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How to Change the Operating System on a Vultr Cloud Compute Instance

Updated on November 27, 2024

Changing the instance operating system wipes all data on your server and installs a new file system. This is important when changing your default operating system while maintaining your instance's IP networking information.

Follow this guide to change the operating system on a Vultr Cloud Compute instance using the Vultr Customer Portal, API, or CLI.

  • Vultr Customer Portal
  • Vultr API
  • Vultr CLI

  1. Navigate to Products and click Compute.

    Navigate to Products in the Vultr Customer Portal

  2. Click your target Cloud Compute instance to open its management page.

    Open the Instance management panel

  3. Navigate to the Settings tab.

    Navigate to the settings tab

  4. Find and click Change OS on the left navigation menu.

    Change the instance OS

  5. Click the Choose new OS drop-down and select a new operating system to install on your instance.

    Choose a new instance OS

  6. Click Change OS to change the instance operating system.

    Select a new OS

  7. Check the Change OS confirmation prompt and click Change OS to apply the new instance changes.

    Apply the new instance OS

  1. Send a GET request to the List Instances endpoint and note the target instance's ID in your output.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"

  2. Send a GET request to the List OS endpoint to view all available operating systems and note the target OS ID.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/os" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"

  3. Send a PATCH request to the Update Instance endpoint with a new os_id value to change the instance's operating system.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances/{instance-id}" \
-X PATCH \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data '{
  "os_id" : "new-instance-os_id"
}'

  1. List all instances in your Vultr account and note the target instance's ID.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli instance list

  2. List all available operating systems and note the target OS ID.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli instance os list <instance-id>

  3. Change the target instance's operating system.

    console 
    $ vultr-cli instance os change <instance-id> --os <os_id>