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Connecting

Log in to your machine over SSH on its own port once it's ready, reach servers on it, and keep long jobs running when you disconnect.

On this page

Every machine is reached at the same host, ssh.gputorent.com, on its own SSH port, and you always log in as renter with the SSH key you chose for the reservation. There are no passwords.

Find your SSH command

While the reservation is live, your SSH command is shown:

  • on the reservation's page in My Reservations, with copy buttons for it and for the file copy and port forwarding commands,
  • on your Dashboard, and
  • in the email we send when the reservation goes live.

It looks like this, with your machine's port:

bash
ssh -p 2211 renter@ssh.gputorent.com
  • The port is the machine's. Mac Studios are on 2211, 2212 and so on, and DGX Sparks on 2201, 2202 and so on. It's never 22, and a different reservation can be on a different machine and port, so always take it from the reservation page.
  • The user is always renter. It's a standard account with no admin rights. See What's allowed.
  • The instance name you chose is only your label for the reservation. It isn't part of the address.

The command isn't shown before the reservation starts or after it ends.

Wait until the machine is ready

At the start of your reservation the machine is prepared for you: the previous renter's account is removed and the machine restarts once. The reservation page shows Preparing your machine… until the machine reports that it's ready, then Your machine is ready. That usually takes a few minutes; refresh the page to check. A connection attempt before then is refused or times out.

Connect

Paste the command into a terminal (Terminal on macOS, any shell on Linux, PowerShell or Windows Terminal on Windows) and press Enter.

The first time you connect to a machine, SSH asks you to confirm its host key:

text
The authenticity of host '[ssh.gputorent.com]:2211 ([…]:2211)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:…
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

That's normal: type yes. SSH remembers one host key per [ssh.gputorent.com]:port, so each machine gets its own entry in ~/.ssh/known_hosts. A machine keeps its host key from one rental to the next, so you won't be asked again for that port.

If your private key isn't the default file, name it with -i:

bash
ssh -p 2211 -i ~/.ssh/my_other_key renter@ssh.gputorent.com

To type just ssh gpu instead, add the machine to your SSH config.

Keep jobs running when you disconnect

When your SSH session closes, the programs started in it stop too. For anything long — a download, a benchmark, a model server — run it so that it keeps going without you.

Where tmux is installed, start a session and run your job inside it:

bash
tmux new -s work        # start a session and run your job inside it
# press Ctrl-b then d to detach; the job keeps running
tmux attach -t work     # reattach later, after reconnecting

macOS doesn't include tmux, and you can't brew install it yourself. screen works the same way where it's available:

bash
screen -S work          # start a session and run your job inside it
# press Ctrl-a then d to detach
screen -r work          # reattach later

For a single command, nohup is enough:

bash
nohup python train.py > train.log 2>&1 &
tail -f train.log

Background processes end with the reservation, like everything else on the machine.

Reaching a server on the machine

Only the SSH port reaches the machine from the internet. To use a web UI or an API running on it — Jupyter, or an OpenAI-compatible server on port 8080 — forward the port through SSH:

bash
ssh -p 2211 -N -L 8080:localhost:8080 renter@ssh.gputorent.com

While that runs, http://localhost:8080 on your computer reaches port 8080 on the machine. -N means "no shell, just the tunnel"; leave the window open while you work. VS Code and Jupyter explains which port numbers go where, and how to use VS Code Remote-SSH.

Remote desktop on a Mac

A Mac Studio's desktop (Screen Sharing) is reached the same way, through an SSH tunnel to local port 5901. There's no separate VNC port. See Remote desktop on a Mac Studio.

Using another computer

The machine is set up with the one key you chose for the reservation. To connect from a second computer, either copy that key pair to it, or, once connected, add the second computer's public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the machine:

bash
echo "ssh-ed25519 AAAA… laptop-2" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

The file is erased at the end of the reservation, like everything else, so you'd add the key again next time.

Can't connect?

See Troubleshooting for refused or timed-out connections, Permission denied (publickey), host key warnings and networks that block ports other than 22.