Create a preemptible server

Last update: May 30 2026

carefully

A preemptible server will be stopped by Selectel at any time within 24 hours of creation. If the preemptible server has a local disk, the data on it will be deleted.

For more information on how preemptible servers work, see the preemptible Servers instruction.

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

2. Click Create server.

3. In the Advanced Settings block, check the preemptible Server checkbox.

4. Select the rest of the server settings — see the Create Cloud Server instruction for details.

5. Click Create.

OpenStack CLI

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Create a cloud server:

   openstack server create \
       [--image <image> | --volume <volume> | --snapshot <snapshot>] \
       --flavor <flavor> \
       --availability-zone <pool_segment> \
       --nic net-id=<net_uuid> \
       --security-group <security_group> \
       --key-name <key_name> \
       --tag preemptible --os-compute-api-version 2.72 \
       <server_name>

   Specify:

   • source type:
     • --image <image> — to create a server from a pre-built or custom image. The <image> parameter is the image ID or name. You can view the list of images using openstack image list;
     • --volume <volume> — to create a server from a network volume. The <volume> parameter is the volume ID or name. You can view the list of network volumes using openstack volume list;
     • --snapshot <snapshot> — to create a server from a snapshot. The <snapshot> parameter is the snapshot ID or name. You can view the list of snapshots using openstack snapshot list;
   • <flavor> — flavor ID or name. Flavors correspond to cloud server configurations and determine the number of vCPUs, RAM, and the (optional) local disk size of the server. You can use fixed-configuration flavors or create a flavor. For example, 1015 is the ID for creating a server with a fixed Standard configuration with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB RAM in the ru-7 pool. You can view the list of flavors using openstack flavor list or in the table List of fixed-configuration flavors in all pools;
   • <pool_segment> — pool segment where the cloud server will be created, for example, ru-7a. You can view the list of available pool segments in the Availability Matrix instruction;
   • <net_uuid> — ID of the private or public network to which the server will connect. You can view the list using openstack network list;
   • <security_group> — security group ID or name. To create a server with a security group, port security (traffic filtering) must be enabled in the network. You can view the list of groups using the command openstack security group list;
   • <key_name> — name of the SSH key pair for the service user. If you have not created SSH keys, generate them. You can view the list using openstack keypair list;
   • --tag preemptible --os-compute-api-version 2.72 — tag for creating a preemptible server;
   • optional: --block-device-mapping vdb=<extra_volume> — ID or name of the additional disk. You can view the list using openstack volume list;
   • optional: --property x_cloud_smt_enabled=false — disable Hyper-Threading (SMT). If this parameter is not specified, Hyper-Threading (SMT) will be enabled by default. Only available for flavors that support dedicated cores. You can view the list of flavors in the table List of fixed-configuration flavors in all pools;
   • optional: --property x_cloud_numa_nodes=1 — place resources on a single NUMA node. Only available for flavors that support dedicated cores. You can view the list of flavors in the table List of fixed-configuration flavors in all pools;
   • optional: --tag <tag_name> --os-compute-api-version 2.52 — tag to add additional information about the server;
   • optional: --user-data <user_data.file> — path to the script with Base64-encoded data. Scripts and tasks are executed when the operating system boots for the first time. You can see examples of scripts in the User data instruction;
   • <server_name> — server name.