Console and Remote Access

QB-CRA-010 Rev 1.0 – June 2026

QuantaBox gives you two ways to reach a running VM: the built-in VNC console for graphical access, and SSH for a terminal session. This chapter covers both.

The VNC Console #

The Console tab in a VM's details panel embeds a noVNC viewer that shows the guest's live display, directly in the app. No separate VNC client is needed.

Connecting

  • The console connects automatically when the VM enters the Running state.
  • If a connection drops unexpectedly, QuantaBox auto-reconnects, retrying up to five times with increasing back-off.
  • Use Connect / Disconnect in the console toolbar to control the session manually.

Console Toolbar

ControlAction
Connect / DisconnectOpen or close the VNC session.
Ctrl+Alt+DelSend the secure attention sequence to the guest.
FullscreenExpand the console to fill the window.

The viewer scales the guest display to the panel and adjusts quality automatically for a responsive experience over the local WebSocket connection.

Note: The console listens only on the local machine. It is intended for interacting with your own VMs on your own host.

SSH Access #

For headless servers or quick terminal work, SSH is often better than the graphical console. When a VM is running with SSH port forwarding configured (see Networking), the SSH tab gives you everything needed to connect.

What the SSH Tab Provides

  • A ready-to-use SSH command, for example:
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new -p <port> <user>@127.0.0.1
  • An OpenSSH config snippet you can paste into ~/.ssh/config to define a named host:
Host <vm-name>
    HostName 127.0.0.1
    Port <port>
    User <username>
    StrictHostKeyChecking accept-new
    UserKnownHostsFile ~/.ssh/quantabox_known_hosts
    ServerAliveInterval 60
    ServerAliveCountMax 3

This uses a separate known_hosts file so it never pollutes your main SSH setup.

  • Connection files written into the VM's folder for one-click use:
  • connect.bat : a Windows batch launcher.
  • connect.tlp : a Bitvise SSH Client profile.
  • ssh_config : the OpenSSH snippet above.
  • README.md : usage notes.

Copy any of these from the SSH tab, or open the generated files directly.

Getting SSH Info from the CLI

quantabox info <vm>     # shows configuration including forwarded ports

Choosing Console vs. SSH #

Use the console when...Use SSH when...
Installing an OS or using a GUIAdministering a server or running commands
The guest has no network yetThe guest is networked with SSH running
You need keyboard combos like Ctrl+Alt+DelYou want copy/paste and scrollback in your own terminal

Security Notes #

  • The console and SSH forward bind to 127.0.0.1, so they are reachable from your host but not exposed to the wider network by default.
  • The generated OpenSSH config uses StrictHostKeyChecking accept-new, which trusts a VM's key on first connection. For long-lived or sensitive VMs, verify and pin host keys yourself.

Next Steps #

Continue to Shared Folders and USB to move files between host and guest and attach USB devices.

← ISO Library Shared Folders and USB →