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VM Ops Manager
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Getting Started

Quick Start Installation Password Vault

Daily Use

Projects & VMs Login Credentials SSH Terminal File Transfer (SFTP) Shortcuts & Command Palette Settings & Customization

Monitoring & Reporting

Monitoring Alerts & Drift Detection Monthly Reports

Advanced

Import from ~/.ssh/config Copyright & Activation Troubleshooting

Quick Start

From opening the app for the first time to your first SSH session — about ten minutes.

This page covers one full loop: create a vault, create a project, add a server, connect. If you already have ~/.ssh/config, see Import from ~/.ssh/config to skip manual entry.

1. Create a Vault

On first run, the application asks you to set a master password. This password is not stored anywhere — it only derives an encryption key using Argon2id.

No recovery mechanism. Forgetting the master password means losing all saved credentials. Store it in a password manager before proceeding.

Details: Password Vault.

2. Create Your First Project

In the left sidebar, press + to create a project. A project typically corresponds to one customer or one environment (Acme — Production, Internal, …). Each project has a color for quick visual identification in a long list.

This is the key difference from typical SSH clients: everything in the app hangs under a project, including monthly reports.

3. Add a VM

Choose project then press Add VM. You need:

FieldNotes
NameDisplay label, e.g. web-01.
HostIP address or domain name for connection.
PortSSH port, default 22.
TagOptional, used for filtering — prod, db, staging.

4. Add Credentials

A VM without credentials cannot connect. Open Manage credentials for the VM and add:

  • Password — username + password, or
  • SSH Key — paste private key content (with passphrase if the key has one).

Everything is encrypted before being written to disk. See Credentials.

5. Connect

Double-click the VM in the sidebar. The app opens a new terminal tab, establishes the SSH session, and gives you a real PTY — vim, htop, tmux all work normally.

On first connection to a server, the host key is remembered (trust on first use). If later the key changes, the app stops and warns you instead of connecting silently.

6. Enable Monitoring (Optional)

Open the VM’s Monitoring tab, choose the credentials to use for polling, and set the interval. From then on the app automatically collects CPU, RAM, disk, network, processes, and suspicious config changes — without installing anything on the server.

See Monitoring and Alerts & Drift.

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