How to Provision Vultr VX1™ Cloud Compute Instances

1. Navigate to Products and click Compute.

2. Click Deploy.

3. Choose Dedicated CPU as the instance type.

4. Select your desired Vultr location to deploy the instance. VX1™ is available in New Jersey (ewr) and Atlanta (atl).

5. Select VX1 from the sidebar plan categories.

6. Select a plan from the available options:

   • General Purpose (vx1-g-*): Provide a balanced combination of vCPUs and memory, suitable for most workloads including web servers, application servers, development environments, container workloads, and moderate database deployments.

   • Memory Optimized (vx1-m-*): Provide a higher memory-to-vCPU ratio, ideal for workloads requiring large in-memory datasets such as caching engines, analytics workloads, JVM applications, high-memory web services, and large databases.

   Note

   Plans ending with -###s suffix (such as vx1-g-4c-16g-240s) include local NVMe storage.

7. Click Configure Software.

8. Select Boot Disk Settings:

   • Local NVMe: Boot from high-speed local NVMe storage.

   • Bootable Block Volume: Boot from Vultr Block Storage. Select an existing bootable block volume or click Create Bootable Block Volume to create a new one. When creating a bootable block volume, select the operating system, storage size, and label.

9. Select a cloud image to install on your instance based on the following options:

   • Operating System: Installs a fresh operating system image on the instance.
   • Marketplace Apps: Installs a prebuilt software stack or application and the recommended operating system image on the instance.
   • ISO/iPXE: Boots a specific ISO available or iPXE-compatible image on the instance.
   • ISO Library: Installs a specific ISO image from the Vultr ISOs library.
   • Backup: Recovers a specific backup available in your Vultr account to the instance.
   • Snapshot: Installs a specific snapshot available in your Vultr account to the instance.

10. Select optional Server Settings to apply on the instance.

    • SSH Keys: Installs a specific SSH key on the instance.
    • Startup Script: Enables a startup script to execute at deployment or a PXE script to automate the operating system installation.
    • Firewall Group: Activates a Vultr Firewall group to filter incoming network traffic on the instance.

11. Enter a new hostname in the Server Hostname field and a descriptive label in the Server Label field to identify the instance.

12. Configure Additional Features for the instance.

    • Instance Connectivity: Select how the instance connects to the internet.
      • Instance(s) with Public IP: Assigns public IP addresses directly to the instance. Under Instance Address, Public IPv4 is enabled by default. Select Public IPv6 to enable IPv6 addressing. After selecting IPv6, you can optionally deselect Public IPv4 to create an IPv6-only instance.
      • Private Instance(s) behind NAT Gateway: Routes internet traffic through a NAT Gateway in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Network. Select an existing VPC Network with a NAT Gateway or click Add VPC Network to create a new one.
    • VPC Network: Connects the instance to a VPC Network in the current location.
    • Automatic Backups: Automatically creates backups for data recovery in case of instance failures.
    • DDoS Protection: Prevents potential Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on the instance.
    • Limited User Login: Creates a linuxuser non-root user with sudo privileges as the default user account instead of root.
    • Cloud-Init User Data: Enables Cloud-Init user data to initialize and customize the instance at boot.

13. Click Deploy to provision the instance.

Use the examples below as a reference for deploying VX1™ instances using API.

Boot from Local NVMe

In this section, you create a VX1™ instance that boots directly from the high-performance local NVMe device included with -###s plans. You can rely on the default boot configuration or explicitly specify the local NVMe disk as the bootable device, depending on your deployment requirements.

Option A — Basic Local Boot (Default Local NVMe)

Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to create a VX1™ instance using local NVMe as the default boot device.

$ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    --data '{
        "region": "ewr",
        "plan": "vx1-g-4c-16g-240s",
        "label": "VX1 Local Disk Only",
        "hostname": "vx1-localonly-1",
        "os_id": 2284
    }'

Option B — Explicit Local Boot Configuration

Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to explicitly configure the local NVMe device (block_id: "local") as the boot drive.

$ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    --data '{
        "region": "ewr",
        "plan": "vx1-g-4c-16g-240s",
        "label": "VX1 Local Disk Only - Bootable",
        "hostname": "vx1-localonly-2",
        "os_id": 2284,
        "block_devices": [
        {
            "block_id": "local",
            "bootable": true
        }
        ]
    }'

Boot from Block Storage

In this section, you create a VX1™ instance that boots from a high-performance block storage volume. You can either provision a bootable block device first and attach it to a new instance or create a VX1™ instance that includes a newly provisioned bootable block volume during deployment.

Option A - Create a Bootable Block Volume and VX1™ Instance

1. Send a POST request to the Create Block Storage endpoint to create a bootable block device.

   console Copy

   $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/blocks" \
       -X POST \
       -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
       -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
       --data '{
           "region": "ewr",
           "size_gb": 50,
           "label": "Bootable Block",
           "block_type": "high_perf",
           "os_id": 2284,
           "bootable": true
       }'
   

   Explain Code

2. Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to create the VX1™ instance using the previously created bootable block volume.

   console Copy

   $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
       -X POST \
       -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
       -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
       --data '{
           "region": "ewr",
           "plan": "vx1-g-4c-16g",
           "label": "vx1-blockonly-existing-boot-block-1",
           "hostname": "vx1-blockonly-existing-boot-block-1",
           "os_id": 2284,
           "block_devices": [
           {
               "block_id": "BLOCK_UUID",
               "bootable": true
           }
           ]
       }'
   

   Explain Code

   Replace BLOCK_UUID with the UUID of your bootable block.

Option B — Create a VX1™ Instance with a New Bootable Block

Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to create the VX1™ instance and provision a new bootable block device at the same time.

$ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    --data '{
        "region": "ewr",
        "plan": "vx1-g-4c-16g",
        "label": "vx1-blockonly-new-boot-block-1",
        "hostname": "vx1-blockonly-new-boot-block-1",
        "os_id": 2284,
        "block_devices": [
        {
            "disk_size": 50,
            "label": "New Bootable Block",
            "bootable": true
        }
        ]
    }'

Replace BLOCK_UUID with the UUID of your bootable block device.

Boot from Local NVMe and Block Storage

In this section, you deploy a VX1™ instance that boots from a block storage device while also attaching the high-performance local NVMe disk for additional data storage. You can create a new bootable block volume during deployment or boot from an existing bootable block device.

Option A — New Bootable Block + Local Storage

Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to create a VX1™ instance that boots from a new bootable block device and includes local NVMe for additional data storage.

$ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    --data '{
        "region": "ewr",
        "plan": "vx1-g-4c-16g-240s",
        "label": "vx1-new-boot-block-plus-local-1",
        "hostname": "vx1-new-boot-block-plus-local-1",
        "os_id": 2284,
        "block_devices": [
        {
            "disk_size": 50,
            "label": "New Bootable Block",
            "bootable": true
        },
        {
            "block_id": "local"
        }
    ]
    }'

Option B — Existing Bootable Block + Local Storage

Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to create a VX1™ instance that boots from an existing bootable block device and includes local NVMe.

$ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
    -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
    --data '{
        "region": "ewr",
        "plan": "vx1-g-4c-16g-240s",
        "label": "vx1-existing-boot-block-plus-local-1",
        "hostname": "vx1-existing-boot-block-plus-local-1",
        "os_id": 2284,
        "block_devices": [
        {
            "block_id": "local"
        },
        {
            "block_id": "BLOCK_UUID",
            "bootable": true
        }
    ]
    }'

Replace BLOCK_UUID with the UUID of your bootable block device.

Additional Notes

• Windows operating systems are not available for VX1™ instances.
• When creating bootable block devices, you must set block_type to high_perf.