Starting your Dedicated Server in rescue mode

Description  This page describes how to start your Dedicated Server in rescue mode through the Action panel in the Customer Portal.

Rescue mode

You can reboot your server in rescue mode if your operating system fails to boot or if you do not have access to your server anymore. Rescue mode, or LiveOS is a linux environment equipped with tools to support accessing your data. You can try to resolve the issue or back up data before performing a reinstallation. Please see Resolving server issues in Rescue Mode for support with troubleshooting.

How to start rebooting a Dedicated Server in rescue mode

Perform the following steps to start your server in rescue mode:

  1. In the Leaseweb Customer Portal click Dedicated Server.
    The Dedicated Servers overview page displays.
  2. Click the ID of the server that you want to boot into rescue mode.
    The Server Details page displays.


     
  3. Under Action, click Rescue Mode.
     
     
  4. Select the rescue image you want to boot the server with, GRML, CentOS 7 or FreeBSD.

    If your system is installed with Microsoft (R) Windows(tm) or a Linux distribution you should select GRML Linux Rescue Image or CentOS 7 Linux Rescue Image

    If you want to troubleshoot a FreeBSD installation, "FreeBSD Rescue Image" should be selected.

    If your server is AMD Sempron or Intel Celeron based, it only supports 32-bit. At this moment starting your server with an amd64 image will result in a failure. Please contact support if you are in this situation.

  5. Optionally, you can:

    1. Provide an SSH public key in the OpenSSH format. This key is placed in the /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

    2. Uncheck the "Power cycle the server" checkbox. By default a server is power cycled to start rescue mode. If you want to reboot the server yourself, the power cycle can be skipped.

    3. Provide a callback URL. When the rescue mode has launched successfully or an issue is encountered, a HTTP POST request is made to the callback URL endpoint, providing a json object with details of the rescue mode in the body. Example:

      {
          "bareMetalId": "70522",
          "createdAt": "2017-06-23T08:11:38+0000",
          "flow": "tasks",
          "isRunning": true,
          "node": "AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF!0123456789",
          "payload": {
              "jobType": "rescueMode",
              "powerCycle": true,
              "serverId": 70522
          },
          "progress": {
              "canceled": 0,
              "expired": 0,
              "failed": 0,
              "finished": 0,
              "inprogress": 1,
              "pending": 0,
              "percentage": 0,
              "total": 1,
              "waiting": 0
          },
          "status": "ACTIVE",
          "tasks": [
              {
                  "description": "send_rescue_mode_email",
                  "errorMessage": null,
                  "flow": "tasks",
                  "onError": "break",
                  "status": "INPROGRESS",
                  "statusTimestamps": {
                      "INPROGRESS": "2017-06-23T08:11:38+00:00",
                      "PENDING": "2017-06-23T08:11:38+00:00",
                      "WAITING": "2017-06-23T08:11:38+00:00"
                  },
                  "uuid": "2c215097-7da8-45fc-b08b-3a293050b8f6"
              }
          ],
          "type": "rescueMode",
          "updatedAt": "2017-06-23T08:11:38+0000",
          "uuid": "8be35658-251e-461a-bdd9-755150f44873"
      } 
  6. To start the rescue mode, click the Launch button.
  7. When the rescue mode has launched successfully, you are returned to the Server Details page. 
    A confirmation message is shown at the top right of the page.

    When the server has fully started Rescue Mode and is reachable, you will receive an email with the details of the IP address and ports that you need to connect to when accessing the server via SSH. After this, root password will be displayed in the Server Management page. The root password is uniquely generated for each Rescue Mode request.

    Note: If the password doesn't work and you have not received an email (or callback) yet, it is possible that the credentials displayed are still from an old request.
    Additionally, in Rescue Mode the server will generate a new SSH host key, used for the duration of the rescue mode. If you have accessed the server using SSH before, you may receive a warning about host key verification. This is normal.



FAQ Rescue Mode

How to restart from rescue mode to normal mode?

On the command line just type "reboot" in order to reboot the server and boot into the normal mode.

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