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Install the OS manually from your own image

You can manually install an OS on a dedicated server from your own image. If you do not have specific OS requirements, we recommend using standard images — from these, you can perform an autoinstall of the OS or install manually.

  1. Boot the server in Rescue mode.
  2. Optional: if you are connecting to the server from Windows, install the OpenSSH client.
  3. Install the OS from your own image.
  4. Optional: configure the network interface.
  5. Change the boot template.

1. Boot the server in Rescue mode

  1. In the control panel, from the top menu, click Products and select Dedicated Servers.

  2. In the Servers section, open the server page → Operating System tab.

  3. Click Change boot template.

  4. In the Boot template field, select Boot to Rescue.

  5. Click Save and reboot. The server will be rebooted.

2. Optional: install OpenSSH Client

If you are connecting to the server from a non-Windows OS, skip this step.

To connect via SSH from Windows, you must install the OpenSSH Client. For more information on working with OpenSSH, see the Get started with OpenSSH for Windows guide in the Microsoft documentation.

  1. Run PowerShell as an administrator.

  2. Check if OpenSSH Client is installed on your Windows OS:

    Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object Name -like 'OpenSSH.Client'

    The response will show the name and status of the OpenSSH components. For example:

    Name  : OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0
    State : Installed

    Here State is the status of the components:

    • Installed — the component is installed in the OS; ;
    • NotPresent — the component is not installed in the OS.

  3. If the response to step 2 shows NotPresent in the State field, it means the OpenSSH components are not installed. Install OpenSSH Client:

    Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

    Response example:

    Path          :
    Online        : True
    RestartNeeded : False

  4. If the response in step 3 shows True in the RestartNeeded field, restart your computer.

3. Install the OS from your own image

The qemu-iso script is used to install an OS from your own image. The script uploads the ISO image to the server, starts the VNC server, and initiates the OS installation process.

You can load the OS image onto the server:

  • via the image URL hosted on a publicly accessible resource. The qemu-iso script will load the OS image into the server RAM;
  • or manually from your local computer to a disk or the server RAM.

  1. Install a VNC client on your local computer. For a list of VNC clients for different OSs, see the Connect via VNC subsection of the Connecting to a server guide.

  2. Open CLI. On a local computer running Windows, use PowerShell.

  3. Connect to the server via SSH by forwarding the standard VNC port – 5900:

    ssh -L 5900:localhost:5900 root@<ip_address>

    Specify <ip_address> — the server public IP address. You can copy it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → Dedicated Servers → Servers → server page → Operating System tab → in the IP field, click .

  4. Copy the URL of the OS image you intend to install. The image must be hosted on a publicly accessible resource, and its size must be at least 2 GB less than the server RAM volume.

    To speed up image loading, we recommend storing the image in Servercore S3 — for more information, see the Uploading an object guide.

  5. Run the qemu-iso script. The script will upload the installation files to the server, start the VNC server, and initiate the OS installation process:

    qemu-iso <url>

    Specify:

    • <url> — the path to the OS image you copied in step 4;
    • optional: -nic_type <virtual_network_adapter> — the type of network device to emulate in the virtual machine. For example, to install VMware ESXi, change the virtual network adapter to vmxnet3. A complete list of supported virtual network adapters can be viewed using the qemu-system-x86_64 -device help command.

  6. Wait for the message stating that the OS image has been uploaded to the server and the VNC server is running:

    VM has been created!

  7. Open the VNC client on your local computer.

  8. Connect to the server. The connection process depends on the VNC client you choose. Connection parameters:

    • IP address — localhost:5900;
    • password — leave the field empty.

  9. Complete all OS installation steps.

  10. In the Rescue console, press Ctrl + C to terminate the qemu-iso process.

  11. Optional: without exiting Rescue mode, configure the network interface. We recommend configuring the network interface immediately after OS installation, otherwise the server may be unreachable over the network.

4. Configure the network interface

After manual OS installation, the network configuration file might contain the interface name used in the virtual environment, for example, eth0. After rebooting on a physical server, the network interface may get a different name, for example, enp1s0. Due to this mismatch, the server may be inaccessible over the network until the network interface name is corrected to the current one. We recommend correcting the name immediately after OS installation, without exiting Rescue mode.

You can also configure the network interface and synchronize the time with an external NTP server later. Additional OS settings depend on the configuration of the image you are installing.

  1. In the Rescue console, view the network interface name by displaying network interface information:

    ip a

    In the response, find the interface in the UP state that has a public IP address. Remember or copy the network interface name in the altname field. For example:

      1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
          link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
          inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
            valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
          inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
            valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
      2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
          link/ether 00:0c:00:0f:0:f0 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
          altname enp1s0
          inet 203.0.113.0/24 brd 203.0.113.255 scope global eth0
            valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
          inet6 fe00::000c:00ff:fe0f:00f0/64 scope link proto kernel_ll
            valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

    Here enp1s0 is the name of the required network interface.

  2. Connect to the OS installed on the server by running the qemu-iso script without specifying an image:

    qemu-iso

  3. Open the netplan utility configuration file with the vi text editor:

    vi /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml

  4. Change the parameter values. Correct values can be viewed in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → Dedicated Servers → server page → Network tab → click the required subnet.

    network:
      ethernets:
        <eth_name>:
          addresses:
            - <ip_address>/<mask>
          gateway4: <gateway>
        renderer: networkd
        version: 2

    Specify:

    • <eth_name> — the public network interface name, the value from the altname field you obtained in step 1;
    • <ip_address> — the server public IP address. You can copy it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → Dedicated Servers → Servers → server page → Operating System tab → in the IP field, click ;
    • <mask> — the subnet mask.
    • <gateway> — the default gateway.

  5. Press ESC.

  6. Exit the vi text editor with your changes saved:

    :wq

  7. Apply the configuration:

    netplan apply

  8. Synchronize the time with an external NTP server.

5. Change the boot template

Restore the previous server boot template or reboot the server from the OS. When rebooting the server from the OS, the boot template will automatically change to the one that was set before booting the server in Rescue mode.