Droplet How-Tos
DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines (VMs) that run on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet you create is a new server you can use, either standalone or as part of a larger, cloud-based infrastructure.
Creation
Create Droplets and customize the image, plan, authentication method, and quantity of Droplets you want.
Create and configure GPU Droplets, which are powered by NVIDIA’s H100 GPUs.
Automate Droplet configuration by providing user data to a Droplet during creation.
Connection
Use a terminal to connect to Droplets using OpenSSH or PuTTY for shell access to your remote server.
Improve security when you log in by creating SSH keys and adding them to Droplets.
Use the Droplet Console from a web browser to connect to Droplets for native-like terminal access to your remote server.
Securely move files between Droplets and your local machine using FileZilla, an open-source FTP client.
Configuration and Scaling
Organize Droplets with tags to group and filter Droplets by role, automatically include Droplets in firewall or load balancer configurations, or target multiple Droplets at once with the API.
Monitor Droplet performance with default graphs for bandwidth, CPU usage, and disk I/O. Install the DigitalOcean metrics agent for extended graphs like CPU load average, memory usage, and disk usage.
Resize a Droplet to change the amount of CPU and RAM a Droplet has, optionally add additional disk space, or change to a different type of Droplet plan or CPU.
Create a Droplet autoscale pool to enable automatic horizontal scaling based on resource utilization or a fixed size.
Use the Droplet metadata service to programmatically query a Droplet for information about itself.
Overwrite the entirety of a Droplet’s disk with an image you select.
Management and Recovery
Install the Droplet agent on older Droplets to enable features like the Droplet Console, or uninstall the agent to remove access.
Upgrade a Droplet’s internal kernel version, boot into a specific non-default version, or use the DigitalOcean GrubLoader kernel to convert legacy Droplets from external to internal kernel management.
Droplets come with several recovery features, including the Recovery Console for out-of-band connectivity independent of network settings and the recovery ISO for regaining access to the Droplet’s filesystem.
Destroy a Droplet to permanently and irreversibly destroy the Droplet and its contents.