How to Connect to Your Cloud Mac
> Assigning you a real machine… This is a dedicated physical machine — SSH and screen sharing are already enabled at delivery.
The moment your credentials email lands, your Mac mini is already powered up and sitting in a rack, waiting. The four sections below cover the four ways in: the command line via SSH, a graphical desktop via VNC, a dedicated Windows section, and registering a self-hosted runner for CI. Reading through takes about 6 minutes; actually setting it up takes about 10.
From Order to Ready: ≈4 Minutes Total
No manual review, no waiting in line. Once payment is confirmed, the system runs through the four steps below automatically — each with a measured turnaround time.
In the dashboard, pick a model (M4 Home or M4 Pro Workstation), a billing period (day/week/month/quarter), and a node (Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong), then pay in USD via USDT-TRC20 or Visa / Mastercard / Amex (via Stripe).
The scheduler locks an available whole Mac mini from the selected node's rack and assigns it to you — a physical node handed to you directly, not a virtual machine, and never shared compute with anyone else.
The system resets automatically, creates your dedicated account, generates strong random credentials, and enables SSH remote login and screen sharing in advance — ready to connect the moment it's delivered.
A credentials email lands in your registered inbox — receiving it means delivery is complete. Your billing cycle starts from that moment, and the machine is available 365 days a year.
What's in the Credentials Email
- SSH address and port (e.g. jp-tyo-042.opsmac.com:22)
- System username and initial password
- VNC address (default port 5900) and initial password
- Node location and machine ID, handy for support tickets
Timing note: card payments (via Stripe) trigger provisioning as soon as the charge succeeds; USDT-TRC20 waits for on-chain confirmation, usually adding another 1–2 minutes. The delivery process itself is identical either way.
SSH Access: One Command to Your Mac
The command line is the fastest path in, and the foundation for CI and automation. Three steps: generate a key, upload it, connect. The full macOS command line is available — Homebrew and the Xcode command line tools are waiting for you.
1Generate a Key Locally (skip if you already have one)
ed25519 is recommended — short, fast, and secure. Run this in your local terminal (macOS / Linux / Windows PowerShell all work):
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/opsmac_m4 Generating public/private ed25519 key pair. Your public key has been saved in ~/.ssh/opsmac_m4.pub
2Upload Your Public Key
The first upload authenticates once with the initial password from the credentials email — you won't need it again afterward:
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/opsmac_m4.pub mini@<your-node-address> Number of key(s) added: 1
3Connect and Verify the Machine
Once logged in, run uname -m and you'll get arm64 back — a real Apple Silicon chip, not an emulation layer:
ssh -i ~/.ssh/opsmac_m4 mini@<your-node-address> uname -m arm64 sysctl -n hw.memsize 17179869184
- Change the initial password. Run passwd and set a strong password only you know. The initial password traveled by email, and should be treated as disposable.
- Disable password login, keep only keys. Confirm your key login works first, so you don't lock yourself out:
sudo sed -i '' 's/^#*PasswordAuthentication.*/PasswordAuthentication no/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config sudo launchctl kickstart -k system/com.openssh.sshd
- Change your VNC password too. Update it under System Settings → General → Sharing → Screen Sharing, using a password different from your SSH password.
For long sessions: if you're running builds or inference jobs, add ServerAliveInterval 30 for this host in ~/.ssh/config and use tmux alongside it — a dropped connection won't kill your task.
VNC / Screen Sharing: The Full macOS GUI
Need Xcode's interface, the Simulator, or Keychain Access? That's what screen sharing is for. macOS's native screen sharing service is already enabled at delivery — just connect with the VNC password from your credentials email.
1Connection Address
Enter <your-node-address>:5900 in any VNC client. If you're on a Mac locally, it's even simpler — press ⌘K in Finder and type:
vnc://<your-node-address>:5900
2If Screen Sharing Gets Accidentally Disabled
No reinstall needed — SSH in and bring the service back with one command:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist service loaded: com.apple.screensharing
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 1920×1080 | Good balance of clarity and bandwidth — plenty for watching builds and clicking through the UI |
| Color Depth | 24-bit | Drop to 16-bit if the network is unstable, favoring smoothness |
| Encoding | Tight / ZRLE | The two most bandwidth-efficient codecs over long-distance links |
| JPEG Quality | 6 / 9 | Text stays sharp while cutting bandwidth roughly in half |
| Clipboard Sync | Bidirectional | Copy commands or tokens locally, paste directly on the cloud machine |
Connecting to Your Mac from Windows
"Dedicated Apple Silicon Mac mini in the cloud, ready in minutes" isn't just marketing copy here — it's literally what happens: open a window on your Windows desktop, and inside it is a dedicated physical Mac mini.
