Manage instances

An instance is a single customer virtual machine (VM). This page covers creating instances on a customer’s behalf and the admin manage page. For what customers can do themselves, see the user guide.

Where to find it

In the admin panel go to Compute > Instances.

The list shows every instance with live status, HA marker, name and hostname, primary IP, hypervisor, owner, CPU, RAM, disk and traffic. Filter by search text, Hypervisor, Owner, Status (Running, Stopped, Suspended) or Deploy state (Deployed, Pending).

Create an instance for a customer

1. Click Create Instance. The panel opens a dedicated Create instance page (not a dialog), with a running Summary card on the right (Owner, Node, Plan, Resources, Hostname, Public IPs, SSH keys, Hourly).

   

2. Fill in the sections, top to bottom:

Sections

Section	Fields
Owner & node	Owner (the customer who will own the instance) and Hypervisor. Nodes must be online and out of maintenance to be chosen. Nodes with deployment disabled are listed greyed out with a Deployment disabled badge.
Resources	A Plan / Custom toggle. Plan picks an instance plan defining CPU, RAM, disk, bandwidth and IPs; Custom sets resources directly: vCPU, RAM (MB), Storage (GB) and Bandwidth (GB / month), where 0 means unlimited. No plan is needed in Custom mode. An optional base plan supplies network and IP counts and, when you leave Bandwidth blank, its quota; without a base plan the instance gets one auto-allocated public IPv4 unless you pick addresses. An instance created without a plan shows Custom spec in place of a plan name.
Operating system	An Image / ISO toggle. Image clones an OS template (only images downloaded to the chosen hypervisor can deploy there); ISO boots from installation media instead — see ISO images. Hostname follows (lowercase letters, digits and hyphens, for example web-03).
Public IPs	Optional explicit IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; the first IPv4 becomes primary. Leave blank to auto-allocate.
VPC networking	Shown only when the hypervisor’s group has VPC enabled. VPC and VPC subnet attach the instance to a private network at deploy time.
Access & cloud-init	SSH keys injected on first boot (leave blank for Windows or ISO installs) and a raw Cloud-config YAML editor, applied only when the selected image supports cloud-init.

Each address in the Public IPs pickers carries a badge. Reserved addresses (amber) are held by an administrator and can be picked on purpose; a reserved address stays admin-reserved after it is assigned and returns to the admin-held pool when the instance is removed. Allocating and In use addresses are listed but cannot be picked.

3. Click Create instance. The page returns to the list and the instance appears with a pending deploy state.

A deployment task starts on the chosen hypervisor and streams progress onto the instance’s manage page in real time. When the instance is ready, the panel emails the customer a randomly generated root password.

The manage page

Click a row to open the instance. The header shows the name, a status pill, the primary IP, the hypervisor and hypervisor group, the owner and the reverse-DNS hostname, with power buttons (Start, Restart, Stop, Kill, Console, Migrate) and a ··· menu for the rest of the actions below. During deploy or reinstall, a terminal view streams the task log instead.

The Overview tab itself holds an Utilisation card (CPU, Memory, Disk I/O, Network, with a 1 h / 24 h / 7 d range switch), a Recent tasks card and a Connect card with the Console button, plus a right-hand column: a resource summary (Plan with a Resize link, vCPU, Memory, Root disk, Image, Hypervisor, UUID, Created, Traffic), a Quick actions panel (Change plan, Reinstall OS, Take snapshot, Mount ISO) and Admin controls toggles (Suspend, Network suspend and more below the fold).

