Recover instance access after losing the private key

Before attempting recovery, create a new SSH key pair that you will use to access the instance.

The private key will remain on your computer, and the public key must be added to the instance.

You can create a key pair in one of the following ways:

1. 1
   Generate a key pair in your terminal, then import the public key.
   Generate an SSH key pair in your terminal
2. 2
   Create a key pair in the Cloud dashboard and download the private key file.
   Create and manage key pairs

This method only works  if password login is enabled on the instance.

This may be the case if:

• You set a password during instance creation using custom scripts
• You configured a password for a user account after creating the instance.

Step 1: log in to the instance console

1. 1
   Navigate to Compute > Instances.
2. 2
   Click the instance name.
3. 3
   Open the Console tab.
4. 4
   Log in using the username and password configured on the instance.

Step 2: Add a new SSH key

1. 1
   Navigate to the SSH directory.

mkdir -p ~/.ssh

cd ~/.ssh

1. 2
   Edit the authorized_keys file.

nano authorized_keys

1. 3
   Paste your new public key into the file.
   Example format:

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQC...

1. 4
   Save the file and exit the editor.

Step 3: Set the correct permissions

Ensure the SSH directory and key file permissions are secure.

chmod 700 ~/.ssh

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Step 4: Connect using the new key

You can now connect to your instance using your new private key.

Follow the steps to connect to cloud instances via SSH.

If the instance only allows SSH key authentication and no password login is configured, access cannot be recovered.

In this case you will need to:

• Create a new instance
• Restore data from backups or snapshots