When you first log in to your VPS, you are provided with a default user account. This user is not called root, but it has root-level privileges and can perform administrative tasks using sudo.
Disclaimer:
Actions performed as the root user can affect the entire system. Use caution when running commands with elevated privileges. Enviroweb provides unmanaged VPS hosting and does not take responsibility for any damage or misconfiguration caused while using root access.
To access full root permissions and act as the root user, you can use the following command after logging in:
sudo -i
As you can see, the user has now changed from "rocky" to "root"
This command opens a root shell, giving you full administrative control over your server, just as if you had logged in directly as the root user.
Why use sudo -i?
- It allows full root access without needing the actual root account.
- It's safer than logging in as root directly, especially for day-to-day use.
- It avoids the need to prefix every command with sudo.
When you're finished:
You can return to your normal user session by typing:
exit
This will close the root shell and drop you back to your default user session.
