The Hostwinds Cloud Agent is a suite of tools that interface with the OS inside a VPS to the API for your Cloud Control. It is essentially a command-line tool running from an SSH connection or inside a cmd or PowerShell window.
The Cloud Agent is responsible for setting the IP address, root/Administrator password, hostname, and SSH keys inside the VPS OS. It runs automatically during boot to make specific changes within Cloud Control are reflected inside the server. The Cloud Agent also sets up Cloud Backups to keep your OS software up to date.
Information and credentials to connect with your servers are provided by email upon purchase. Additionally, Hostwinds provides a VNC Console connection within a customer's portal. The VNC Console connects directly to the command line interface of the server.
Connecting to a Server to use the Cloud Agent
Note: To make full use of this article, you must log in to the Hostwinds Client Area. Additionally, this article outlines the management of an essential section in your Cloud Control portal. To access your Cloud Control portal, you will need to click on the Cloud Control dropdown on the top of the Client portal dashboard menu and then click on the Cloud Portal link.
From your Cloud Control home page, you have two ways to get the VNC, but both will come from a table showing the available cloud (VPS) products you have purchased.
You can either click on the Actions dropdown in the table and choose the Get VNC link for the specific server or click on the name of the server you wish to VNC into. Clicking on the name of the server name redirects to that individual server's page. From there, on the top right of the dashboard, click the blue Actions dropdown button. Then click the Get VNC link.
Clicking on the Get VNC link from either path launches a remote connection to the server. A pop-up window will display. To proceed with Cloud Agent commands, or anything similar, you will need to log in using the previously mentioned credentials.
After successfully logging into the server within the pop-up connection, you will be able to use Cloud Agent as well as any other commands. If connected via SSH or using Remote Desktops Powershell, the same principles apply.
