Reinstall, apps and your own setup

You find the reinstall in your VPS or container's Reinstall tab.

Reinstall

1. 1

   Choose the system under System. The current one is marked running now; you can put it on fresh or choose another.

2. 2

   Under SSH keys the server's keys are chosen; you can add saved ones from your account (at most 10). Without keys you sign in with the new root password afterwards.

3. 3

   On a VPS, choose applications if you like (below).

4. 4

   Press the button, such as Reinstall Debian 12, and confirm by holding.

Afterwards there is a new root password, which you see once on the overview. How to sign in is in First login on a VPS.

Install apps along with it

On a VPS, under Application you can choose software that is set up in the new system after its first start, several together too: for example Docker + Compose, Nextcloud, WordPress, Uptime Kuma, a Minecraft server or an app from the catalogue (below). Just the system leaves them out.

• Each card says what it installs, how you sign in afterwards and which ports it opens. If the server has a firewall, allow these ports there.
• Some apps exist only for certain systems or from a minimum size; the card says so. Apps that use the same port or do not fit into the server together cannot be chosen together.
• The chosen apps are set up one after the other; whatever an app brings along anyway, such as Docker, is installed only once. With several apps the page shows how much memory and storage they need together.
• You follow each app's progress on the server's overview. An admin password we generate for an app is shown there and in the Apps tab exactly once; each app has its own.

Apps on the running server

In a VPS's Apps tab you set up apps from our catalogue without reinstalling: for example Vaultwarden, Forgejo, Grafana, n8n, Paperless-ngx, Umami, ntfy, Portainer, Mumble, PostgreSQL, MariaDB or Valkey. We only list apps we have set up and checked live on a test server; the date of the last check is shown with each app.

• Every app reached from outside gets its own address automatically, such as vaultwarden-k7q2mx.goodflare.me; it stays with the app on this server and goes when you remove the app. Apps with a web interface run behind a shared web entrance (Caddy) with a Let's Encrypt certificate. Instead of the automatic address you can take a name of your own on this server (created right in the tab, as many as the plan includes) or a domain of your own whose A record already points to the server's IPv4.
• There is only a limited number of certificates for new addresses under goodflare.me each week. When it is reached, the setup waits, the overview says Setting up the address and about until when, and it goes on by itself. With a domain of your own nothing waits.
• You set up TeamSpeak 3 under your own licence from TeamSpeak: free for one server with up to 32 slots and non-commercial use only. You tick the licence box for it; without the tick nothing starts. You see the privilege key for the admin rights in the tab exactly once. We do not rent out TeamSpeak servers.
• Each app gets its own random password, which you see once; there are no default passwords. For apps whose first visitor would otherwise become the admin, the browser first asks for a sign-in gate. Once you have created the app's admin account, you lift it in the tab.
• Databases only listen on the server itself; you reach them through an SSH tunnel.
• If the server's firewall does not let an app's ports through, the page says so and opens them during the setup if you wish, or later at the app with Open the ports. The server's owner may do this, or whoever manages the owner's firewalls.
• Before the setup and before an update we make a safety copy of the server. An update keeps the app's data, passwords and settings.
• Remove stops the app and keeps its data; Delete with all data removes the data too.
• The app runs on your server and belongs to you. Each app shows its licence; n8n's, for example, does not allow running it as a service for others.

Your own setup (cloud-init)

Under Your own setup (cloud-init) you give a VPS your own #cloud-config, such as packages, files or commands under runcmd. It runs after the first start as root, after the apps; the output is then in /var/log/goodflare-setup.log.

• The first line must be exactly #cloud-config; scripts are not accepted, commands go under runcmd.
• The page checks as you type whether everything is valid and says what will not run: we set up the name, network and disk ourselves.
• Wrong settings can make the server unreachable, for example if SSH, users or passwords are changed. You can then get back in through the console or the rescue system.

Containers

A container also gets a fresh system on reinstall, but no apps and no cloud-init of your own. You install software there over SSH afterwards.

When it is not possible

• With Deletion protection on, the server cannot be reinstalled. You turn it off under Settings.
• While the rescue system runs or an ISO image is inserted, no reinstall is possible.
• People you share the server with need the Reinstall right for it.