A row of tabs across the top holds the working tabs, each with a live count badge where relevant:

Tab	What is in it
Overview	Instance information and state.
Network	Interfaces and IP addresses (the old standalone IP tab merged into this one).
Storage	Disks: add, resize and remove disks.
Block Storage	Attached volumes.
Backups	Backup history, manual backup and restore.
Snapshots	Hypervisor snapshots. Shown for Proxmox instances only.
Firewall	Firewall rules applied to the instance (was labeled Security Groups).
Docker	Docker app deployments inside the instance.
Forge	Forge sessions for this instance.
CPU Topology	Sockets, cores and threads layout.
Graphs	CPU, RAM, disk and network usage charts for this instance.
Tasks	Every background operation run against this instance.
Activity	The audit log for the instance.
Settings	Display name, boot, VNC, cloud-init and Windows options.

The Storage tab lists the instance’s disks with add, resize and remove actions.

The Network tab lists the instance’s interfaces and IP addresses.

The Backups tab shows backup history with manual backup and restore actions.

On the Backups tab, Restore to new instance has optional IPv4 and IPv6 pickers for the target node, with the same Reserved, Allocating and In use badges as the create page. Choosing a node clears earlier picks, and leaving the pickers empty auto-allocates addresses. A role without the networking.ips.view permission sees a note in place of the pickers, and addresses are auto-allocated. A running backup shows Cancel on its row once it has run for a minute or reached 1%; see Cancel a backup. Backups of a Proxmox VE VM cover the whole machine and are grouped under Whole instance (all disks).

The Settings tab holds the display name, boot, VNC, cloud-init and Windows options.

Actions

The header buttons, the Overview tab’s Quick actions panel and its ··· menu cover the lifecycle:

• Start, Restart, Stop, Kill: power actions in the header. Stop is a graceful shutdown; Kill pulls the plug.
• Console: open noVNC. Web SSH is offered alongside it on VPC instances.
• Migrate: move the instance to another hypervisor. See Migrations.
• Change plan (Quick actions): moves the instance to a different plan; the resize runs in the background and Cloud Service billing re-rates when it completes. Disk size cannot be reduced. The new plan’s monthly bandwidth quota, bandwidth accounting mode, overage policy and interface speed limits are applied to the instance, and usage counters keep counting. A running KVM guest takes new speed limits when it restarts. On Proxmox VE nodes the primary interface limit alone reaches the VM, and it applies on a full stop and start; the instance pages show a note about this. An instance created from a custom spec with no plan can be moved to a plan the same way.
• Reinstall OS (Quick actions): wipe and redeploy from the image.
• Take snapshot / Mount ISO (Quick actions).
• From the ··· menu: Reset Bandwidth (zero the current period’s traffic counter), Impersonate (log in to the user panel as the owner), Change Owner (hand the instance to a different customer), Re-activate Windows (re-run SPLA activation on licensed Windows instances), Enable Protection / Disable Protection (locks Remove and Reinstall against accidents), Remove (type the hostname to confirm) and Run Import Doctor (repair a disk whose OS was replaced outside the panel — a converted VHDX or VMDK import — re-arming virtio drivers and firmware; available on KVM hosts while the instance is stopped).
• Rescue mode (KVM only): boot the instance into a live Debian environment with disks attached, for repair and recovery. See Rescue mode.
• Suspend / Network suspend live as toggles in the Overview tab’s Admin controls panel. Suspend asks for a Suspension Reason, records it, emails the customer and marks the instance as admin-suspended.

What happens next

New instances show up in the customer’s user panel with console access, power controls, backups and firewall. Billing starts according to the model you sell on: external billing, Cloud Service hourly credits, or a Self-Provisioning pack.

Common problems

• The Create Instance dialog has no usable image. The image has not finished downloading on the chosen hypervisor. Check Tasks and OS images.
• Deploy or an action seems stuck. Open the instance’s Tasks tab for the failing task’s log, and confirm the hypervisor is online under Infrastructure > Hypervisors.
• Remove or Reinstall is disabled. Protection is enabled on the instance. Use Disable Protection in the Actions dropdown first.
• Delete from the list asks for the hostname. Type the instance hostname exactly to confirm. This is the guard against deleting the wrong VM.

Related

• Instance plans
• Migrations
• Orphan VM import
• Manage an instance (customer side)