How to Use Rescue Mode on a Dedibox Server

Reviewed on February 24, 2025

Rescue mode is a minimal operating system that can be booted on demand over the network, allowing you to recover and troubleshoot your server when it fails to boot. Use rescue mode if your Dedibox server:

• Fails to boot after a restart, possibly due to an FSCK error
• Becomes unreachable due to a firewall misconfiguration
• Does not boot after a kernel upgrade
• Fails to start following a bootloader configuration change (e.g., Grub, LILO)
• Does not boot after an operating system update
• Becomes generally unavailable on the internet after booting

We offer three types of rescue modes:

• Ubuntu
• Windows PE
• FreeBSD

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

• A Dedibox account logged into the console
• A Dedibox server

Launching rescue mode

1. Navigate to Server > Server list in the top menu of the Dedibox console.
2. Find the relevant server and click Manage.
3. Click Rescue.
4. Select the appropriate rescue mode for your server’s operating system.
5. Click Launch rescue mode to start the process.

Accessing rescue mode for Linux/FreeBSD

To access your server in Linux/FreeBSD rescue mode:

1. Connect to your server via SSH.

2. Use the login credentials provided on the server’s status page in the console. Note that it may take approximately two minutes for rescue mode to fully initialize.

   Once connected, you can operate rescue mode like a standard distribution, installing tools such as text editors or FTP clients as needed. Keep in mind that the size of the ramdisk is limited.

Accessing rescue mode for Windows

To access your server in Windows PE rescue mode:

1. Use the KVM/IP feature of your server, as it is the only way to connect in this mode.
2. Refer to the KVM/IP documentation for instructions specific to your server model.