ISO image: start from an installer or rescue image

You insert ISO images in your VPS's ISO image tab. A container has no drive and does not start a system from a disc; it gets another system through a reinstall.

Choose an image

Under Choose an image you find our images, sorted into Installation and Rescue and tools: official installers and rescue images we provide. Each card says how it is used: only under Graphical in the console, or in Terminal as well.

Under Fetch an image of your own you enter an https address, and we fetch the ISO image for this one server. The page names the limits (size, number per account, how long it stays); an image of your own is deleted when it is ejected. If the page says your own images will be available soon, only our images can be used for now.

Insert and start

1. 1

   Choose an image.

2. 2

   Choose the start mode

   Start from it once: the server starts from the ISO now, and from its next start in the customer area from its own disk again. Start from it first: it starts from the ISO until you eject it.

3. 3

   Press Insert and restart (on a stopped server Insert and start) and confirm by holding. The server shuts down, the image goes into the drive and the server starts from it; you see the steps as it happens.

4. 4

   Open the console under Graphical and use the image as on a screen.

Under Second drive you can add a second disc that is not started from, for example the virtio-win driver disc for Windows (Install Windows with your own licence). It goes in and comes out with the image.

Whatever is on the disk stays until an installer overwrites it. While an image is inserted, a slim line above the server's tabs shows its name and Eject. In the console, the toolbar shows the same as a drive button: there you see what is inserted, eject it, or get to this tab through Choose an image ….

Use it in Terminal

Some images also write to the console's Terminal. Many Linux installers do so after a boot option: in the boot menu usually press e, append console=ttyS0,115200 to the line with linux and start with Ctrl+X. The page says for each image whether this is needed.

Eject

• Eject and restart: the server shuts down, the ISO comes out, and it starts from its own disk.
• Eject only (on a running server): the ISO comes out at once, without a restart. From the next start the server boots from its own disk again.
• Eject (on a stopped server): the ISO comes out; nothing is started.

Install a system of your own

A system you install yourself from an ISO replaces ours: password and SSH keys from the customer area and the guest agent no longer reach it. The network values to enter in the installer are on the page under Network for a system of your own: address, gateway, DNS, MTU and the public IPv4 as an additional address, plus the same values as commands. IPv6 comes automatically.

Good to know

• While an image is inserted, reinstalling, snapshots and the rescue system are not available. Eject it first.
• While the rescue system runs, no image can be inserted.
• Every insert and eject is in the server's Activity, for an image of your own with its SHA-256 checksum.
• People you share the server with need the Reinstall and Rescue system rights for this: an installer can replace the system, and any system started from an image can read the disk.