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Vultr Deployment Playbook

This guide demonstrates common Vultr API operations for managing virtual machine instances via the Vultr API.

Table of Contents ​

Prerequisites​

Whitelist your IP​

You must whitelist your IP address with Vultr.

  1. Go to the Vultr Settings API dashboard

  2. Retrieve your 32 bit IPV4 address by running this on your host machine:

    curl ifconfig.me

  3. Update the Access Control list with {IPv4_OUTPUT_ABOVE}/32 and click Add.

Screenshot Example

Image

API Key​

Obtain your API key from my.vultr.com/settings/#settingsapi

export VULTR_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
IP Whitelist

Managing Instances​

Creating an Instance​

Update command

Make sure to replace the following placeholders:

  • YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME
  • YOUR_HOST_NAME
  • Optionally, list of tags

The command below creates a new instance with the following parameters:

  • plan vc2-6c-16gb: 6 vCPUs w/ 16GB RAM and 320GB SSD
  • os_id 2136: Debian 12 x64
  • region sea: Seattle, WA, USA
curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "region" : "sea",
    "plan" : "vc2-6c-16gb",
    "label" : "YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME",
    "os_id" : 2136,
    "backups" : "disabled",
    "hostname": "YOUR_HOST_NAME",
    "tags": ["personal", "test", "cli", "YOUR_HOST_NAME"]
  }' \
  > vultr_create.json

Get Instance Details​

VULTR_INSTANCE_ID=$(cat vultr_create.json | jq -r '.instance.id')

curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances/${VULTR_INSTANCE_ID}" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
  > vultr_get.json

echo "###\nVisit your instance at https://my.vultr.com/subs/?id=${VULTR_INSTANCE_ID} \n###\n"

Environment Setup​

Once you've created and retrieved your instance details, you can set up your environment variables for easier management.

export VULTR_INSTANCE_ID=$(cat vultr_create.json | jq -r '.instance.id')
export VULTR_INSTANCE_IP=$(cat vultr_get.json | jq -r '.instance.main_ip')
export VULTR_PASSWORD=$(cat vultr_create.json | jq -r '.instance.default_password')

Connect to Your Instance​

Connect to your instance:

ssh root@$VULTR_INSTANCE_IP

Password is in vultr_create.json under instance.default_password. To copy password to clipboard:

cat vultr_create.json | jq -r '.instance.default_password' | pbcopy

Delete Instance​

curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances/${VULTR_INSTANCE_ID}" \
  -X DELETE \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"

[OPTIONAL] Exploring Available Resources​

List Available Plans​

Get the list of available plans:

curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/plans" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
  > vultr_plans.json

And explore the JSON by running:

cat vultr_plans.json | jq

List Available Operating Systems​

Get the list of available operating systems:

curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/os" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
  > vultr_os.json

And explore the JSON by running:

cat vultr_os.json | jq

Additional Resources​