How to connect to your Elastic Metal server via SSH or remote desktop

Reviewed on February 24, 2025

This page shows you how to connect to your Scaleway Elastic Metal server via SSH. Thanks to the SSH key you created and uploaded, you can use a terminal application on your local computer to remotely connect to your Elastic Metal server as root. This enables you to use your server as you wish.

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
An SSH key
An Elastic Metal server

How to connect to an Elastic Metal server from OSX (Mac) and Linux

Open a terminal program.
Enter the command below into the terminal. Make sure you replace your_private_key with the filename of your private key (often id_rsa) and your_server_ip with the IP address of your Elastic Metal server.
```
ssh -i ~/.ssh/your_private_key root@your_server_ip
```
Tip
To find the IP address of your Elastic Metal server, log into the Scaleway console and click Elastic Metal in the Bare Metal section of the side menu. A list of your Elastic Metal servers and their associated IP addresses will display.
If / when prompted, allow connection to the host by typing yes, then press Enter.
```
The authenticity of host 'myhost.ext (212.47.226.35)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 4f:ba:65:cf:14:64:a7:1e:b6:07:7c:00:71:95:21:fa.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
```
You are now connected to your Elastic Metal server.

Tip
If you are new to using the Linux shell, check out our dedicated tutorial to help you take your first steps with the Linux command line.

How to connect to an Elastic Metal server from Windows

To connect to your Elastic Metal server from Windows, you will need to use a small application called PuTTY, an SSH client.

Download and install PuTTY here
Launch PuTTY on your computer. The main screen of the application displays:
Enter your Elastic Metal server's IP address in the Hostname field.

Tip
To find the IP address of your Elastic Metal server, log into the Scaleway console and click Elastic Metal in the Bare Metal section of the side menu. A list of your Elastic Metal servers and their associated IP addresses will display.
In the side menu, under Connection, navigate to the Auth sub-category. Do this by expanding Connection, then SSH, and finally clicking on Auth:
Click the Browse button and select the private key file you generated previously.
Click Open at the bottom of the screen to open a connection to the Elastic Metal server. Upon the first connection, PuTTY asks you to allow the connection to the host.
Click OK to confirm.

The terminal window displays.
Enter the username root and press Enter to authenticate against the server with your SSH key.

You are now connected to your Elastic Metal server.

Tip
If you are new to using the Linux shell, check out our dedicated tutorial to help you take your first steps with the Linux command line.

How to connect to a Windows server using remote access

To connect to your Elastic Metal server running Windows, you need to download a remote access tool. In this tutorial, we use Microsoft Remote Desktop.

Create an Elastic Metal server and choose a Windows image to run on it.
Important

Windows images are not available for the Aluminium range of Elastic Metal servers.

Make sure you save your password securely after creating your Elastic Metal server.
Download Microsoft Remote Desktop and launch it on your computer.
Note

Download Microsoft Remote Desktop for OSX.

Download Microsoft Remote Desktop for Windows.

Microsoft Remote Desktop is not available with Linux. Feel free to use any other remote desktop client to initiate your connection.
Click Add PC. A configuration page displays.
Enter your Elastic Metal server's IP address in the PC name field and click Add.
Right-click your newly added PC and select Connect.
When prompted, enter Administrateur in the Username field and the password from step 1 in the Password field.
Click Continue. You are redirected to the Windows Server Manager.

You are now connected to your Elastic Metal server running Windows.