How to connect to your Instance

Reviewed on June 23, 2025

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

How to connect to Linux Instances 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_ed25519) and your_instance_ip with the IP address of your Instance.
```
ssh -i ~/.ssh/your_private_key root@your_instance_ip
```
Tip
To find the IP address of your Instance, log into the Scaleway console and click CPU & GPU Instances in the Compute section of the side menu. A list of your Instances 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 Instance.

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 Linux Instances from Windows

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

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

Tip
To find the IP address of your Instance, log into the Scaleway console and click CPU & GPU Instances in the Compute section of the side menu. A list of your Instances and their associated IP addresses will display.
In the side menu, expand the Connection, SSH and Auth submenus, then click Credentials:
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 Instance. 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 Instance.

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 Windows Instances

Important

The steps below are valid only for Instances running Microsoft Windows as operating system.
You must have the Scaleway CLI installed and configured on your local machine to be able to retrieve your Windows administrator password.

Click CPU & GPU Instances in the Compute section of the left side menu. The Instances dashboard displays.
Select the name of the Instance you wish to connect to.
Click Get password to retrieve the password for your Instance. A popup will display a command for retrieving your initial password using the Scaleway CLI:
```
scw instance server get-rdp-password <YOUR_INSTANCE_ID> zone=<YOUR_AVAILABILITY_ZONE> key=<YOUR_PRIVATE_RSA_SSH_KEY_FILE>
```
Open a terminal and paste the command. Replace <YOUR_INSTANCE_ID>, <YOUR_AVAILABILITY_ZONE>, and <YOUR_PRIVATE_RSA_SSH_KEY_FILE> with your Instance ID, the corresponding Availability Zone, and the path to your private RSA SSH key, respectively:
```
$ scw instance server get-rdp-password e48c5e3e-f3d6-49e5-93be-eacfe4c427fd zone=fr-par-1 key=~/.ssh/id_rsa
```

The initial Administrator password will be displayed. Copy and save this password:

Username           Administrator
Password           nlW_=v->I"mWuEz
SSHKeyID           73f6f13e-0f34-45d0-a61c-463e0289b4a4
SSHKeyDescription  My RSA SSH key

Launch your Remote Desktop client and enter your Instance's IP address, the username Administrator, and the initial password.
Tip

On Windows PCs, use the built-in RDP client.

On Mac OS X, download the Microsoft RDP client.

On Linux, use your preferred remote desktop client, such as Remmina (installed by default on Ubuntu-based distributions).
Enter the username Administrator and the password, then click Login. The Windows desktop displays.

Troubleshooting connection problems

If you have any problems connecting to your Instance via SSH, refer to our dedicated troubleshooting document.