Server Not Responding - DigitalFyre Knowledge Base

If your VPS is unreachable via SSH, HTTP, or other services, work through the following steps in order.

Step 1: Check the Power State

Stopped — Click Power On to start the server
Paused — Contact support at console.digitalfyre.com
Running — Proceed to the next step

Step 2: Check Connectivity from Your Side

Before assuming a server problem, verify the issue is not on your end:

ping YOUR_SERVER_IP
traceroute YOUR_SERVER_IP

If ping works but SSH does not, the issue is likely at the firewall or application level on the server — not a network outage.

Step 3: Connect via VNC

The VNC Console connects at the hypervisor level and is unaffected by network or SSH issues on the server. Open it from your service page and attempt to log in.

What You See	What It Means
Login prompt	Server is running — investigate firewall or SSH config via VNC
Blank / black screen	Server may be hung — try Graceful Shutdown then Power On
Kernel panic or filesystem errors	OS has crashed — power cycle the server; if it persists, restore from a backup or reinstall the OS

Step 4: Check Services via VNC

Once logged in via VNC, verify critical services are running:

# Check SSH
systemctl status sshd

# Check web server (if applicable)
systemctl status nginx
systemctl status apache2

# Check network interfaces
ip addr show

# Check if the server can reach the internet
ping 8.8.8.8

If the network interface has no IP address, the network configuration may be corrupted. Reconfigure it or restore from a backup.

Step 5: Check Resource Exhaustion

A server that is running but unresponsive may be out of resources:

# Check memory and swap
free -h

# Check disk space
df -h

# Check for runaway processes
top -bn1 | head -20

See High CPU or Memory Usage for further guidance.

Step 6: Contact Support

If you have worked through all steps and the server remains unreachable, open a support ticket at console.digitalfyre.com and include:

Your server IP address and hostname
What you have already tried
Any error messages seen in the VNC console
When the issue started

​Step 1: Check the Power State

​Step 2: Check Connectivity from Your Side

​Step 3: Connect via VNC

​Step 4: Check Services via VNC

​Step 5: Check Resource Exhaustion

​Step 6: Contact Support