Open the Remote Console (KVM / IPMI) on Your Server: Portal and API

Method 1: In the portal

Bare-metal servers: the remote console

1. Log in at amoni.app, open Servers and click the server.
2. Click Console in the header or open the Console tab. Both lead to the same panel.
3. Your public IP is pre-filled with the address you're browsing from. Check it. If you'll be opening the console from another network, or a VPN is about to come up, fix it now.
4. Leave Console mode on Standard. Only switch to Web if Standard turns out not to work with this server's controller. The troubleshooting section tells you how to spot that.
5. Click Launch Console. The session takes a few seconds to prepare.
6. When the panel turns green and shows Console session active with a link, click the link and the console opens in a new tab. The line below it repeats which address the session lets in.

What opens is a Server Console page, with the server's name and a Connected badge in the header, a CTRL + ALT + DEL button and the machine's screen from power-on onward, BIOS and boot loader included. On most of our hardware, that screen is the controller's own viewer running inside the page, and its menu bar (Virtual Media, Macro, Power Control and so on) runs along the top of the window. The small toolbar on the left is part of the page, not the viewer: keyboard, clipboard, full screen, settings, disconnect.

A black screen usually means the server is powered off. Use Start in the portal header (see reboot and power) or the viewer's own Power Control menu.

Boot from an installer or rescue image (virtual media)

The console can hand the server an image from our library as though someone had plugged in a USB drive or a DVD. Use it to run an installer we don't offer as an automated reinstall, to boot a live system and repair or copy data, or to run a vendor utility. The state of the installed system doesn't matter.

1. In the viewer's menu bar, open Virtual Media → Virtual Storage.
2. On the Device1 tab, set Logical Drive Type to ISO File and click Open Image.
3. Choose an image from the library. You'll find current installers (AlmaLinux, Ubuntu Server, Proxmox VE), a recovery image, netboot.xyz for anything else that boots over the network, and vendor tools like the Intel network boot utility. Click Open.
4. Click Plug in, then OK. The image is attached now, and the server sees it as a new removable drive.
5. Reboot the server (viewer Power Control → Reset, or Reboot in the portal), then open the one-time boot menu during power-on. That's F11 on most of our machines. Pick the virtual drive from the list. It shows up as a USB or CD-ROM entry next to the installed disks and the network boot entries.
6. Once you're finished, go back to Virtual Storage and click Plug Out. Otherwise the next reboot won't go back to the disk.

An operating system installed this way is a manual install. Nothing sets the hostname, keys or reverse DNS for you, and the portal won't know which OS is on the machine until you tell it. If your image is one we support, the automated reinstall is quicker and keeps a record of everything.

Bare-metal servers: management interface access

This sits further down the same tab. Only use it if the console above doesn't work with your hardware, or if you need the controller's own interface.

1. Check Your public IP. The same rule applies as above.
2. Choose Keep open for, anywhere from one to four hours. When the time's up, the session closes on its own.
3. Click Open management access.
4. The panel shows Access is open with a link to the management interface, a username, and a “view it once” link for the password. Open that link right away and copy the password. You only see it once, and it expires with the session.
5. When you're done, click Close access now instead of waiting for it to expire.

You log in with a temporary operator account made just for this session. It's never the controller's administrator, and it's gone as soon as the session closes.

Cloud instances

1. Go to Virtual Machines and click the instance.
2. Click Console in the header. It works in every power state, stopped included, since a VM that won't boot is exactly the one you need it for.
3. A new tab opens with the console. Its link works once and is valid for one minute, so if a pop-up blocker stopped the tab, allow pop-ups for amoni.app and click Console again.

Cloud consoles aren't locked to an address. The single-use link is what protects them. You're looking at the instance's serial terminal, which is text only, and that's why a Linux instance gives you a login prompt instead of a desktop. Log in with the root password (see reset the root password if you don't have it). Booting images works differently on cloud instances, and we'll document that flow separately once it's in the portal.

Method 2: With the API

Console sessions are made for a browser, so all the API does is hand you a launch URL, which you then open wherever you're sitting. Your key needs the Servers scope (servers.write) or the VMs scope (vms.write). Reference: api.amoni.app/v1/docs.

Bare metal: remote console

Pass in the public address that will open the console. The API can't work it out for you, because the machine making the API call is rarely the one with the browser.

MY_IP=$(curl -s https://api.ipify.org)
curl -s "https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/console?authorized_ip=$MY_IP&mode=standard" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "available": true,
    "console_url": "https://console.amoni.app/s/7f3a9c2e1b/kvm",
    "mode": "standard",
    "authorized_ip": "198.51.100.77"
  }
}

Open console_url in a browser on 198.51.100.77. For mode, use standard (default) or web.

Bare metal: management interface access

curl -s -X POST https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/bmc-access \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"authorized_ip": "198.51.100.77", "hours": 2}'

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "url": "https://bmc-4821.access.amoni.app",
    "expires_at": "2026-09-15 17:30",
    "authorized_ip": "198.51.100.77",
    "operator_user": "op-7f3a9c",
    "credentials_url": "https://amoni.app/secret/9Qk2mX"
  }
}

hours takes 1 to 4, with 3 as the default. The password is not in the response. Instead, credentials_url shows it once and then expires with the session, so fetch it immediately and put it somewhere safe. When you're finished, close the session:

curl -s -X DELETE https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/bmc-access \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

{ "success": true, "data": { "message": "Remote access closed." } }

Closing a session that isn't open doesn't count as an error. You'll just get the message “No remote access session to close.”

Cloud instances

curl -s -X POST https://api.amoni.app/v1/vms/990204/411/console \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

{ "success": true, "data": { "launch_url": "/api/v2/portal/pve-launch/Xk29...a1" } }

The launch URL is relative to the portal, so open https://amoni.app + launch_url. It works once and expires after 60 seconds. Mint it when you're ready to click, and not a moment earlier.

What the API will tell you