Your first hour with a LYLIX VPS

Your welcome email contains everything you need to sign in. This article walks through the first hour: getting in, locking the server down, and learning what the customer portal can do so you're not opening a ticket for things that already have a button.

1. Sign in over SSH

The welcome email lists three things you need:

• Your VPS's IP address (and the IPv6 if you have one)
• The root password
• The hostname you chose at order time

From a Mac or Linux terminal:

ssh root@<your-ip>

From Windows 10/11, the built-in OpenSSH client uses the same command in PowerShell or Windows Terminal. If you prefer PuTTY, enter the IP as the hostname, port 22, click Open, then provide root as the username when prompted.

The first connection will show a host-key fingerprint warning. This is expected — your local machine has never talked to this server before. Type yes to accept; from then on your local SSH client verifies the host every time and warns if it ever changes (which would only happen if you reload the OS or someone is intercepting the connection).

2. Update the system before you do anything else

Your VPS was provisioned from a current image, but security updates have likely landed since the image was built. Get current first:

Debian / Ubuntu:

apt update && apt -y full-upgrade
reboot   # if the kernel was updated

AlmaLinux / RHEL:

dnf -y upgrade
reboot   # if the kernel was updated

Wait about 30 seconds, then reconnect over SSH.

3. Set up SSH key authentication

Password auth works but isn't great long-term. Switching to key auth takes two minutes and means you'll never paste your root password again. From your local machine:

# Generate a key if you don't already have one:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519

# Copy your public key to the VPS (you'll be prompted for the
# root password one last time):
ssh-copy-id root@<your-ip>

# Verify it works without a password:
ssh root@<your-ip>

If the password-less login worked, you can optionally disable password login entirely. Read the warning before you do this: if you ever lose your SSH key, the only way back in is the browser console in the customer portal — make sure that's a reasonable fallback for you.

# Edit sshd's config:
nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Find PasswordAuthentication and set it to:
PasswordAuthentication no

# Save, then reload sshd:
systemctl reload ssh           # Debian / Ubuntu
systemctl reload sshd          # AlmaLinux / RHEL

4. Change the root password (or set a new one if you disabled passwords)

Even if you disabled password auth, set a strong root password — it's the password the browser console uses if you ever need to drop in locally. The portal's customer-portal password is sometimes used at provision time but isn't kept in sync; treat the VM's root password as its own thing.

passwd

5. Tour the customer portal

Sign in to customer.lylix.net and click your service. The product details page has tools you'll use weekly:

• Live stats panel — CPU, memory, disk, network, uptime. Hit Refresh to pull current numbers.
• Graphs tab — hourly through yearly utilization graphs drawn directly from the hypervisor. Useful for sizing questions and noticing trends.
• Console tab → Launch Console — opens a browser-based serial console in a new tab. Use this when SSH is broken (bad sshd_config, locked-out user, firewall change that locked you out, kernel panic).
• Snapshots tab — take an on-demand snapshot before a risky change, roll back in seconds if it goes wrong. Up to 3 slots per VPS.
• Rescue mode → Boot into rescue ISO — boots a SystemRescue ISO with your network already configured. Mount your root partition, chroot in, fix what broke, exit.
• Reverse DNS tab — set PTR records on your IPv4 addresses (IPv6 PTR is staff-set for now; open a ticket). Required for sending mail; useful for logs.

6. Set realistic expectations

LYLIX manages the host (the hypervisor, the network, the storage, the physical hardware). Everything inside your VPS is yours — kernel, distro, services, security updates, application config. We don't patch your guest OS or install applications for you. If you want managed hosting, this isn't the right fit.

What we will help with:

• Anything that's a platform problem (VM won't start, network unreachable, console doesn't load)
• Billing and account questions
• Pointing you at known-good guides when you're stuck on something common
• Off-hour emergencies for service-affecting issues

What's on you:

• Keeping the guest OS patched
• Off-host backups (snapshots are great for "revert this change," not for "the storage failed" — see the Backups & Recovery section)
• Whatever applications you install
• Securing what you expose to the internet

Where to go next

• If you're running mail: Setting reverse DNS
• If you'll make experimental changes: How to take a VPS snapshot before a risky change
• If you locked yourself out of SSH: Browser console: when to use it and how

Anything broken or unclear? Open a ticket from the portal — we read every one.