Become the root user and select a password

Last updated 15th October 2018

Objective

To perform certain administrative functions on your server (e.g. installing packages), you'll need to have a high level of user access. On Linux servers, this access is called "root".

This guide will show you how to become the root user and create a password for the root account.

Requirements

• a Public Cloud project activated
• access to the OVH Control Panel

Instructions

Changing the root password

First, establish an SSH connection to your server.

At the command line, enter a password for the admin user (for security reasons, the password will not be shown as you type it):

~$ sudo passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated 
successfully

Update repositories (Debian/Ubuntu)

To update the installed software packages on your server, type the following command at the command line:

~$ sudo apt-get update

Update the system (CentOS/Fedora)

To update your server's operating system, type the following command at the command line:

~$ sudo yum update

Edit a configuration file

~$ sudo vi /etc/hosts.allow

Become root

To become the root user, type the following command at the command line:

~$ sudo su -
~#

Next, enter the root password.

Go further

Join our community of users on https://community.ovh.com/en/.

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