Reinstall the OS

Reinstalling erases everything on the VM's disk permanently and cannot be undone. Copy off anything you need first, or take a snapshot.

Reinstall

The VM must be running.

1. Open the VM and choose Reinstall OS.
2. Read the warning. It says this wipes the disk.
3. Select the OS image from the list. It offers the operating systems available for the VM's plan.
4. Choose Reinstall. The VM shows Reinstalling and returns to Running with a fresh install.

The plan, size and region stay exactly the same. Only the operating system and disk contents change.

The VM's IP addresses, private-network connections, floating IP and data disks all stay in place (tested on OVHcloud, including a switch from Ubuntu to Debian), and the network interfaces are set up again automatically. The fresh system does not have your old /etc/fstab, though: the data disk is attached with all its data and only has to be mounted again with the data disks guide (without mkfs). The monitoring agent lives on the root disk, but a VM that got it when it was created installs it again by itself when the reinstalled system first boots (tested). If you added the agent later, install it again from the VM page.

Access after a reinstall

You connect to the reinstalled VM the same way as a new one, with the SSH key or password that VM was created with. If you have lost those, see Console access or open a support ticket.