Docs Dashboard Developers
Menu ⌃

Quickstart

Never used Metalhost before? This guide takes you from signup to a running Ubuntu VM with SSH access, entirely in the dashboard. About five minutes. Read How it works if you want the big picture first.

1. Sign in

Open app.metalhost.net and sign in with email + password, or via GitHub or Google SSO. New accounts go through a welcome wizard that creates your first project, collects a payment method, registers an SSH key, and saves a default datacenter. After it finishes you land on the project dashboard.

2. Register your SSH key

The welcome wizard prompts for this, but you can add more later: Developers → SSH keys → Add key. Give it a DNS-safe id (e.g. laptop) and paste the contents of ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub. Registered keys appear in the VM create picker — tick the ones you want baked into each VM at first boot.

3. Fund the wallet

Billing → Wallet → Top up. Pick an amount, pick card or USDC, confirm. About $21 is a comfortable starting balance — enough for a small VM running 24/7 for a month. Set up auto-recharge in the same place if you want a hands-off setup.

4. Create the VM

  1. Open Compute → Create VM and give it a name, then pick your region.
  2. In Compute, keep CPU selected, pick a class (Intel Cascade Lake), and size it with the sliders — 2 vCPU · 8 GB · 80 GB is a solid default. (Switch to GPU for an RTX 4090 — more models coming.)
  3. Under operating system, pick Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
  4. Under access, your registered SSH key is attached to the default ubuntu user — add a password if you also want console login. Toggle public IPv4 on.
  5. Click Create VM. A confirmation appears and you land on your VM list as it provisions.

The VM reaches RUNNING in ~90 seconds. The detail page shows the public IPv4 once provisioning finishes.

5. SSH in

Once the VM is RUNNING, the VM detail page shows the public IPv4 and the default user. Click Copy SSH command for a ready-to-paste line, then paste it into a terminal: 

ssh ubuntu@203.0.113.42

Prefer an in-browser session? Click Console on the same page — no public IPv4 required, no client tooling.

Something went wrong?

SymptomFix
VM stuck provisioningWait ~2 minutes. Check Compute → Operations for error details. Wallet empty is the most common cause — top up and retry.
Can't SSHVM must show RUNNING and have a public IPv4 (or use Console in-browser). Confirm your SSH key was selected at create time.
Create button disabledWallet balance too low for the quoted price. Top up under Billing → Wallet.
Region unavailableThat datacenter may be at capacity. Try again later or pick another region when available.

What's next