Reinstall the Operating System on Your Server or VM: Portal and API

Method 1: In the portal

Bare-metal servers

1. Log in at amoni.app, open Servers, click the server, and go to the Reinstall tab.
2. Under Operating System, choose the image. The list only holds what this machine can install, and Windows images show up where there's a license for them.
3. Hostname starts out as the current name. You can change it, provided it stays fully qualified.
4. Leave Root password empty and one is generated for you. Your own needs at least 12 characters, with upper and lower case, a number and a symbol. The form tells you what's still missing as you type.
5. Under Disk Layout, Default partitioning keeps the image's own scheme. Standard layouts are the RAID and single-disk schemes the platform provides, and Your layouts are whatever you built yourself under Install Profiles.
6. Tick any Post-install scripts that should run once, as root, after the OS is in place. You can pick up to five, and you manage them under Install Profiles.
7. Tick stored keys under SSH Keys, or paste extra public keys, one per line. The form flags a malformed key while you're still typing.
8. Click Reinstall Server. The installer starts right away.

The page changes to Reinstallation in progress and refreshes every fifteen seconds until the installer says it's done. A generated root password appears in this card. Click Show or Copy and save it now. Every other management action is locked while the install runs, but Open Console lets you watch it, and Cancel Installation stops it provided nothing has hit the disk yet.

Once it's done, the other tabs come back and the Overview lists the new OS. Access on the Overview tab keeps the generated root password for 48 hours. Change it as soon as you're logged in, and after that we don't keep a copy.

Cloud instances

1. Open Virtual Machines, click the instance and go to the Rebuild tab.
2. Click Rebuild VM to open the dialog.
3. Choose an operating system template.
4. Tick stored SSH keys or paste in public keys. With no key, you get into the new system with a root password you fetch after the rebuild.
5. Click Rebuild. The red line in the dialog is the only warning left.

The page reports VM rebuild initiated and follows the operation until it either succeeds or fails. Power actions stay locked until then. The new system boots on its own. No key? Use reset password under Access to get a root password.

Method 2: With the API

Your API key needs the Servers scope (servers.write) or the VMs scope (vms.write). Reference: api.amoni.app/v1/docs.

Bare metal

1. See what the server can install. A single call returns the profiles, our standard disk layouts, your own layouts and your scripts:

curl -s https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/profiles \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "profiles": [ { "id": 11, "name": "Ubuntu 24.04 LTS", "os_slug": "ubuntu2404" }, { "id": 12, "name": "Debian 13", "os_slug": "debian13" } ],
    "standard_layouts": [ { "id": 1, "name": "RAID 1 (mirror)" }, { "id": 2, "name": "RAID 0 (stripe)" } ],
    "disk_layouts": [ { "id": 301, "name": "LVM, separate /var", "scope": "client" } ],
    "scripts": [ { "id": 501, "name": "Harden SSH", "scope": "client" } ],
    "utility": [ { "id": 90, "name": "Rescue system (Linux)" } ]
  }
}

2. Start the reinstall. profile_id is the one required field. Send tos_disklayout_id for a standard layout or disk_layout_id for one of yours, but not both. Stored keys go in ssh_key_ids (take the ids from /v1/ssh-keys), and pasted keys go in sshkeys.

curl -s -X POST https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/reinstall \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "profile_id": 11,
    "hostname": "web1.example.com",
    "tos_disklayout_id": 1,
    "ssh_key_ids": [42],
    "script_ids": [501]
  }'

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "message": "Reinstall started. This can take several minutes.",
    "notice": null,
    "applied": {
      "os": "Ubuntu 24.04 LTS",
      "disk_layout": "RAID 1 (mirror)",
      "hostname": "web1.example.com",
      "root_password_set": true,
      "root_password_generated": false,
      "ssh_keys": [ { "name": "laptop", "fingerprint": "SHA256:..." } ],
      "pasted_key_count": 0
    }
  }
}

Don't assume, read applied: it's the record of what really went onto the machine. If something got dropped (keys the installer refused, say), notice explains it in one sentence. When you sent no password and no keys, root_password_generated is true and applied.root_password carries the generated password once.

3. Wait for it. The call comes back the moment the installer accepts the job, long before the install is done. Poll the installation status until complete is true:

until curl -s https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/provision-status \
        -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..." | jq -e '.data.complete == true' >/dev/null; do
  sleep 30
done
echo "installed"

During the install the payload includes status, step and, if the installer reports one, percentage. To abort before anything touches the disks: POST /v1/servers/955/reinstall/cancel.

4. Fetch the generated password, if any. We hold it for 48 hours and then throw it away. Because of what this endpoint returns, it needs servers.write.

curl -s https://api.amoni.app/v1/servers/955/root-password \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

A 404 with code: root_password_unavailable means it has expired or was never generated. After you've saved it somewhere, you can drop our copy early with DELETE on the same path.

Cloud instances

1. List templates:

curl -s https://api.amoni.app/v1/vms/990204/411/templates \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

{ "success": true, "data": [ { "vmid": 9001, "name": "ubuntu-24.04" }, { "vmid": 9002, "name": "debian-13" } ] }

2. Rebuild. This call is asynchronous. It answers 202 with an operation:

curl -s -X POST https://api.amoni.app/v1/vms/990204/411/rebuild \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"template_vmid": 9001, "ssh_key_ids": [42]}'

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "message": "Rebuild started. This wipes the current system and takes several minutes.",
    "operation": { "id": 7731, "status": "pending" }
  }
}

3. Poll the operation until status is succeeded or failed:

curl -s https://api.amoni.app/v1/operations/7731 -H "Authorization: Bearer nr_live_..."

{ "success": true, "data": { "id": 7731, "type": "vm.rebuild", "status": "running", "resource_type": "vm", "resource_id": 411,
  "message": null, "result": null, "started_at": "2026-09-15 11:26:10", "finished_at": null, "created_at": "2026-09-15 11:26:02" } }

GET /v1/operations returns the account's recent operations in the same shape, newest first. Power actions and reverse DNS changes show up there as well.

4. Password. Sent no keys? Then a root password was generated. Use GET /v1/vms/990204/411/root-password after the operation succeeds. The 48-hour rule from bare metal applies here too.

What the API will tell you