Reinstalling the OS and choosing a template

Reinstalling the OS in VMmanager 6 is how you put a clean system template on your VPS — Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and others — optionally with a ready-made recipe installed right away and a new root password. This article covers choosing a template and a recipe, setting the password, and why you must back up anything important before you start: reinstalling wipes the server's entire disk, and there's no undo.

What you'll need

Access to the VMmanager 6 panel — if you haven't logged in yet, start with the "How to log in to VMmanager 6" article.
A decision on which distro and version you need (for example, Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Debian 11/12, AlmaLinux 8/9, Rocky Linux 8/9 — plus other templates available in the panel), and whether you want a ready-made recipe installed right away — see the "Ready-made VMmanager 6 recipes" article for the catalog.
A few spare minutes: the server is unavailable while the reinstall is running.

Before you reinstall: back up anything important

Important: reinstalling the OS irreversibly erases everything on the server's disk — files, databases, installed packages, configuration. This is a clean-slate install, not an upgrade, and it can't be undone.

Save what you need beforehand:

If your plan includes backup copies — the "Backup copies" section on the server's page, available when the "Image storage" add-on is enabled on your plan (check your account or ask mHost support for the exact name of this option on your plan) — make one before reinstalling.
Or manually copy the files and database dumps you need to another server or your own computer (scp, rsync, and the like) — before the reinstall, not after.

Tip: mHost VPS don't offer snapshots — a file backup made ahead of time is your only safety net here: copy the files and database dumps you need outside the server (see Backups with rsync and Incremental backups with restic), or use the "Backup copies" section if it's enabled on your plan.

Step 1. Open the "Reinstall OS" operation

Log in to VMmanager 6 using one of the methods described in the "How to log in to VMmanager 6" article.
In the list of virtual machines, find your server and click the "⋮" (three dots) icon next to it. Or open the server's own page — the same menu is available there as a separate button.
From the menu, select "Reinstall OS".

📷 screenshot: the "⋮" menu on a server with the "Reinstall OS" option

Step 2. Choose an OS template

In the "Operating system" field, pick the distro and version you need. On mHost VPS, these are usually available:

Ubuntu 22.04 / 24.04
Debian 11 / 12
AlmaLinux 8 / 9
Rocky Linux 8 / 9

plus a number of other templates, including Windows (but the password and login work differently there — this article covers Linux).

Tip: the recipe list on the next step depends on the template you pick here — a recipe only shows up if it's compatible with this OS (see the "OS" column in the recipes article). If you're planning to use a specific recipe, check its requirements first.

Step 3. Pick a recipe (optional)

If the server needs ready-made software right away, you can install it during the reinstall itself — no separate step needed afterward.

Expand the "Applications and scripts" block. Like any recipe, these get the server ready for work: they install the software you need and set up configuration files.
You can use a ready-made recipe (see the "Ready-made VMmanager 6 recipes" article) — for example, WireGuard, OpenVPN, LAMP, LEMP, Django, Zabbix, Tomcat, Nagios — or leave this empty and set up the software you need manually once the server is ready.

Important: nested virtualization is disabled on mHost VPS, so recipes that deploy their own hypervisor (VMmanager-KVM, VMmanager-OVZ, Proxmox VE) won't work here. See the "Ready-made VMmanager 6 recipes" article for details.

Step 4. Set the root password

In the "Password for VM access" field, enter your own password or click "Generate" — VMmanager will pick a strong one for you.
Turn on "Send email with password" if you want the login and password sent to your account's email.

Tip: if you generate the password automatically, save it right away — in a password manager, for example. There may not be a separate place to look it up in the panel afterward.

📷 screenshot: the "Reinstall OS" dialog — template selection, the "Applications and scripts" block, and the password field

Step 5. Confirm the reinstall

Click "Reinstall" and wait for it to finish. The server's status in the VM list will change for the duration — the whole process usually takes a few minutes, but the exact time depends on the OS template and how busy the node is. Don't power off or reboot the server manually until it's back to its normal state.

Verify: the exact label on the confirm button and any additional confirmation checkboxes in the reinstall dialog may vary slightly between VMmanager 6 versions — use the "Reinstall OS" menu item and the fields from steps 2–4 above as your reference.

Step 6. Connect over SSH and check the server

Once the reinstall finishes, connect to the server:

bash

ssh root@<server_ip>

and enter the password from step 4.

If SSH says "Host key verification failed" — that's expected: the server now has a new host key. Remove the old entry and connect again:

bash

ssh-keygen -R <server_ip>

Done: you're logged in over SSH as root — the server has been reinstalled and is ready to configure. If you picked a recipe during the reinstall, check it separately (its port, web interface, or credentials file — see the recipes article for details on each one).

What's next

From here, it's the usual setup for a new server: update packages, create a separate sudo user instead of always working as root, and install whatever software you need (via a ready-made recipe or manually). For the full recipe catalog, see the "Ready-made VMmanager 6 recipes" article. If the template or recipe you need isn't available, contact mHost support.

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