First steps on a macOS server: Screen Sharing and SSH

A HyperDC macOS VPS or VDS is a complete Mac in our data center. You use its desktop through Screen Sharing and its command line through SSH. This guide connects you from any computer and prepares the Mac for development work.

Before you start

• Your connection details from the welcome email: the address of your Mac, the user name and the password.
• A client: Screen Sharing on a Mac (built in), a VNC viewer on Windows or Linux, and an SSH client (built into Windows 10 and 11, macOS and Linux).
• In the examples, replace 203.0.113.10 with your Mac's address and alex with your user name.

Step 1: Open the desktop with Screen Sharing

Verify: the macOS desktop appears and you can open apps. Choose Apple menu › About This Mac to check the macOS version.

Step 2: Connect over SSH

Remote Login (SSH and SFTP) is the faster way to run commands and copy files:

ssh alex@203.0.113.10

Verify: you get a shell prompt. Check the system and the free disk space:

sw_vers
df -h /

If the connection is refused, open the desktop, go to System Settings › General › Sharing and turn on Remote Login. Then add your key as described in SSH keys; ssh-copy-id works with macOS too.

Step 3: Change your password

Change the password from the welcome email in the desktop session: System Settings › Users & Groups, select the info button next to your user name, then Change, enter the old and new password and select Change Password. This also updates your login keychain, which code signing and saved credentials rely on.

Verify: sign out of Screen Sharing and sign in again with the new password.

Step 4: Install updates

Check for macOS updates in System Settings › General › Software Update, or over SSH:

softwareupdate --list
sudo softwareupdate --install --all --restart

The second command installs all available updates and restarts the Mac when needed, which ends your sessions. Plan larger macOS upgrades around the Xcode version you need: check Apple's Xcode system requirements first.

Verify: softwareupdate --list reports that no new software is available.

Step 5: Keep the Mac awake

A build server must not go to sleep. Check the power settings and turn system sleep off:

pmset -g
sudo pmset -a sleep 0

Verify: pmset -g shows sleep 0. Graphical tests and some keychain prompts also need a logged-in desktop session; our macOS CI guide explains how to keep one.

Step 6: Install the developer tools

For command-line tools such as git, clang and make:

xcode-select --install

For the full Xcode, sign in with your Apple Account in the App Store app, or download the version you need from Apple's developer website. Open it once to finish its first-launch setup, then point the command-line tools at it:

sudo xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app
xcodebuild -version

Verify: xcodebuild -version prints the Xcode version and build number.

Troubleshooting

Screen Sharing asks for a password and rejects it. Use your macOS user name and password, not the VNC password. If your viewer only offers a VNC password field, enable the VNC password option on the Mac first, or use another viewer.

The screen stays black or freezes. Disconnect and reconnect. If the Mac seems to hang, connect over SSH and check the load with top -l 1 | head -n 10.

SSH: Connection refused. Remote Login is off. Turn it on in System Settings › General › Sharing.

The disk is full after installing Xcode. Remove Xcode versions you no longer need, clear old DerivedData folders in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData and delete unavailable simulators.

Next steps

• What your plan includes and how the macOS lines differ: macOS VPS and VDS.
• Turn the Mac into a build machine: macOS server for iOS CI.
• Use keys instead of passwords: SSH keys.