SSH into an ephemeral service instance

You can now SSH into an ephemeral instance of your service, which Render spins up specifically for your SSH session. This enables you to inspect your service's runtime environment and execute one-off commands without affecting your production instances.

Previously, all SSH sessions connected to one of a service's running instances (except for cron jobs). This remains the default behavior.

Using version 2.19.0 or later of the Render CLI, provide the --ephemeral option to the render ssh command:

render ssh srv-abc123 --ephemeral

Render creates an ephemeral instance using the same build artifact as your running instances. It does not execute your service's start command after spinning up.

By default, the ephemeral instance uses the same instance type as the service's other instances. To use a different instance type, provide the --size option to the render ssh command:

render ssh srv-abc123 --ephemeral --size starter

As with all instances, ephemeral SSH instances are billed according to their instance type, prorated by the second. See pricing.

Learn more in the documentation.