Create a server

Updated 2026-10-30

To create a server on Wolkra, open Servers in the console, choose Create server, pick an image, a plan and an SSH key, and confirm. The server boots in moments; this page explains each option so you can set it up right the first time.

Location

Wolkra runs in Frankfurt am Main, Germany: location fra1 in network zone eu-central. All servers, volumes, networks and backups live there. See Frankfurt.

Image

Choose either an operating system or a one-click app.

Operating systems: Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS Stream, Fedora and MikroTik CHR. If you are unsure, pick the latest Ubuntu LTS or Debian. See operating systems.

One-click apps: Docker CE with Compose, WordPress (Caddy, PHP, MariaDB, WP-CLI), n8n, Coolify, WireGuard VPN, GitLab CE and OpenClaw. The app is ready a few minutes after the server boots. See one-click apps.

You can also create a server from one of your own snapshots.

Plan

Plans come in families:

• Standard (s): shared vCPU for websites, APIs and most general workloads.
• CPU-optimised (c): for builds, encoding and compute-heavy work.
• Memory-optimised (m): for databases, caches and memory-hungry apps.

You can resize to a bigger plan later. The disk grows with the plan but can never shrink.

Networking

• Public IPv4: a primary IPv4 is optional and billed monthly (see pricing).
• IPv6: an IPv6 address is included.
• Private networks: attach the server to one or more of your networks. A server can live on a private network only, with no public addresses, and use a NAT gateway for outgoing traffic. See private networks.

Traffic is unmetered on every plan, with shared ports up to 10 Gbit/s under fair use.

Authentication

• SSH keys (recommended): select one or more saved keys. They are added for root on first boot.
• Root password by email: if you select no key, a root password is emailed to you. Change it after the first login.

See connect with SSH.

Volumes

Attach a new or existing block storage volume of 10 GB to 10 TB. You can let Wolkra format and mount it for you.

Firewall

Apply an existing firewall, or add one later. A firewall can also apply automatically to every server with a matching label.

Backups

Turn on daily automatic backups for 20% of the server price, with 7 restore points. You can change this any time. See backups and snapshots.

Placement group

Add the server to a placement group to spread it across physical hosts, so two replicas never share the same hardware.

Labels

Labels are key=value pairs, such as env=prod or role=web. Firewalls and load balancers can target servers by label selector, so new servers with the right labels are picked up automatically.

User data (cloud-init)

User data runs once on the first boot. A cloud-config example that creates a user, installs packages and enables a firewall:

#cloud-config
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
packages:
  - ufw
  - fail2ban
users:
  - name: deploy
    groups: sudo
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL"
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-ed25519 AAAA... my-laptop
runcmd:
  - ufw allow OpenSSH
  - ufw --force enable

A plain shell script that starts with #!/bin/bash works too. On the server, check progress with cloud-init status --wait and the log at /var/log/cloud-init-output.log.

Name and protection

Give the server a clear name such as web-1. Enable delete protection for servers that should never be removed by accident; it must be turned off before the server can be deleted.

Cost

The console shows the price before you confirm. Billing is per started hour, capped at the monthly price, deducted from your prepaid balance. See billing and balance.

After creation

From the server view you can:

• see CPU, disk and network graphs;
• power on, off, reboot or reset;
• open the browser (VNC) console;
• boot into rescue mode;
• resize, rebuild with another image, or take a snapshot;
• set reverse DNS for its IPs;
• edit labels and delete protection.

Everything here is also possible through the API at https://api.wolkra.com/v1/servers; see API tokens.