VGNCloud
These are three different actions. People reach for reinstall when they lost a password, and for cancel when they wanted to wipe a disk. The panel and the shop each have a destructive button. They do not do the same thing.
Reinstall (CLOUD panel)
A reinstall writes a fresh image over the disk. Everything stored on it is gone: software, databases, files, SSH host keys. You can pick a different operating system than the one running now.
Kept: IPv4 address, hostname, firewall rules, plan and billing. DNS can stay pointed at the same address.
Nothing here takes a backup for you. Copy off anything you want to keep first. See backups.
You can paste an SSH public key into the reinstall dialog. If you do, it is installed on the new disk and no password is emailed. Leave it empty and a root password is mailed once the image is written. We keep no copy of that password.
Reinstall is available on an active or failed server. A machine that is still building or already deleting cannot be reinstalled.
Reset root password (CLOUD panel)
Not destructive. A new password is generated and emailed. The disk, address, hostname and firewall are untouched. Use this when you lost the password, not the machine. Details in the first-login guide.
Delete (CLOUD panel)
Destroys the virtual machine and its disk. Permanent. Kept: your invoices and billing history. Destroyed: the machine, the disk, the IPv4 address, the hostname, the firewall rules.
Deleting here does not stop the billing. Cancelling the subscription is a separate step on the storefront. If you only delete, Stripe keeps charging and you have no machine.
Cancel (storefront)
This is vgncloud.com/cancel, not the panel. Immediate cancel stops billing now and removes the machine. No refund. Cancel at period end keeps the machine until the date shown, then billing stops and the machine is removed.
The address then rests before anyone else can have it, so nobody inherits your blocklist entries or your stale DNS.
If the problem is โI locked myself outโ, do not cancel. Open the console, or reset the password, or reinstall. Power, console and reinstall stay in the panel until you actually cancel.
Which one?
- Wrong OS, or a disk you want empty, and you still want the same address: reinstall.
- Lost the password: reset it.
- Done with the machine but still paying: cancel on the storefront. Delete in the panel first only if you already understand that billing continues until you cancel.
- Want to keep paying and get a new machine later: delete does not do that cleanly. Talk to us, or cancel and buy again โ a new address, a new hostname.
Plans, prices and the live catalogue stay on the VPS page.