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Reinstall / rebuild the OS

Wipe your Victus VPS and reinstall a fresh Ubuntu template from the control panel, including how to back up first and what survives.

reinstallrebuildreimageubuntutemplatefresh install

Rebuilding reimages your VPS from a clean OS template. It is the fastest way to recover from a broken configuration, a compromised machine, or an experiment that got out of hand. Victus VPS ships Ubuntu templates and lets you rebuild from the panel.

This erases everything

A rebuild wipes the entire disk — files, databases, installed packages, users. There is no undo. Take a snapshot or copy your data off the machine first.

Before you rebuild

  1. 1Create a snapshot from the VPS Snapshots view (see the "Create and restore snapshots" article) so you can roll back if needed.
  2. 2Copy any important data off the box — for example with scp or rsync to your machine or to Victus Drive (https://drive.victuscloud.com).
  3. 3Note down anything you configured manually (firewall rules, cron jobs, environment variables) since these will be gone.
bash
# Pull a folder off the VPS before wiping it
scp -r root@YOUR_VPS_IP:/var/www ./vps-backup-www

# Or sync a directory
rsync -avz root@YOUR_VPS_IP:/etc/nginx ./vps-backup-nginx

Rebuild from the panel

  1. 1Open the VPS at control.victuscloud.com.
  2. 2Go to the VPS Settings view and choose the reinstall / rebuild action.
  3. 3Pick the OS template (e.g. an Ubuntu LTS release) and, if offered, set a new root password or SSH key for the fresh install.
  4. 4Confirm. The machine powers off, the disk is reimaged, and it boots into the clean OS.

SSH host key will change

After a rebuild your first SSH connection will warn about a changed host key. Remove the old fingerprint with ssh-keygen -R YOUR_VPS_IP and reconnect.

Your IP stays the same

A rebuild keeps the same IPv4/IPv6 allocation and resource plan — only the operating system and disk contents are replaced.

Related in VPS

First login over SSH (find your IP + root password)Locate your Victus VPS IP address and root password in the control panel, then connect over SSH from Windows, macOS or Linux for the first time.Reset the root passwordChange your Victus VPS root password from inside the machine, or reset it from the panel or rescue mode if you are locked out.Open firewall ports (ufw)Use ufw on your Victus Ubuntu VPS to open the ports your apps need — web, game and custom services — without locking yourself out of SSH.Cannot connect / SSH connection refusedDiagnose and fix the common reasons an SSH connection to your Victus VPS is refused, times out, or rejects your password/key.Resize the disk after an upgradeAfter upgrading your Victus VPS plan the virtual disk grows, but Linux needs the partition and filesystem expanded to actually use the new space.Create and restore snapshotsTake point-in-time snapshots of your Victus VPS before risky changes and roll back to them from the panel if something breaks.Boot into rescue modeBoot your Victus VPS into a rescue environment to repair a broken boot, fix fstab, reset the root password, or recover files when the OS will not start.Mount a custom ISOAttach and boot your Victus VPS from a custom ISO to install an operating system that is not offered as a stock template.IPv6 networking basicsUnderstand and configure the IPv6 address on your Victus VPS — find your address, test connectivity, and bind services to IPv6.Install a one-click appDeploy common software on your Victus VPS in minutes using the one-click app installer in the control panel.Check CPU/RAM/disk usageMonitor CPU, memory and disk usage on your Victus VPS from the panel graphs and with standard Linux commands to spot bottlenecks.Add a swap fileAdd a swap file to your Victus VPS to survive memory spikes and avoid the OOM killer when RAM is tight.