The .pem, id_rsa or id_ed25519 file you downloaded or created.

The same thing, but you pick the file instead of copying its contents. Use this if opening the file in a text editor sounds like a hassle. Again: not the .pub file.

Key passphrase

Only appears for the two key options, and most keys do not have one. If your key asks for a password when you use it elsewhere, that password goes here. Otherwise leave it empty.

New to keys? SSH keys explained.

Press Next.

Step 3 — Check & save

The summary

A small table repeats what you entered — the server name, username@address, and which login method you chose. Each row has a Change link that takes you back to fix it. Your password and key are never shown back to you.

Notes (optional)

Up to 2,000 characters of anything you want to remember about this server:

Hosts example.com · deploy with PM2 · don't reboot during business hours

Notes appear in red on the server's card, so they are hard to miss before someone does something drastic. They are stored in DevOps Agent only — nothing is written to your server.

Test and save

Click Test and save. We make exactly one SSH connection.

It works → the server is saved and appears in your list. A first health check runs straight away.
It fails → nothing is saved. You get a plain-English explanation of what went wrong, a short list of things to check, and a button back to whichever step most likely holds the mistake.

When the test fails

The message tells you which of these it was. Full detail and fixes: When a server will not connect.

What you see	Usually means
We couldn't reach the server	Wrong IP, server switched off, or a firewall in the way
Nothing is listening on that port	Wrong port, or SSH is not running
That address doesn't exist	A typo, or a domain that does not point here
The server refused this username and password	Wrong username, wrong password, or the server only takes keys
The server refused this key	The server does not know this key, or it belongs to a different username
This key is protected by a passphrase	Fill in the passphrase field
This isn't a private key we can read	Partial paste, or the `.pub` file

After it is saved

Your server appears as a card on the Servers page with a status badge and six numbers. A first health check runs immediately, then automatically every 15 minutes. See Server health.

Click the name to open the workspace — thirteen tabs covering everything from restarting a service to reading the nginx error log.

Editing a server later

Click the ⋮ menu on the card and choose Edit. Editing shows every field on one page rather than three steps.

Changing only the name or notes saves instantly and never touches the server.
Changing the address, username or login is tested first, exactly like adding — a failed test means nothing is saved and your old working details are still there.
Leave the password or key box empty to keep what is already stored.

Removing a server

⋮ → Remove. This deletes what DevOps Agent stored about the server — the connection details, notes and health history. Your actual server is untouched and keeps running. The activity log of past actions is kept.

If a team member worked on that server, also check on the server itself for things they may have left behind: their entry in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, any Linux user created for them, and any scheduled jobs they added.

Who can add servers

Owners and Admins only. Operators and Viewers can use servers that already exist but cannot add, edit or delete them, and can never see a stored password or key. See Roles.