The Maintenance card
Disk check and repair, a maintenance boot, and fix-it utilities — organised by when they can run.
The Maintenance card on the Tools tab collects tools for keeping an instance healthy. It's laid out by when each one can run, because that decides whether a button can work at all:
Disk
Check and repair the Linux filesystem from your Mac. The instance must be shut down.
Maintenance Boot
Start Linux in a minimal mode and check its disk with Linux's own tools.
While It's Running
Four fix-it utilities that run inside a running instance.
Greyed-out buttons explain themselves#
A disabled button always has a line saying why, rather than just going grey:
| You see | Why |
|---|---|
| "Shut the instance down first — a disk that's in use can't be checked safely." | Disk tools need it stopped. |
| "This instance has a hibernated session…" | Its saved memory and disk are a pair. Start it, then shut it down, before maintenance. |
| "Maintenance is already running on this disk." | One job at a time per disk. |
| "e2fsck isn't installed…" with Copy Install Command | The Mac-side check needs a free tool. See Checking a disk. |
| "Start the instance to use these." | The utilities run inside Linux. |
Results#
When a tool finishes, a coloured box appears at the bottom of the card:
| Colour | Means |
|---|---|
| Green | Healthy, or done. |
| Orange | Something needs your attention. |
| Red | It couldn't do what it was asked. |
| Blue | For your information. |
Show details opens the tool's full output; the × dismisses the box.