Reset the root password

Forgot the root password, or inherited a server from a colleague who left without writing it down? You do not need to reinstall anything. The panel can set a new root (Linux) or Administrator (Windows) password on a running server, and your files stay exactly where they are.

Resetting from the panel

1. Open the server and go to the Advanced tab.
2. Choose Reset root password (on Windows servers it reads Reset Administrator password).
3. Type a new password or let the panel generate a strong one for you.
4. Confirm. The server restarts once so the new password can be applied.

The whole process usually takes under two minutes. Follow it in the Activity tab, where you will see the restart and a confirmation once the password has been set.

Tip: Copy the generated password into your password manager before closing the dialog. For security we show it only once.

What actually happens

The panel uses the guest agent inside your server to change the password. For this to work:

• The server must be running, or able to boot normally.
• The guest agent must still be installed. It ships with every image we provide, so it is there unless you removed it on purpose.
• On Linux, the root account must not be locked.

If any of these is missing, the reset will fail with a clear message in the Activity tab.

Doing it by hand through VNC

If the automatic reset does not work, you can still recover access using the VNC console in the Controls card. On most Linux distributions you can boot into single user mode:

1. Press Restart with the VNC console open.
2. When the GRUB menu appears, press e on the first entry.
3. At the end of the line starting with linux, add init=/bin/bash.
4. Press Ctrl+X to boot.

Then remount the disk and set a new password:

mount -o remount,rw /
passwd root
sync
reboot -f

On Windows Server, the panel reset is by far the easiest path. If it fails, open a ticket and our team will help you through recovery mode.

Prefer keys over passwords

Once you are back in, consider switching to SSH keys. They are far harder to guess and you will never need this article again:

# on your own computer
ssh-keygen -t ed25519
ssh-copy-id root@your-server-ip

After confirming that key login works, you can disable password login in /etc/ssh/sshd_config by setting PasswordAuthentication no and restarting sshd.

Still locked out?

If both the panel reset and the manual method fail, go to Support and press Open ticket. Mention the server name, the error shown in the Activity tab, and whether the VNC console shows a login prompt. That is usually enough for us to get you back in quickly.