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Updated May 8, 2026 The most-seen failures with Raff VMs and the fix that works in each case. If your issue isn’t here, contact support@rafftechnologies.com.

Connection problems

What’s happening: ssh: connect to host x.x.x.x port 22: Connection refused.Likely causes & fixes:
  1. Security group blocks port 22 — open the VM’s Firewall and confirm an inbound TCP/22 rule exists for your IP.
  2. SSH daemon isn’t running — open the VNC console, log in, run systemctl status ssh (Ubuntu/Debian) or systemctl status sshd (RHEL family). Start it with systemctl start ssh and persist with systemctl enable ssh.
  3. sshd is listening on a different portcat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep -i ^Port. Connect with ssh -p <port> root@… or change the rule.
What’s happening: ssh: connect to host x.x.x.x port 22: Operation timed out.Likely causes & fixes:
  1. VM not active — check the dashboard. If it’s passive, start it. If provisioning while a snapshot/backup runs, wait for it to finish (see Lifecycle states).
  2. Public IP changed — confirm the IP shown in the dashboard matches what you’re connecting to.
  3. Inside-the-VM firewallufw/iptables/firewalld may be blocking 22. Use the VNC console and disable or fix the rule (ufw allow 22, firewall-cmd --add-service=ssh --permanent).
  4. Network outage — check status.rafftechnologies.com.
What’s happening: SSH reaches the daemon but rejects the key.Fixes:
  1. Wrong keyssh -i ~/.ssh/specific_key root@… to point at the right private key.
  2. Key permissions too openchmod 600 ~/.ssh/<key> on macOS/Linux.
  3. Key not in authorized_keys on the VM — open the VNC console, log in, and append your public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys (chmod 600 and chown user:user).
  4. Password auth disabled, no key setReset password and connect over the VNC console once first to add a key.
What’s happening: RDP authenticates but the desktop never appears.Fix: Open the VNC console, send Ctrl+Alt+Del, choose Sign out, then reconnect over RDP.
What’s happening: Your client warns about a self-signed certificate.Fix: Expected. Accept and continue, or install a public CA cert inside the VM and restart the RDP service.

Disk and filesystem

What’s happening: SSH session ends immediately, or commands return No space left on device.Fix via VNC:
  1. Open the VNC console.
  2. Log in. Identify the largest paths: du -h --max-depth=1 / 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20.
  3. Common culprits: /var/log (rotate or truncate logs), /var/cache/apt (apt clean), /tmp (rm -rf /tmp/* if safe), Docker layers (docker system prune -a).
  4. If still tight, resize the disk (one-way grow), then expand the filesystem inside the VM.
What’s happening: Boot drops to emergency shell or hangs after Welcome to GRUB.Fix via VNC + single-user mode:
  1. Open the VNC console and reboot the VM (hard reboot if needed).
  2. At the GRUB menu, press e on the highlighted entry.
  3. Find the line beginning linux …. Append single (or init=/bin/bash) at the end.
  4. Press Ctrl-X to boot.
  5. Remount root read-write: mount -o remount,rw /.
  6. Edit /etc/fstab with vi and either fix or comment out the bad line.
  7. Reboot normally.
What’s happening: You attached a volume in the dashboard, but lsblk doesn’t show it.Fix:
  1. Re-scan SCSIecho "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host0/scan (Linux).
  2. Check it’s the right VM — volumes attach to a single VM at a time; make sure the dashboard shows the attachment to this VM.
  3. Expected device — virtio devices appear as /dev/vdX on Linux. See Volumes → Attach to a VM for the full mount flow.

Lifecycle and state

What’s happening: Status hasn’t moved to active after several minutes.Fix:
  1. Wait 5-10 minutes — large templates and busy regions take longer.
  2. If stuck > 10 minutes, contact support with the VM ID.
  3. If status moves to failure, the VM is non-billable — delete and recreate. If it persists, support can investigate the underlying node.
What’s happening: A previously active VM shows provisioning but SSH/RDP still works.Cause: A snapshot or backup is running. The dashboard reuses the provisioning label while the hypervisor captures state. The VM continues serving traffic the whole time.Fix: Wait for the capture to finish — snapshots are typically 1–2 minutes, backups around 3 minutes on average; both scale with the size of the disk being captured. See Lifecycle states.
What’s happening: Compute resize rejects the request.Fix: Resize requires passive state. Stop the VM, wait for passive, resize, then start.
What’s happening: Dashboard shows the new plan; OS still reports the old.Fix: Reboot the VM. RAM/CPU changes need a fresh boot to be picked up.
What’s happening: The block device is bigger but the filesystem hasn’t been told.Fix: Inside the VM:
growpart /dev/vda 1     # if partitioned (replace with your disk)
resize2fs /dev/vda1     # ext4
# or
xfs_growfs /             # xfs
See Volumes → Resize a volume for the volume case.

Networking

What’s happening: curl https://example.com hangs or returns network unreachable.Fix:
  1. Confirm the VM has a public IPv4 in the dashboard.
  2. Check inside-the-VM routing: ip route should show a default route through the gateway.
  3. Restart networking: systemctl restart systemd-networkd (or NetworkManager).
  4. Check inside-the-VM firewall (ufw status, iptables -L).
What’s happening: Your VM’s public IPv4 differs from the one you remembered.Cause: Factory reset, reinstall (rarely), or the IP was a regular ephemeral one and the VM was deleted-and-recreated.Fix: For a stable address across rebuilds, reserve a Public IP and assign it.
What’s happening: Private-IP traffic between two of your VMs doesn’t work.Fix:
  1. Confirm both VMs share the same VPC (VM detail page → Network section).
  2. Check security groups on both VMs allow the protocol/port between private IPs.
  3. Check inside-the-VM firewalls.
  4. Use private IPs, not public, for VPC-internal traffic.

Backups and snapshots

What’s happening: Schedule exists but no new backups appear.Fix:
  1. Confirm the schedule is enabled on the VM detail page → Backups tab.
  2. Time window — note the platform’s timezone vs yours.
  3. The VM must be active for backups to run; a stopped VM is skipped.
What’s happening: Snapshot returns an error or stays in failed.Fix:
  1. VM must be active — snapshots of passive VMs are not supported.
  2. Delete the failed entry and retry.
  3. If it keeps failing on the same VM, contact support with the VM ID.

Authentication and access

What’s happening: Lost the password from the original create flow.Fix: Open the VM detail page → Credentials card → Send to Email (sends the existing password). If that still doesn’t work, Reset password — generates a new one and emails it.
What’s happening: SSH key lost, password unknown, can’t log in via VNC.Fix:
  1. Reset password — the new password lands by email; use the VNC console once it arrives.
  2. If reset doesn’t work, Factory reset the VM (preserves attached volumes, snapshots, backups; wipes the OS disk).
  3. If you need the OS disk’s contents preserved, contact support with the VM ID — recovery from a backup may be possible if you have one. This is why production VMs should always run a backup schedule.

Billing

Cause: Stopped VMs (passive) keep their CPU, RAM, disk, and IP reservations and continue to be billed under their subscription term. To stop charges, delete the VM — unused subscription days are credited back to your account balance.
Cause: Downsize resizes credit the prorated difference back to your account balance, not to the original card. Check Billing → Account Balance.

Still stuck?

Contact support@rafftechnologies.com with:
  • The VM ID (from the dashboard URL or Get VM response)
  • The exact error message and timestamp
  • Steps already tried
  • Relevant logs from inside the VM (journalctl -xe, /var/log/syslog)
Last modified on May 8, 2026