When creating or reinstalling a VPS, vpsAdmin can upload a script or configuration for cloud-init into the VPS. This script or configuration is applied on the first startup of the VPS. We support three formats for the initial configuration:

• script
• cloud-init config
• cloud-init script

Scripts and configurations can be stored in vpsAdmin, and you can select the configuration method when creating/reinstalling a VPS. You can manage stored configurations in vpsAdmin under VPS → User data, or Edit profile → User data. Alternatively, you can provide a configuration directly during the creation/reinstallation of a VPS without saving it in vpsAdmin. Saving configurations is optional but can simplify repeated use of unchanged configurations.

For development and testing, you can deploy a stored configuration to a VPS at any time: vpsAdmin → VPS → User data → Edit an entry from the list, then use the Deploy to VPS form.

vpsAdmin uploads the specified script to the VPS and integrates it into the VPS's init system, depending on the distribution. In systemd-based distributions, this is handled by the vpsadmin-script.service. The script's output is stored in the journal, accessible via journalctl -u vpsadmin-script.service, or in the file /var/log/vpsadmin-script-output.log.

Example script:

#!/bin/sh
 
apt install -y nginx
echo "Hello from VPS $VPSADMIN_VPS_ID" > /var/www/html/index.html

The service and script are automatically deleted after execution.

If you upload a script to an existing VPS via vpsAdmin, you can run it manually as follows:

# systemd
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start vpsadmin-script.service
 
# OpenRC
service vpsadmin-script start

The executed script has access to the following environment variables:

• VPSADMIN_VPS_ID - VPS ID

Configuration for cloud-init in YAML format, see https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/explanation/format.html#cloud-config-data

Example configuration:

#cloud-config
users:
  - name: myuser
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - "ssh-rsa AAAA..."
packages:
  - htop
  - curl
runcmd:
  - echo "Hello, world!" > /root/welcome.txt

The cloud-init output can be seen in the kernel log and is stored in /var/log/cloud-init-output.log.

A script executed via cloud-init, see https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/explanation/format.html#user-data-script

The cloud-init output can be seen in the kernel log and is stored in /var/log/cloud-init-output.log.

The initial configuration can also be uploaded to a VPS using vpsfreectl. First, prepare a file with the script:

cat <<EOF > my-script.sh
#!/bin/sh
 
apt install -y nginx
echo "Hello from VPS $VPSADMIN_VPS_ID" > /var/www/html/index.html
EOF

Now create a new VPS:

vpsfreectl vps create -- \
                      --hostname vps \
                      --os-template 168 \
                      --location 7 \
                      --user-data-format script \
                      --user-data-content @my-script.sh

The parameter –user-data-content starts with @, which instructs vpsfreectl to send the content of the my-script.sh file. OS template 168 corresponds to Ubuntu 24.04 (vpsfreectl os_template list), and location 7 is Staging (vpsfreectl location list). You can also upload a script when reinstalling a VPS:

vpsfreectl vps reinstall 123 -- --user-data-format script --user-data-content @my-script.sh

All distributions are supported with the following exceptions:

• script is not supported on Guix, NixOS and Slackware
• cloud-init is not supported on Guix, NixOS, Slackware and Void Linux