Obtaining root access when not provided by default

On most INTROSERV VPS operating systems you log in as root. MikroTik CHR and pfSense are different: you get an admin account instead. MikroTik CHR uses admin because RouterOS is not a Linux system and has no root user. pfSense provides admin for firewall management, while the underlying FreeBSD system also has a root account.

On MikroTik CHR, admin has full RouterOS permissions. On pfSense, admin has full access to the firewall configuration. You do not need to request root access separately.

This guide also explains how to get root privileges on Linux if you log in as a regular user, for example after you created your own user and disabled root login.

The login and password of the admin account are shown in the client area. Open your VPS and go to Order Details: the Login field shows admin, and the Password field shows the password.

Info

The password in Order Details is the one set when the server was created. If you change it on the server, the client area does not update it.

MikroTik CHR

MikroTik Cloud Hosted Router runs RouterOS. RouterOS is not a regular Linux system: it has no root user and no Linux shell. All management is done through RouterOS tools.

The admin user belongs to the full group. This group includes all permissions, so admin can change any setting on the router.

You can connect as admin in three ways:

WinBox, the MikroTik application for Windows;
WebFig, the web interface, at the IP address of the VPS in a browser;
SSH, with the command ssh admin@SERVER_IP.

After the first login, change the admin password. In the RouterOS terminal, run:

/password

Enter the current password from Order Details when prompted, then enter and confirm the new password.

Tip

To give a colleague access, create a separate user with only the permissions they need. Avoid sharing the admin account.

pfSense

pfSense is a firewall based on FreeBSD. It is managed through the web interface, where you log in as admin. This account has full access to all pfSense settings.

Open the web interface at https://SERVER_IP in a browser and log in with the details from Order Details. The browser may warn about the certificate: pfSense uses a self-signed certificate by default.

If you need the command line of the system, use the console menu. It opens when you connect over SSH as admin. Select 8) Shell to open the FreeBSD shell. When SSH access is enabled, pfSense can allow both admin and root to connect, depending on the SSH settings. The admin account credentials can be used for SSH access.

SSH is disabled in pfSense by default. To enable it, open the web interface and go to System > Advanced > Admin Access. In the Secure Shell section, select Enable Secure Shell and click Save.

Warning

If you enable SSH or allow management access from the WAN, restrict the firewall rules to trusted source IP addresses. For SSH, prefer key-based authentication when possible.

To change the admin password, go to System > User Manager, edit the admin user, enter the new password and click Save.

Linux: getting root privileges with sudo

If you log in to a Linux VPS as a regular user, get root privileges with sudo. To open a root shell, run:

sudo -i

Enter the password of your current user, not the root password. The prompt changes to # when you work as root. To return to your user, run exit.

To run a single command as root without switching, put sudo before it:

sudo apt update

If you see the message that the user is not in the sudoers file, this user has no sudo rights. Log in as root, or as another user with sudo rights, and add the user to the sudo group. On Ubuntu and Debian, the group is sudo:

usermod -aG sudo USERNAME

On AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, the group is wheel:

usermod -aG wheel USERNAME

Replace USERNAME with the name of the user. The new rights take effect at the next login.

If you lost access

If you changed the admin password and cannot log in, contact INTROSERV support. Do not reinstall the server just to restore access. Reinstallation can remove the existing operating system, settings and data.