VPS

Overview#

Contabo VPS are KVM-based virtual servers with shared vCPU cores and a fixed RAM allocation, sold in three plan families — Core VPS, Performance VPS and Storage VPS — that run on the same platform and share every feature from Key Features onward. The families differ in CPU generation, storage type and capacity, port speed, snapshots and backup options. For dedicated cores see Max Performance VPS (VDS), for bare metal see Dedicated Servers.

Products at a Glance#

Operating systems, 1-Click apps and custom images per family: see Images.

Core VPS#

Core VPS is the entry plan family: shared vCPU cores on infrastructure spanning multiple CPU generations, with SSD storage.

Performance VPS#

Performance VPS is the upper plan family: shared vCPU cores on the latest AMD EPYC generations with PCIe Gen 4 NVMe storage and higher port speeds on the smaller plans. Resources remain shared at the hypervisor level; GPU VPS is built on the Cloud VPS Plus 18 tier.

Storage VPS#

Storage VPS is the storage-heavy plan family: shared vCPU cores and a large SSD block device inside a full virtual machine with root access, sized for capacity rather than peak I/O throughput. Unlike Object Storage, which is accessed via the S3 API, Storage VPS provides a complete Linux or Windows environment.

* No default bandwidth cap; a fair usage policy applies. Contabo notifies customers by email if usage is exceptionally high or disruptive and reserves the right to throttle affected servers.

Key Features#

Rescue System#

The Rescue System, started from the Control Panel, boots a live system into RAM. Access is via SSH on port 22 as root with the password set at activation. Existing partitions (Linux and NTFS) can be mounted to repair the installation or retrieve data; a reboot returns to the installed OS.

Upgrades & Migration#

• Upgrade: in place via Control Panel to a larger plan within the same plan family; the IP address is kept.
• Region migration: live migration (data preserved) or fresh setup (data erased); both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses change.
• Storage Extension: adds storage of the plan’s type (Core VPS and Performance VPS only).
• Reinstall: the IP address is unchanged.

Management & DevOps#

• Customer Control Panel: start/stop/restart, reinstall, snapshots, VNC console, rescue system, firewall, private networking, storage extension, DNS and reverse DNS
• Contabo API (api.contabo.com): RESTful; OAuth2 authentication with client ID, client secret and an API user password created in the Control Panel; no limit on the number of API users
• CLI (cntb): open-source command-line client (github.com/contabo/cntb) using the same OAuth2 credentials
• cloud-init: user-data scripts at boot
• SSH keys: injected at deployment via Control Panel or API

Availability & Locations#

Deployed across 11 locations in 9 regions:

EU · United Kingdom · USA (3 locations) · Singapore · Japan · India · Australia

Region selection is available at order time. The Customer Control Panel displays expected latency per location.

Limitations & Notes#

• Nested virtualization is not supported on any VPS plan family.
• CPU and RAM are dedicated allocations but shared at the hypervisor level.
• Storage VPS: no snapshots, no Auto Backup add-on and no Storage Extension.
• No direct downgrade: requires a new smaller server, manual data migration and cancellation of the original — the IP address changes.
• No direct conversion between Core VPS, Performance VPS and Storage VPS, nor to Max Performance VPS — same procedure as a downgrade.
• Moving from SSD to NVMe means moving from Core VPS or Storage VPS to Performance VPS and requires a reinstall — all data is erased.
• Instances with an additional SSD cannot be region-migrated.
• Windows Server bring-your-own-license is not permitted on VPS.
• Cryptocurrency mining is not permitted on VPS.
• Provisioning time is typically a few minutes; may vary by location.