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SSH Access & Key Management

Every NovaPod GPU instance (both Docker Pods and Root KVM VMs) includes a dedicated SSH daemon running on port 22 (or a forwarded high-port).

1. Add Your Public Key​

To enable seamless, passwordless login:

  1. Open your terminal and copy your public SSH key: 
    cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
    # or
    cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
  2. Navigate to Console -> Keys in the NovaPod dashboard.
  3. Click + New Key, paste your key, and click Save.
  4. All future instances you launch will automatically inject this key into /root/.ssh/authorized_keys.

2. Connect via Terminal​

Copy the connection command directly from your instance card:

ssh -p 22042 root@node-42.novapod.io

To simplify this, add an alias to your local ~/.ssh/config:

Host novapod
    HostName node-42.novapod.io
    Port 22042
    User root
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    ServerAliveInterval 30
    ServerAliveCountMax 5

Now you can simply run:

ssh novapod

3. Remote Development with VS Code​

You can attach your local Visual Studio Code directly to the remote GPU instance:

  1. Install the official Remote - SSH extension in VS Code.
  2. Press F1 or Cmd+Shift+P, type Remote-SSH: Connect to Host..., and select novapod (or paste the full ssh -p ... command).
  3. VS Code will install its lightweight server inside the remote instance.
  4. You can now edit files, debug code, and view GPU memory in real-time using local extensions.

4. Transferring Files (SCP & rsync)​

Upload files to instance​

rsync -avz -e "ssh -p 22042" ./my_dataset root@node-42.novapod.io:/workspace/

Download checkpoints to local machine​

rsync -avz -e "ssh -p 22042" root@node-42.novapod.io:/workspace/checkpoints ./local_checkpoints/