# Accessing your server

You reach your server over **SSH** for a shell, or over **FTP** and **Secure File Transfer Protocol
(SFTP)** for files. Both use a **system user**: the account that owns your application's files.

This page is the short version, and links to the detail.

## 1. Your system user

Everything you do on the server happens as a system user, not as the administrator (`root`). It owns
the files of the applications under it, so working as that user keeps file ownership correct.

You can have more than one, for example a separate account per website.

## 2. Find its password

Open the host and go to the **Credentials** tab. It lists the access details per account: SSH and
FTP users with their passwords, and the database credentials.

Passwords are hidden until you click the eye icon, and every value has a copy button.

See [Credentials](../platform/hosts/credentials.md).

## 3. Or use an SSH key instead

A key is more convenient than a password and safer. Add your public key on the host's **SSH** tab,
and you can log in without typing anything. You can also require keys and switch password login off
completely.

See [SSH access](../platform/hosts/ssh.md).

## 4. For files: FTP or SFTP

You can create dedicated FTP or SFTP users, each with its own home directory, separate from your
main account. That is useful when a designer or an agency needs to reach one folder and nothing
else.

A host uses either FTP or SFTP for all of its users, not both at once.

See [FTP and SFTP access](../platform/hosts/advanced/ftp-access.md).

## Root access

You do not get root, and the server's root password is not shown. Hosted Power manages the server
itself, so that the machine keeps matching the configuration you publish.

That does not leave you stuck. Your system user may run a short list of administrator commands:
reloading PHP, Nginx or Varnish, and clearing caches. The [tscli](../api/cli.md) tool covers the
everyday operations. See
[Administrator access](../concepts/administrator-access.md) for the full list and what each one
affects.

If you need something outside that list, [Support](../platform/support.md) can do it for you.

## Related

- [Credentials](../platform/hosts/credentials.md) - where the passwords are
- [SSH access](../platform/hosts/ssh.md) - keys, password login, port
- [FTP and SFTP access](../platform/hosts/advanced/ftp-access.md) - create a file-transfer user
- [Administrator access](../concepts/administrator-access.md) - what you may run as root
- [tscli command-line reference](../api/cli.md)