---
title: "How to Use SSH to Access Your UltraStack VPS"
description: "When running a website or server, SSH can save you time by allowing you to view, manage, and edit files from the command line interface (CLI). This guide will show you how to use SSH with your..."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/product-guides/ultrastack-one/using-ssh/
date: 2022-11-18
modified: 2025-06-09
author: "Jesse Owens"
categories: ["UltraStack ONE for WordPress"]
tags: ["Central Product Guide"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# How to Use SSH to Access Your UltraStack VPS

![How to Use SSH to Access Your UltraStack VPS](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Using-SSH-to-Access-Your-UltraStack-WordPress-VPS-Platform-i-1024x538.png)

When running a website or server, SSH can save you time by allowing you to view, manage, and edit files from the command line interface (CLI). This guide will show you how to use SSH with your [UltraStack](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/ultrastack-one-for-wordpress) server.

**Note**: We also recommend our complete guide on [Managing Your UltraStack Server](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/product-guides/wordpress-hosting/central/servers/manage-server/).

## Connect to Your Server via SSH

1. [Generate & Add SSH Key to your server](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/product-guides/wordpress-hosting/central/servers/manage-server/#ssh).
2. [Log in to InMotion Central](https://central.inmotionhosting.com/login), open your Project, then click** Manage**.
3. You can then copy your **hostname** or **IP address** to use to connect.![Copy Server Hostname and IP Address](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-copy-hostname-ip-address.png)
4. Here are some examples of how you can connect.**Connect with Hostname:** root@vps12345.inmotionhosting.com **Connect with IP Address:** root@12.34.567.89 You will then be connected to your UltraStack VPS via SSH.![Connected to Server Via SSH](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-connected.png)

## Using Your Key for SFTP

Once you’ve [generated an SSH Key ](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/product-guides/wordpress-hosting/central/servers/manage-server/#ssh)and[ added it to your server](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/product-guides/wordpress-hosting/central/servers/manage-server/#ssh), you can also use it to connect via SFTP. Here are the settings you should use.

| Option | SFTP Setting |
| --- | --- |
| Host | You can use your **Hostname** or** IP address**. You can view this in your project under the **Overview** section. |
| Username | root |
| Password | Password for the SSH Key you generated. In most cases, you should be able to leave this blank. This is due to using the public/private keys. |
| Port | 22 |

For more information, see our full guide on [Connecting With SCP and SFTP](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/ftp/connecting-scp-sftp/).

## Managing Services

In this section, we will go over the log locations and specific commands for managing services on your UltraStack VPS with InMotion Central.

### NGINX

#### Log Files

- **Access:** /var/log/nginx/access.log
- **Error: **/var/log/nginx/error.log

#### Start/Stop/Restart

- systemctl (start|stop|restart|status|reload) nginx

#### Examples:

**Start:**

systemctl start nginx

```
systemctl start nginx
```

**Stop:**

systemctl stop nginx

```
systemctl stop nginx
```

**Restart:**

systemctl restart nginx

```
systemctl restart nginx
```

**View Status:**

systemctl status nginx

```
systemctl status nginx
```

**Reload:**

systemctl reload nginx

```
systemctl reload nginx
```

#### Main Config

- /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

#### Site Config

Below is the location of your site’s NGINX configuration file. Be sure to replace vps#### with your actual VPS server number.

- /etc/nginx/conf.d/vps####.inmotionhosting.com.conf

---

### Apache

Below is the location of your site’s Apache log files. Be sure to replace vps#### with your actual VPS server number.

#### Log Files

- **Access:** /var/log/httpd/ssl-vps####.inmotionhosting.com-access.log
- **Error:** /var/log/httpd/ssl-vps####.inmotionhosting.com-error.log

#### Start/Stop/Restart

- systemctl (start|stop|restart|status|reload) httpd

**Start:**

systemctl start httpd

```
systemctl start httpd
```

**Stop:**

systemctl stop httpd

```
systemctl stop httpd
```

**Restart:**

systemctl restart httpd

```
systemctl restart httpd
```

**View Status:**

systemctl status httpd

```
systemctl status httpd
```

**Reload:**

systemctl reload httpd

```
systemctl reload httpd
```

#### Main Config

- /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

#### Site Config

Below is the location of your site’s Apache configuration file. Be sure to replace vps#### with your actual VPS server number.

