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    Remote reboot (PDU power cycle)

    How vBoxx remote power works, when to use it and when to use macOS reboot instead.

    4 min read

    How it works

    Every Mac in our data centres is wired into a managed PDU (power distribution unit). When you trigger a remote reboot from the portal, we cut power to that specific outlet, wait a few seconds, then switch it back on. Your Mac powers up normally.

    This is a hard power cycle, not a graceful shutdown. macOS doesn't flush disks, close apps or unmount volumes. Treat it as the last-resort tool when the OS is unresponsive.

    When to use it

    Good reasons:

    • The Mac is unreachable on the network and SSH/VNC don't answer.
    • A kernel panic or frozen GUI you can't recover from over SSH.
    • Stuck in a boot loop or a macOS update that has been frozen for more than 30 minutes.

    Bad reasons:

    • Restarting to apply a software update or just for a fresh start. Use sudo shutdown -r now or the Restart menu — cleaner and faster.
    • Recovering a Mac you accidentally shut down instead of restarted. A power cycle on an outlet that's already off does nothing useful — you need a physical visit. Open a ticket.

    How to do it

    1. Log in to the customer portal and open the Mac under Services.
    2. Open the Remote power card.
    3. Pick Power on, Power off or Hard reboot.
    4. Enter a short reason (required, written to the audit log).
    5. Confirm.

    After a short delay power is restored, and your Mac boots automatically — provided "Start up automatically after a power failure" is enabled in System Settings → Energy (it is by default on a vBoxx Mac, see our best practices).

    If the Mac doesn't come back within a few minutes, open a ticket. We'll check the outlet on our side and inspect the machine physically if needed.

    Rate limits and audit

    • One power action per minute per outlet.
    • Every action is logged with user, IP, user agent, reason and outcome.
    • The same actions are available through the Customer API.

    FileVault and remote reboot

    If you have FileVault enabled, a power cycle leaves the Mac at the FileVault password screen. On macOS Sequoia or older it will be unreachable. On Apple silicon + Tahoe you can SSH in to unlock — see Should I enable FileVault?.