How to use rescue mode on Dedibox servers

Reviewed on April 22, 2025

Note

Only users who have completed the linking of their the Dedibox account to the Scaleway console are granted access to the Dedibox section within the Scaleway console. For detailed information on the migration process, please refer to our account linking documentation. If you cannot locate the Dedibox link in Scaleway's console side menu, you can use the Dedibox console to place orders, manage your Dediboxes, and access the related documentation.

Note

This documentation concerns rescue mode for Dedibox servers. To use rescue mode on Instances refer to the corresponding documentation.

Rescue mode allows you to boot a Scaleway Dedibox server from the network. It downloads a rescue operating system, that runs completely in the RAM of the server. This allows you to perform maintenance and data recovery operations, even if the machine is not reachable in normal mode.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

A Scaleway account logged into the console
Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
Configured your SSH key
Linked your Dedibox and Scaleway accounts
Ordered and installed a Dedibox server

Click Dedibox in the Bare Metal section of the Scaleway console side menu. The Dedibox dashboard displays.
Choose the server you want to reboot into rescue mode from the list. Click its name to display that server's information page.
Scroll down to the Rescue Mode section.
Click Boot in rescue mode. A pop-up displays.
Select the rescue operating system that fits your server's operating system and click Boot in rescue mode.

The server starts to reboot into rescue mode.

Note
Depending on the hardware model of the machine, the reboot may take several minutes.
Once rebooted, use a terminal application to log into the machine using SSH with the user account root:
```
ssh rescue-user@<dedibox>
```
Tip
Rescue mode uses the SSH keys registered for your Dedibox server as an authentication method. If you have lost your private key, you can access your server using the credentials displayed in the console:

You are now logged into rescue mode and able to perform maintenance actions on the machine.

Tip

Rescue mode runs completely in the RAM of the server. To access files located on the hard disk, it needs to be mounted. The disk can be mounted automatically by running mountall.sh

How to reboot into normal mode

Once the maintenance of the machine is completed, it can be rebooted back into the operating system installed on the hard disk of the server.

To reboot the server into normal mode, click Switch to normal node on the server's overview page. The server reboots on the installed system and will be available in normal mode within a few minutes.