- /etc/httpd/conf.d/vps####.inmotionhosting.com.conf

---

### MySQL

- systemctl (start|stop|restart|status) mysql

**Start:**

systemctl start mysql

```
systemctl start mysql
```

**Stop:**

systemctl stop mysql

```
systemctl stop mysql
```

**Restart:**

systemctl restart mysql

```
systemctl restart mysql
```

**View Status:**

systemctl status mysql

```
systemctl status mysql
```

**Reload:**

systemctl reload mysql

```
systemctl reload mysql
```

#### Main Config

- /etc/my.cnf

#### Extra Config

- /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf

---

### PHP

#### Log Files

- **Error:** /var/log/php-fpm/wordpress-error.log
- **Slow:** /var/log/php-fpm/wordpress-slow.log

#### Start/Stop/Restart

- systemctl (start|stop|restart|status) php-fpm

**Start:**

systemctl start php-fpm

```
systemctl start php-fpm
```

**Stop:**

systemctl stop php-fpm

```
systemctl stop php-fpm
```

**Restart:**

systemctl restart php-fpm

```
systemctl restart php-fpm
```

**View Status:**

systemctl status php-fpm

```
systemctl status php-fpm
```

#### Main Config

- /etc/php-fpm.conf

#### Site Config

Below is the location of your site’s PHP configuration file. Be sure to replace vps#### with your actual VPS server number.

- /etc/php-fpm.d/vps####.inmotionhosting.com.conf

---

### Redis

#### Log Files

- /var/log/redis/redis.log

#### Start/Stop/Restart

- systemctl (start|stop|restart|status) redis

**Start:**

systemctl start redis

```
systemctl start redis
```

**Stop:**

systemctl stop redis

```
systemctl stop redis
```

**Restart:**

systemctl restart redis

```
systemctl restart redis
```

#### Main Config

- /etc/redis.conf

---

### Monit

[Monit](https://mmonit.com/monit/) is an open-source tool installed to assist in monitoring and maintaining your server.

#### Log Files

- /var/log/monit.log

#### Start/Stop/Restart

- systemctl (start|stop|restart|status) monit 

**Start:**

systemctl start monit

```
systemctl start monit
```

**Stop:**

systemctl stop monit

```
systemctl stop monit
```

**Restart:**

systemctl restart monit

```
systemctl restart monit
```

**Status:**

systemctl status monit

```
systemctl status monit
```

#### Main Config

- /etc/monit.d/monitrc

#### Extra Service Config

- /etc/monit.d/{httpd,mariadb,nginx,php-fpm,redis}

#### Extra Service Commands

- monit (status|summary|report|validate)

**View Status:**

monit status

```
monit status
```

**View Summary:**

monit summary

```
monit summary
```

**View Report:**

monit report

```
monit report
```

**Validate:**

monit validate

```
monit validate
```

## Using WP-CLI

Before you can execute any WP-CLI command, you must switch to the WordPress user using the following steps.

1. Connect to your server via SSH.
2. Run the following command: su - wordpress
3. You can then use WP-CLI to manage and troubleshoot your site. More information on the available commands can be found at: [https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/](https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/)

## Logging in as the WordPress User Instead of Root

You may not wish to log in as the root user to provide your developer access to your site or simply for safety’s sake. Follow these steps to set up a new key for logging in directly as the `wordpress` user.

