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How to Reinstall SSH Keys on a Vultr Cloud Compute Instance

Updated on 11 September, 2025

Learn how to add or replace SSH keys on an existing Vultr Cloud Compute instance.

SSH keys enable secure, password-free authentication for users accessing your instance over SSH. Reinstalling SSH keys resets the instance, wiping all data and reinstalls the operating system to apply the new SSH key details.

Follow this guide to reinstall SSH keys on a Vultr Cloud Compute instance using the Vultr Customer Portal, or Terraform.

Warning
Reinstalling SSH keys will wipe all data on the instance and reapply the selected SSH keys.
  • Vultr Customer Portal
  • Terraform
  1. Navigate to Products and click Compute.
  2. Click your target Vultr Cloud Compute instance to open its management page.
  3. Navigate to the Settings tab.
  4. Find and click Reinstall SSH Keys on the left navigation menu.
  5. Select the target SSH key and click Reinstall.
  6. Check the confirmation prompt and click Reinstall SSH Keys to apply the changes, reinstall the instance and enable the SSH key.

  1. Open your Terraform configuration for the existing Cloud Compute instance.

  2. Update the ssh_key_ids in the instance resource to reference the new SSH key(s).

    terraform 
    resource "vultr_ssh_key" "new_key" {
    name       = "mbp-ed25519"
    public_key = file("~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub")
}

resource "vultr_instance" "cc" {
    # ...existing fields (region, plan, os_id, label, etc.)

    ssh_key_ids = [vultr_ssh_key.new_key.id]
}

  3. Apply the configuration and observe the following output:

    Apply complete! Resources: 0 added, 1 changed, 0 destroyed.

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