VPS - Management from the OVHcloud Control Panel

Requirements

An active VPS offer in your OVHcloud Control Panel
Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel

Some VPS features mentioned on this page are not available in OVHcloud Local Zones.

Please visit our VPS page for more information.

Instructions

Warning

NOTE: Not all VPS features mentioned on this page are available in OVHcloud Local Zones. Please visit our Local Zones page for more information.

Log in to your OVHcloud Control Panel, go to the Bare Metal Cloud section, and select your server under the Virtual Private Servers section.

This guide helps you understand the VPS management interface in the OVHcloud Control Panel, identify essential information, and use the main available actions (reinstallation, reboot, backup, configuration).

Content overview

Dashboard
Reboot your VPS
Reinstall your VPS

Dashboard

The Home tab is the main dashboard of your VPS.

It centralizes key information about the service and provides access to essential management actions.

Dashboard numbered panels

Tip

✔ Use the tabs below to explore each panel available in the VPS dashboard.

1 - Your VPS

2 - Your configuration

3 - IP

4 - Backup

5 - My offer

Name

To customize the name of your VPS, click on the more options ... button and then select Change the name. This feature is useful for easier Control Panel navigation when managing multiple VPS services. However, the internal name of the service remains in the format vps-XXXXX.vps.ovh.us.

Boot

The boot mode indicated is either:

Normal mode (LOCAL), where the server loads the installed operating system.
Rescue mode, provided by OVHcloud for troubleshooting.

Use the more options ... button to reboot the VPS or boot it into rescue mode if necesary.

You can find further information in our rescue mode guide.

OS/Distribution

This is the operating system currently installed. Use the more options ... button to reinstall the same OS or select a different one from the available options.

Warning

NOTE: A reinstallation will erase all data currently hosted on the VPS (except for additional disks).

Info

If you have ordered a Windows VPS, you can only choose a Windows OS for reinstallation. Correspondingly, if Windows was not selected in the order process, it cannot be installed after the VPS is delivered.

Once an operating system is installed, you assume the responsibility to implement security updates. You can find further information below and in our guide on how to secure a VPS.

Zone & Location

These sections provide information on the location of your VPS. This might be useful, for example, to identify potential impacts on your service mentioned in incident and maintenance reports.

Model

This item shows the commercial reference which identifies the VPS model corresponding to the VPS offers on our website.

vCores / Memory / Storage

The current resources of your VPS are displayed here and can be upgraded separately by clicking on the corresponding link. Note that upgrades are limited by the chosen VPS model and may only be available by moving to a higher range.

To learn more about upgrading your configuration, see this guide.

Additional disks

Add additional disks to your VPS to increase your server’s storage capacity beyond that included in the initial configuration. For example, you can store backup data.

IPv4

The primary public IPv4 address of the VPS is configured automatically at installation. Find out more information about IP management in our guide on how to configure IP aliasing.

IPv6 / Gateway

Here you will find the public IPv6 address and the associated gateway address. These are automatically attached to the VPS during installation. See our guide on how to configure IPv6 for more information.

Secondary DNS

This feature is useful for hosting DNS services. Our guide on how to configure OVHcloud secondary DNS on a VPS describes it in detail.

These options refer to additional VPS services for backing up and restoring your system. To learn more about adding additional disks, see our product page and this guide.

Snapshot

A snapshot on a VPS is an instant backup of the server’s state, allowing you to quickly restore the system in the event of a problem. The Snapshot option allows you to create a manual snapshot as a singular restore point.

To learn more about snapshots, click here.

Automated backup

A daily backup of the system (excluding additional disks) is created automatically and retained for 24 hours (only applicable to services purchased August 7, 2025, or later). By upgrading to the Automatic Backup Premium option, you will have the last 7 daily backups of your VPS, which you can use for mounting and restoring.

Compared to manual snapshots, this feature increases data security by creating several restore points at regular intervals.

To learn more about automated backups, click here.

VPS function available in the "Home" tab

Rebooting your VPS

A reboot might become necessary to apply updated configurations or to fix an issue.

Via the OVHcloud Control Panel

Via CLI

Via OVHcloud API

However, you can force a "hard reboot" at any time in your OVHcloud Control Panel. In the Home tab, click the more options ... button next to Boot in the Your VPS section. Select Reboot my VPS.

Getting started - Understand control panel - step 5

Click Confirm in the window that pops up.

Getting started - Understand control panel - step 6

Reinstalling your VPS

Via the OVHcloud Control Panel

Via the OVHcloud API

You can carry out reinstallations in your Control Panel. Click the more options ... button to the right of OS/Distribution, then Reinstall my VPS.

Getting started - Understand control panel - step 3

In the pop-up window, choose an operating system from the drop-down list. The options represent images compatible with an OVHcloud VPS and are immediately functional after installation.

If you have selected a compatible operating system, you can provide a public key to be installed automatically. You have two options:

Manually copy the key string and paste it into the field Your Public SSH key.
If you have previously stored a public key in your OVHcloud Control Panel, select the desired key from the drop-down menu SSH key to pre-install.

Getting started - Understand control panel - step 4

For more information on this topic, consult our guides:

If you have selected an SSH key and you do not need a password to log in, activate the option I do not wish to receive my VPS authentication codes by email.

Warning

NOTE: The reinstallation will overwrite all data on the server. We recommend taking a snapshot of your VPS before you continue so that you can return to the previous state if you encounter any issues.

Info

Licenses

Some proprietary operating systems or platforms such as Plesk or cPanel require licenses that generate additional fees. Licenses can be managed from the OVHcloud Control Panel: Go to the Bare Metal Cloud section, then click on Licenses in the left-hand navigation.

To have a Windows operating system running on a VPS, it has to be selected in the order process. A VPS with another OS installed cannot be reinstalled with Windows in the way described above.

The reinstallation process may take a few minutes.

From the OVHcloud API console:

Get the service name(s) of your VPS service(s).

GET/vps

Find the IDs of available images for your service.

GET/vps/{serviceName}/images/available

Find the OS name associated to the image ID.

GET/vps/{serviceName}/images/available/{id}

Reinstall your VPS with the new OS distribution.

POST/vps/{serviceName}/rebuild

Info
Only the imageId is required in the Request Body.

The reinstallation process may take a few minutes.

Go further

VPS FAQ

SSH Introduction

Securing a VPS

How to recover access to the server in case of lost user password

Browse all the Virtual Private Servers guides.

Browse the rest of the OVHcloud US documentation for guides on our other products and services.

Learn more about VPS on the OVHcloud US website.