1. Once you’re logged in as `root`, enter the following command:`su - wordpress`
2. Enter the following command, which will create the `.ssh` directory and create a new key:`mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cd ~/.ssh/ && ssh-keygen`
3. Follow the interactive prompts to set up your new key, then enter the following command to copy it to your `authorized_keys` file and set the correct permissions (if you chose a different name for your key, replace `id_rsa` in the following command with your key file):`cat id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys && chmod 600 authorized_keys`
4. Copy the private key onto your local machine, and use the following command to log in as `wordpress` in the future, replacing the path to the private key, filename, and VPS hostname:`ssh -i /path/to/key/id_rsa wordpress@vps#####.inmotionhosting.com`

## Connecting Your IDE/Code Editor

We will now show you how to connect to your Cloud VPS using an **integrated development environment **(IDE) and code editor. For this guide, we are covering Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and Sublime Text.

### Using Visual Studio Code

You will need to download and install [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/download) before following this section of the guide. 

1. Open **Visual Studio Code**. If you are running in “Restricted Mode” when you first open VS Code, you can click **Manage** at the top and then **Trust** to enable all features.
2. Click **View,** then **Command Palette**. You can also click **Ctrl**+**Shift**+**P** to open the command palette.![Viewing the Command Palette in Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-view-command-palette.png)
3. Type “**remote**” in the search box, then click the **Remote: Install Remote Development Extensions** option.![Searching and Install Remote Development Extensions](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-install-remote-development-extensions.png)
4. You will then see the “*Remote – SSH*” option listed, click the **Install** button.![Installing Remote - SSH in Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-install-remote-ssh.png)
5. Click **View****,** then **Command Palette** again, type** remote** in the search box, and click **Remote-SSH: Connect to Host…**![Connecting to a Host with Remote-SSH in Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-remote-ssh-connect.png)
6. Enter your **SSH login info** as described above in the section on how to [Connect to Your Server via SSH](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FPAm8Qk4tt4PyMQP1VNICwrRncXeIKbKm66nObcM89Y/edit#ssh). Then click the **Enter** key.![Logging into My Server with Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-remote-ssh-login.png)Visual Studio Code will open a new window connected to your server. From there, you can create a new file, open a file, open a folder, or clone a Git repository. 
7. In this example, we are going to click **Open File** to access an Apache configuration file.![Opening a Remote File with Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-open-file.png)
8. Now I’m going to enter the path to the file I want to open, then click **OK**.![Searching for a Remote File With Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-open-file-path.png)The file will then be open; you can view or edit it as needed.![Editing a Remote File With Visual Studio Code](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-vs-code-view-edit-file.png)

### Using Sublime Text

You will need to download and install [Sublime Text](https://www.sublimetext.com/3) before following this section of the guide. 

1. Open **Sublime Text** and click **Tools**, then **Command Palette**. You could also click **Ctrl+Shift+P** to open the Command Palette.
2. Type **install** in the search box, then click **Install Package Control**.![Searching for Package Control](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-sublime-install-package-control.png)
3. You will then see a message stating “Package Control was successfully installed”. Click the **OK** button.![Package Control was Successfully Installed](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-sublime-package-control-installed.png)
4. Now go to **Tools,** then **Command Palette,** and type “package control” then click the **Install Package** option.![Installing Package Control](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-sublime-install-package.png)
5. Enter “remotesubl” in the search field, then click **RemoteSubl** from the list. Once clicked, it will be installed automatically.![Search and Install Remote Sublime - RemoteSubl](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/using-ssh-sublime-remotesubl.png)
6. Run the following commands: sudo curl -o /usr/local/bin/rmate https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aurora/rmate/master/rmate sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/rmate sudo mv /usr/local/bin/rmate /usr/local/bin/sublime
7. Log out and back into SSH and include the port, for example: ssh -R 52698:localhost:52698 root@12.34.567.89 **Important:** You must have Sublime Text **open** for the next step to work.
8. You can then open a file by using the **sublime** command. For example, I can open the NGINX access log with Sublime Text by using the following command: sublime /var/log/nginx/access.log

---

Congratulations, now you know how to use SSH to access your UltraStack VPS from InMotion Central!