Compute — Droplets
Droplets are virtual machines managed by Uncloud. Under the hood, each Droplet is a KubeVirtVirtualMachine resource running on your Kubernetes cluster.
How Droplets Work
When you create a Droplet:- A record is created in SQLite with status
provisioning - The sync loop picks it up and creates a KubeVirt
VirtualMachineCRD - KubeVirt schedules the VM on an available node
- The sync loop pulls the runtime status (IP addresses, phase) back to SQLite
- The Droplet status transitions to
running
Droplet Lifecycle
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
provisioning | VM is being created in Kubernetes |
running | VM is active and accessible |
off | VM is powered down but not deleted |
destroyed | VM has been permanently deleted |
Plans (Instance Types)
Droplets are sized using plans that define CPU, memory, and disk:| Plan | Specs | Type |
|---|---|---|
s-1vcpu-1gb | 1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB disk | General Purpose |
s-2vcpu-2gb | 2 vCPU, 2 GB, 50 GB disk | General Purpose |
s-4vcpu-8gb | 4 vCPU, 8 GB, 160 GB disk | General Purpose |
c-2vcpu-4gb | 2 vCPU, 4 GB, 50 GB disk | CPU-Optimized |
m-2vcpu-16gb | 2 vCPU, 16 GB, 50 GB disk | Memory-Optimized |
Images (Operating Systems)
Supported OS images include:- Ubuntu — 22.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS
- Debian — 12, 11
- CentOS — Stream 9
- Fedora — 39
- Rocky Linux — 9
- Alpine — 3.19
Features
SSH Access
Inject SSH public keys at creation time. Keys are embedded into the VM’s cloud-init configuration.VNC Console
Access a graphical console for any Droplet directly through the dashboard or API. Useful for debugging boot issues or when SSH isn’t available.Live Resizing
Change the plan (CPU/memory) of a running Droplet. The VM is updated in place when possible, or restarted if needed.Snapshots
Create point-in-time snapshots of a Droplet’s disk. Snapshots can be used to restore a Droplet to a previous state or to create new Droplets from a known-good image.Metrics
Monitor CPU utilization, memory usage, disk I/O, and network traffic via the built-in metrics API, powered by Prometheus and the Kubernetes Metrics Server.Tags
Apply arbitrary key-value tags to Droplets for organization and filtering.Kubernetes Mapping
| Droplet Concept | Kubernetes Resource |
|---|---|
| Droplet | VirtualMachine (KubeVirt CRD) |
| Droplet disk | DataVolume / PVC |
| SSH keys | cloud-init Secret |
| Public IP | Service (NodePort/LoadBalancer) |
| Snapshot | VolumeSnapshot |