Best way to wipe my Linode clean and start fresh?

Welcome to your first rebuild!

Rebuilding is what you'll want to do to start fresh. It's not uncommon for people just starting out in Linux to fry a server and need to start again. The best amongst us have done it, multiple times, and continue to do often. By rebuilding, you'll end up with a fresh install, which means you'll need to set up whatever configurations you'd like to have and any software you'll still need.

The rebuild your Linode, you can follow the steps from our guide: Erasing Everything and Starting Over

Before you do that, there are some things you'll want to consider.

Do you have a backup?

Most people know this, but it's always good to repeat: Always have a backup in case something goes wrong. We have a guide for setting up your own backups, or you could use our Backups service to make it easier.

• Setting up your own backups: Following this guide, you'll be able to set up your own backups. Since you said you're new to Linux, this could be a great learning opportunity.
• Linode's Backups service: Maybe you don't want to learn how to configure your own backups just yet. Our Backups service is a great way to set it & forget it. We'll do the work on automatically backing up your Linode once a day and once a week. You'll have up to 4 available backups to deploy from once this service is up and running on your Linode.

Do you want any of the files on your Linode?

If so, you'll want to remove them from the Linode before rebuilding it. You have a couple options, such as using scp, sftp, or capturing an image of your Linode on your local machine. Our Download Files from Your Linode guide should have everything you need to do this.

After the Rebuild

Once you rebuild your Linode, don't forget to Secure your Server, and set up any additional security you feel you'll need. This rebuilt Linode is just as vulnerable as a fresh new baby Linode.

LINODE support staff
Your reply is helpful.

I too will be wiping my Linode Nanode and re-setting up an identical one (with the same virtual hardware) but using the newer version of Ubuntu server (22.04).

I too am a Linux beginner. Question: Can I keep the same IP address that was assigned to the OLD server with the refreshed new machine? Reason is, I did purchase a domain name and they have my current IP address/Linode server working properly now.
I know it would be a colossal PITA to try to sort out re-assigning my DNS info if a new Linode IP is generated with the limited knowledge I have in this field. Thank you.

You can set up a new Linode in the same data centre and then, when you're ready to go live, swap its IP address(es) with the old server:
https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/managing-ip-addresses/#transferring-ip-addresses

Dave,

This is helpful. Follow on question.

My plan was to DELETE the current instance (Nanode) and create a new one with the updated Ubuntu server. My concern using your method is that I won't have the "original" instance to transfer and IP address from if I delete it at the beginning of this project.

Of course I could start up a 2nd Nanode, do the IP transfer and then quickly delete the old Linode instance….but concerned that Linode might get me tangled up in paying for 2 Nanodes even tho they only simultaneously existed for less than an hour. Your thoughts?
Thank you,
T

@takara writes:

concerned that Linode might get me tangled up in paying for 2 Nanodes even tho they only simultaneously existed for less than an hour. Your thoughts?

Seriously?

The price of a nanode for an hour is $0.0075…less than a penny! For $1, you can run a 2nd nanode continuously for almost 6 days.

My plan was to DELETE the current instance (Nanode) and create a new one with the updated Ubuntu server. My concern using your method is that I won't have the "original" instance to transfer and IP address from if I delete it at the beginning of this project.

All the more reason to have two for a short time so you can keep your IPv4 address (you can't swap IPv6 addresses because of the way they're allocated). Surely, that's worth more to you than a penny…

-- sw

SW - You apparently have lived a MUCH more charmed life than I.

My experience has been that anytime a company can charge you for a FULL node, for a FULL month . . . or ANY portion thereof. . . they will.

You are aware there is a basic monthly charge PLUS the hourly rate & transfer fees you mention.

You're welcome ;-)

SW - You apparently have lived a MUCH more charmed life than I.

Hardly…but I digress…

You are aware there is a basic monthly charge PLUS the hourly rate & transfer fees you mention.

Bzzzt! I'm sorry…that's incorrect.

You need to look at your bill again… You are charged hourly up to the quoted monthly price. In your case, if you have the following for October (note one hour overlap between 11pm & 12am on 10/14-10/15):

• Nanode 1 - runs from 10/1 @ 0000 to 10/15 @ 0000 (15 * 24 * .0075 = $2.70)
• Nanode 2 - runs from 10/14 @ 2300 to 10/31 @ 0000 (((16 * 24) + 1) * .0075 = $2.89)

+ 1 hour for Nanode 2 to account for one hour overlap.

$2.70 + $2.89 = $5.59. The total charges are > $5 because the hourly charges for each nanode never reached the quoted monthly price. However, if you run a single nanode continuously from 11/1 @ 0000 to 11/30 @ 2359, your bill will be $5 (the quoted monthly price).

See: https://cloud-estimator.linode.com/s/

Relevant section:

How does hourly billing work?
 
You are charged the hourly rate for a service up to its monthly cap (rates get rounded up to the nearest hour). For example, if you create a 1GB Linode and delete it after 24 hours of use, you would be billed $0.18 (24 hours x .0075/hr). You will receive an invoice on the first day of the following calendar month; however, you may receive a mid-month invoice if your account reaches a certain billing limit for Linode services used within a single month. Payment collection occurs automatically once an invoice gets generated. Learn more.

OK, so $0.58 more than the $0.01 quoted in my previous post… I stand corrected. My basic point remains…surely, being able to keep your IPv4 address is worth $0.59 more on your bill in a single month…

You're welcome ;-)

-- sw

Stevewi is correct I have never been charged "a basic monthly charge" on top of the pay as you go by the hour for a Linode server.

There are certainly services such as object storage, images, and more that can add to the final cost of your bill, but the server itself is only pay as you go along with the specific services I happen to mention.

So without deleting the first nanode it really will be cheap to transfer an ip over to a fresh nanode.

@ryanbearden --

I have never been charged "a basic monthly charge" on top of the pay as you go by the hour for a Linode server.

Nor have I…and I've been a customer for 10 years. My time with them pre-dates the introduction of hourly billing.

I'm pretty anal retentive about looking at my bill every month and seeing if anything changed (that I can't account for). Believe me, if Linode started doing horses*** like this, I'd chuck them onto the garbage heap like a moldy cheeseburger.

Linode's pricing model is one of the reasons I stick around. Since I don't run Linux, I could have an easier time managing my Linode elsewhere (DO, Vultr, etc) but most competitors have this "basic monthly charge" in addition to usage charges -- and a service level that's not even comparable.

I had a Debian 10 Linode before I brought up my current (FreeBSD) Linode…and an Ubuntu one prior to Debian 10. At each OS change cycle, I spun up a nanode; configured it the way I wanted; moved all my apps there (mostly having to do with email); deleted the "old" Linode; swapped IPv4 addresses so that my "new" Linode had the IPv4 address of the "old" Linode; and up-sized my nanode to the size of the "old" Linode. Each time, all of that cost me about $7.50 over 2 months.

The lowering of my stress level each time was priceless! I could proceed slowly and at my own pace. I could make sure that things were right before moving on…no panics, no all-nighters, no problems (note that FreeBSD is an unsupported configuration but I generally had no problems bring it up to an operational level -- I had a small problem with keeping my IPv6 /64 net allocated via SLAAC but I was able to stopgap that until I could research/find a permanent solution…which took a couple of days).

-- sw

PS. I also have 80GiB of block storage for backups since Linode's backup system is unavailable to me (it only supports ext3/ext4).