Command Line: Built In, Zero Install
Windows 10 and later ship with OpenSSH built in. Open PowerShell or Windows Terminal — the ssh-keygen and ssh commands from earlier work exactly the same, with keys stored by default at C:\Users\you\.ssh\.
Graphical Desktop: Just Need a VNC Client
We recommend TigerVNC Viewer (a single portable file, no install) or RealVNC Viewer — enter <your-node-address>:5900 and your VNC password to connect. For resolution: use a fixed 1920×1080 in windowed mode; in fullscreen, pick "match local resolution" and let the client handle scaling.
Workflow Tip
Dock the VNC window on a secondary monitor and keep coding on your main screen. Handle build-heavy work over SSH, and save the graphical desktop for moments that genuinely need clicking around — this is the setup least sensitive to latency.
| Windows Key | macOS Equivalent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Win | Command ⌘ | Most VNC clients map this automatically |
| Alt | Option ⌥ | Used for special characters and common Xcode shortcuts |
| Ctrl | Control ⌃ | Ctrl+C to kill a process in Terminal still works the same |
| Ctrl+C / V | ⌘C / ⌘V | Copy/paste in the GUI uses Command — i.e. your mapped Win key |
| PrtSc | ⌘⇧3 / ⌘⇧4 | Screenshots are saved on the cloud desktop — remember to copy them back |
GitHub Actions Self-Hosted Runner: Three Steps to Go Live
Register this dedicated physical machine as a runner for your repo, and your iOS build jobs land on hardware that's entirely yours — no more waiting in a shared queue. The whole process happens inside your SSH session, in about 5 minutes.
Go to your repo or organization settings, open Actions → Runners, create a new self-hosted runner, choose macOS / ARM64, and copy the download and registration commands shown (the token is valid for one hour).
Labels are how your workflows find this machine. We recommend at least four: self-hosted,macOS,ARM64,m4; if you're running multiple machines in parallel, add a node label (like tokyo) to route jobs.
Use the official script to register it as a launchd service — it starts on boot and restarts on crash. Since the machine is available 365 days a year, your runner stays online year-round too.
./config.sh --url <your-repo-or-org-url> --token <registration-token> \ --labels self-hosted,macOS,ARM64,m4 --name m4-runner-01 √ Runner successfully added sudo ./svc.sh install && sudo ./svc.sh start √ started service
jobs: build: runs-on: [self-hosted, macOS, ARM64, m4]
A hidden perk of a dedicated physical machine: DerivedData and SPM caches stay on the local disk, so a second build is typically noticeably faster than shared hosted runners that cold-start every time. The same approach applies to Jenkins and GitLab Runner.
Security Checklist: Three Things, Ten Minutes
This machine will likely hold your signing certificates and source code soon. Ten minutes locking the door now is worth a lot more than debugging a breach later.
Keys First, Passwords Out
Follow the SSH section to disable PasswordAuthentication and keep only ed25519 key logins. Private keys never leave your local machine; give each team member their own key, and delete the matching line from authorized_keys when someone leaves.
Restrict Source IPs
If your office or home has a fixed outbound IP, tighten things up in /etc/ssh/sshd_config with AllowUsers mini@<your-outbound-IP>. If your IP isn't fixed, route through a jump host of your own first — apply the same rule to the VNC port and open it only to trusted networks.
Physical Isolation, Built In
This is a dedicated physical machine: no neighboring VM shares your CPU, memory, or disk I/O, so there's no cross-tenant side-channel attack surface, and no one else's workload can steal your performance. Storage is wiped once your rental ends — details in our Privacy Policy.
Can't connect? SSH timeouts, a black VNC screen, a runner going offline — our Troubleshooting guide has a step-by-step checklist that resolves 80% of issues in under 5 minutes. Still stuck? Email support@opsmac.com or open a ticket from the dashboard.