Every server, from your terminal

nd links to your Northdeck account and runs any server by its ID. Try it on the right: it's a demo account with two servers.

demo — zshnd 2.4 · demo account
Demo account acme-studio. Type a command, or tap one on the left.
Try nd servers.

Set it up once

First, download nd from the client area.

Client area → Settings → Command line
nd for macOS, Linux and WindowsA single file. Put it anywhere on your PATH.

Then link it to your account.

$ nd login
ok Linked to account acme-studio · 2 servers

Now every server you own is one command away.

$ nd servers
ID        NAME     PLAN     REGION  STATUS
nd-4821   web-01   VDS-4    fra     running
nd-4822   db-01    ND-R16   lhr     running

Commands

Every command that acts on a server takes its ID. IDs never change, even when you rename a server.

CommandWhat it does
nd loginLinks nd to your Northdeck account. You only do this once per computer.
nd serversLists every server on the account with its ID, name, plan, location and state.
nd status <id>Shows one server: state, uptime, CPU, memory and disk.
nd start <id>Powers a stopped server on.
nd stop <id>Shuts a server down cleanly. You keep paying for it, and its data stays.
nd restart <id>Stops and starts a server, and tells you how long it took.
A cream DEC VT100 terminal with its keyboard, on display at the Computer History Museum

Older than it looks

A DEC VT100 from 1978, at the Computer History Museum. The commands are new; typing one and getting an answer back is not.

IDs, not guesses

Names change and two servers can share one. An ID like nd-4821 belongs to exactly one server for its whole life, so a script that restarts nd-4821 at three in the morning restarts the right machine.

$ nd status nd-4821
web-01  nd-4821 · VDS-4 · fra
state     running
uptime    41d 6h
cpu       54%  of 4 dedicated threads
memory    5.1 / 8 GB
disk      61 / 160 GB

Deploy a server, then run it from here with nothing but its ID.

Rows of black server racks along a data centre aisle