Validated on 10 Jun 2022 •
Posted on 19 Jun 2018
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.
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.
Resizing a Droplet lets you change the amount of CPU and RAM a Droplet has, optionally add additional disk space, and change to a different type of Droplet plan or CPU.
Upgrade a Droplet’s internal kernel to the latest supported version, modify your Droplet to boot into a specific non-default version, or use the DigitalOcean GrubLoader kernel to switch legacy Droplets from external kernal management to internal kernel management.
Use the Recovery Console to recover access to a Droplet. It provides out-of-band access regardless of your network settings. It emulates the access you would have if you were sitting down with a keyboard and monitor attached to the actual server.
Use DigitalOcean’s recovery ISO with the Recovery Console to regain access to and perform data recovery operations on your Droplet, like getting access to an interactive shell, running fsck, or chrooting into the system.