How to use rescue mode on a dedicated server in France, Poland or Canada

Rescue mode is a tool on your server that allows you to boot into a temporary operating system for the purpose of diagnosing and resolving issues.

You can activate rescue mode by logging into your Client Area and go to the Services – My services and hit the button Manage Product next to the server you want.

On the new page, click on Power:

Next, click NetBoot, choose Rescue If your server has a Linux based OS, select rescue64-pro from the dropdown list. If you have a Windows server, select WinRescue and press Boot now:

then reboot your server to apply your changes. Your server will now reboot in rescue mode, and you will receive the credentials for logging in via the email address you provided. To exit rescue mode, simply change the boot mode back to Boot on the hard disk, then reboot your server.

Linux

• Using the web interface

Once your server has rebooted, you’ll receive an email with your rescue mode access credentials. The email will also contain a link to the rescue mode web interface, which will give you access to the following tests:

• Hard Drives: Checks the integrity of the server’s hard drives with SMART tests
• Processors: Checks that the server’s CPU is functioning normally
• Partitions (State): Performs verification of the drives
• Partitions (File System): Performs verification of the server’s file system
• Partitions (Explore): A file browser used to explore your files. It is not possible to edit them with this tool, but you make a backup of them
• Memory: Performs a test of the installed RAM. If the RAM is faulty, it will be shown at the end of the test

• SSH (command line)

Once your server has rebooted, you’ll receive an email with your rescue mode access credentials. After that, you should access your server via the command line in the usual way, but with the rescue mode root password (from the email we sent you) instead of the regular one.

For example :

ssh [email protected]_of_your_server
[email protected]_of_your_server password:

Most changes that you want to make to your server via SSH while in rescue mode will require you to mount a partition. This is because rescue mode has it’s own (temporary) file system, so any file system changes you make in rescue mode will be lost once you reboot the server back into normal mode.

Mounting partitions is done using the mount command in SSH, but you’ll first need to list your partitions so that you can retrieve the name of the partition you want to mount. Please refer to the following code examples:

rescue:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1305 10482381 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 1306 4800 28073587+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 4801 4865 522112+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sda 8254 MB, 8254390272 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 31488 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 31488 8060912 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Once you have the correct name of the partition you want to mount, you can mount it with the command shown below:

rescue:~# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/

Your partition will now be mounted, allowing you to perform file system operations.

If your server has a software RAID configuration, you will need to mount your raid volume (generally /dev/mdX).

Windows

Accessing WinRescue

Once your server has rebooted, you’ll receive an email with your rescue mode access credentials. To access rescue mode, you’ll need to download and install a VNC console or use the IPMI module in your Client Area.

WinRescue tools