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Overview

The console gives you a machine’s screen and keyboard directly, the way a physical monitor would. It doesn’t depend on the machine’s network, SSH, or a public IP — which is exactly why it matters when those are what’s broken.
Navigation: Compute → Virtual Machines → open a machine → Open Console. Also available as Open Console in the row menu.

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When to reach for it

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Opening it

Open Console appears in the header of a running machine and in its row menu. It shows Opening Console… while it works, then the console appears in a new browser window sized 1024×768.
The console opens in a pop-up. If your browser blocks it you’ll see: “Pop-up blocked. Please allow pop-ups for this site.”Allow pop-ups for the Simnet console. This is the single most common reason the console “doesn’t work”, and the message is easy to miss if the block indicator is subtle in your browser.
The console is only offered for a running machine. On a stopped machine the control isn’t rendered at all — there’s no disabled button explaining itself, so its absence is the explanation. Start the machine first.
Other failures are specific:

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Logging in

Your Simnet credentials do not work here. The console is a connection to the machine’s own screen — you authenticate with an operating system account inside the machine.That means you need either a password set on an OS account, or console access already configured in the image. A machine created from a template with no password and no key genuinely has no way in, and the console cannot manufacture one.
Where the credentials come from:

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Resetting the password

If the template supports it, Reset Password on the machine’s detail page gives you a fresh password.
Reset Password requires the machine to be stopped — the button is disabled while it runs, with the tooltip “Stop the VM first to reset password”. And the new password is displayed once, after the machine starts again.So the recovery sequence is: stop the machine, reset the password, start it, capture the password immediately, then open the console. Losing that one display means resetting again.

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What the console is and isn’t

The console window is provided by the underlying platform, not built by Simnet, so it carries no Simnet chrome. Consequences worth knowing:
  • No clipboard integration. Copy and paste between your machine and the console are not wired up. Long commands have to be typed.
  • No special key helpers. There’s no on-screen affordance for key combinations the browser intercepts.
  • No session timer. Simnet imposes no timeout and shows no countdown; the underlying platform may end an idle session on its own.
Because there’s no clipboard, keep console work short: use it to fix the one thing preventing SSH — set a password, correct a network file, open a port from inside — then get back to SSH for anything substantial. Typing a long configuration file through a console is a mistake you only make once.

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Worked example: recovering a machine you can’t SSH into

The scenario: you built a machine, forgot the SSH key, and it has no password.
1

Check the template supports password reset

On the machine’s detail page, look for Reset Password. If it isn’t there, the template doesn’t support it — see the fallback below.
2

Stop the machine

Stop VM. Password reset can’t run against a running machine.
3

Reset the password

Reset Password. The job is queued; the password appears after the machine starts.
4

Start it and capture the password

Start VM. Copy the password somewhere safe the moment it appears — it’s shown once.
5

Open the console and log in

Open Console, allowing the pop-up. Log in with the OS username for your image — commonly ubuntu, rocky, debian — and the new password.
6

Fix the real problem, then leave

Add your public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys so you never need the console for this machine again:
7

Verify SSH works before closing the console

Test from your own machine while the console is still open. If SSH fails you still have a way in to investigate.
If the template supports neither password reset nor console login, the machine is not recoverable. Rebuild it — attaching a key this time — and reattach any data volumes from the old one. See Volumes.

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Before you need it

Two habits make console recovery unnecessary:Always attach an SSH key at create time. It costs one click in the wizard and removes this entire class of problem. See SSH Keys.Bake your key into your own template. Every machine from it is then reachable without remembering anything. See Templates.

Overview tab

The machine detail page these actions sit on.

SSH Keys

The way to avoid needing the console at all.

ISOs

Installing an OS, where the console is required.

Firewall Policies

A blocked port 22 is a common reason to fall back to the console.