How to install Debian VM Image from Linode

Linode is a Cloud Service Provider just like AWS, GCP or Azure.

They provide a nice CLI interface where you can create and manage VM.

Here is a quick introduction how you can create Debian 11 VM using linode-cli

Linode Documentation

Debian Images

SSH Keys

Linode CLI

List of Available Types

To see a list of available types for your vm using linode-cli command:

% linode-cli linodes types | egrep '(nanode|standard)' | awk '{print $2}'
g6-nanode-1
g6-standard-1
g6-standard-2
g6-standard-4
g6-standard-6
g6-standard-8
g6-standard-16
g6-standard-20
g6-standard-24
g6-standard-32

I used g6-nanode-1 since that's the least expensive option.

See https://www.linode.com/pricing/#compute-shared for more information.

List of Available Regions

To see a list of available regions where you can place your vm using linode-cli command:

% linode-cli regions list | grep Linodes | awk '{print $2}' | sort
ap-northeast
ap-south
ap-southeast
ap-west
ca-central
eu-central
eu-west
us-central
us-east
us-southeast
us-west

I used us-west since that's where I'm located.

Listing Available Images

To see a list of available debian images for VM using linode-cli command:

% linode-cli images list | awk '{print $2}' | grep linode | cut -d'/' -f2 | sort | grep debian
debian10
debian11
debian8
debian9
debian9-kube-v1.19.11
debian9-kube-v1.20.7
debian9-kube-v1.21.1

Creating Debian VM Image

To create Debian VM Image using linode-cli command:

Make sure to choose available region, type and image from above.

% linode-cli linodes create --label d11vm --type g6-nanode-1 --region us-west --image linode/debian11 --root_pass
Value for root_pass: ********

To create Debian VM image with SSH Keys, just add --authorized_users with your linode username.

This allows you to login the VM with SSH Key without typing password regardless the root password you've provided.

% linode-cli linodes create --label d11vm --type g6-nanode-1 --region us-west --image linode/debian11 --root_pass --authorized_users (your-linode-username)
Value for root_pass: ********

┌──────────┬───────┬─────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┬──────────────┬───────────────┐
│ id       │ label │ region  │ type        │ image           │ status       │ ipv4          │
├──────────┼───────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 88888811 │ d11vm │ us-west │ g6-nanode-1 │ linode/debian11 │ provisioning │ 192.168.1.11  │
└──────────┴───────┴─────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┴──────────────┴───────────────┘

Login to Debian VM Image

When the provisioning VM is completed (it usually takes a few mins), you can login to your VM as root with the IP address assigned.

% linode-cli linodes list
┌──────────┬────────────────┬─────────┬─────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────┬───────────────┐
│ id       │ label          │ region  │ type        │ image           │ status  │ ipv4          │
├──────────┼────────────────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────┼───────────────┤
│ 88888810 │ d10vm          │ us-west │ g6-nanode-1 │ linode/debian10 │ running │ 192.168.1.10  │
│ 88888811 │ d11vm          │ us-west │ g6-nanode-1 │ linode/debian11 │ running │ 192.168.1.11  │
└──────────┴────────────────┴─────────┴─────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────┴───────────────┘

% ssh root@192.168.1.11
...
root@localhost:~# lsb_release -d
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)


CategoryVirtualization | CategorySystemAdministration