---
title: "Accessing the Portal Using SSH Instead of Session Manager"
slug: "accessing-the-portal-using-ssh-instead-of-session-manager"
tags: ["Portal", "8.3"]
updated: 2025-07-23T12:21:29Z
published: 2025-07-23T12:21:29Z
canonical: "kb.ctera.com/accessing-the-portal-using-ssh-instead-of-session-manager"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.ctera.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Accessing the Portal Using SSH Instead of Session Manager

In a situation where **Session Manager** cannot be used to log on to the portal,you can use the **SSH client**.

1. Instead of selecting **Session Manager** select the **SSH client** tab.  

![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-CM7LVMNY.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A34%3A13Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A34%3A13Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=28w3YFL%2FtlCuQLadAvrO2QeVa3xV%2BX3rOvu3TThHEHQ%3D)
2. Follow the instrructions and log in to the portal using the following command: `ssh -i "<privatekey.pem>" cloud-user@<portalPublicDns>`  

where:  

**privatekey.pem>** is the private key used when creating the instance.  

**portalPublicDns** is the public DNS, which is displayed in the instance summary.