DigitalOcean Droplets Documentation¶

Complete documentation for DigitalOcean Droplets - virtual machines that power your cloud infrastructure.

📚 Documentation Index¶

Core Documentation¶

Droplets Overview
What are Droplets?
Droplet types and sizing
Supported operating systems
Pricing and use cases
Architecture overview
Creating Droplets
Creation methods (Control Panel, CLI, API, Terraform)
Step-by-step guides
Configuration options
Best practices
Common patterns
Managing Droplets
Power management
Resizing Droplets
Snapshots and backups
Monitoring and metrics
Maintenance tasks

🚀 Quick Start¶

Create Your First Droplet (5 Minutes)¶

# 1. Install doctl
brew install doctl  # macOS
# or
snap install doctl  # Linux

# 2. Authenticate
doctl auth init

# 3. Create SSH key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

# 4. Add SSH key to DigitalOcean
doctl compute ssh-key import my-key \
  --public-key-file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

# 5. Create Droplet
doctl compute droplet create my-first-droplet \
  --region nyc3 \
  --size s-1vcpu-1gb \
  --image ubuntu-22-04-x64 \
  --ssh-keys $(doctl compute ssh-key list --format ID --no-header) \
  --wait

# 6. Get IP address
doctl compute droplet list --format Name,PublicIPv4

# 7. SSH into Droplet
ssh root@<droplet-ip>

💡 Common Use Cases¶

1. Web Server¶

# Create web server Droplet
doctl compute droplet create web-server \
  --region nyc3 \
  --size s-1vcpu-2gb \
  --image ubuntu-22-04-x64 \
  --user-data-file - << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
apt-get update
apt-get install -y nginx
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl start nginx
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw --force enable
EOF

2. Database Server¶

# Create database Droplet
doctl compute droplet create db-server \
  --region nyc3 \
  --size m-2vcpu-16gb \
  --image ubuntu-22-04-x64 \
  --vpc-uuid <vpc-id> \
  --enable-backups \
  --tag-names database,production

3. Development Environment¶

# Create dev Droplet with Docker
doctl compute droplet create dev-env \
  --region nyc3 \
  --size s-2vcpu-4gb \
  --image docker-20-04 \
  --enable-monitoring \
  --tag-names development

📊 Droplet Types Comparison¶

Type	Best For	CPU	Starting Price
Basic	Development, testing, low-traffic sites	Shared	$4/month
General Purpose	Production apps, medium traffic	Dedicated	$63/month
CPU-Optimized	CI/CD, video encoding, ML	High-frequency	$42/month
Memory-Optimized	Databases, caching, analytics	Dedicated	$126/month
Storage-Optimized	Data warehousing, logs	Dedicated	$168/month

🏗️ Architecture Patterns¶

Three-Tier Web Application¶

                    Internet
                        │
                ┌───────▼────────┐
                │ Load Balancer  │
                └───────┬────────┘
                        │
        ┌───────────────┼───────────────┐
        │               │               │
   ┌────▼────┐     ┌────▼────┐    ┌────▼────┐
   │  Web    │     │  Web    │    │  Web    │
   │ Droplet │     │ Droplet │    │ Droplet │
   └────┬────┘     └────┬────┘    └────┬────┘
        │               │               │
        └───────────────┼───────────────┘
                        │
                ┌───────▼────────┐
                │  App Droplets  │
                └───────┬────────┘
                        │
                ┌───────▼────────┐
                │   Database     │
                │    Droplet     │
                └────────────────┘

High Availability Setup¶

Region: NYC3                    Region: SFO3
┌─────────────────────┐        ┌─────────────────────┐
│  Primary Droplets   │        │  Backup Droplets    │
│  ├─> Web Tier       │◄──────►│  ├─> Web Tier       │
│  ├─> App Tier       │  Sync  │  ├─> App Tier       │
│  └─> DB Primary     │        │  └─> DB Replica     │
└─────────────────────┘        └─────────────────────┘

🔧 Management Commands¶

Power Management¶

# Power operations
doctl compute droplet-action power-off <droplet-id>
doctl compute droplet-action power-on <droplet-id>
doctl compute droplet-action reboot <droplet-id>
doctl compute droplet-action power-cycle <droplet-id>

Resizing¶

# Resize with disk
doctl compute droplet-action resize <droplet-id> \
  --size s-2vcpu-4gb \
  --resize-disk

# Resize without disk (flexible)
doctl compute droplet-action resize <droplet-id> \
  --size s-2vcpu-4gb

Snapshots¶

# Create snapshot
doctl compute droplet-action snapshot <droplet-id> \
  --snapshot-name "backup-$(date +%Y%m%d)"

# List snapshots
doctl compute snapshot list --resource droplet

# Create Droplet from snapshot
doctl compute droplet create restored \
  --image <snapshot-id> \
  --region nyc3 \
  --size s-1vcpu-1gb

Backups¶

# Enable backups
doctl compute droplet-action enable-backups <droplet-id>

# Disable backups
doctl compute droplet-action disable-backups <droplet-id>

# List backups
doctl compute droplet-backups <droplet-id>

🔒 Security Best Practices¶

Initial Setup¶

# 1. Use SSH keys (not passwords)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

# 2. Create Cloud Firewall
doctl compute firewall create web-firewall \
  --inbound-rules "protocol:tcp,ports:22,address:YOUR_IP/32 protocol:tcp,ports:80,address:0.0.0.0/0 protocol:tcp,ports:443,address:0.0.0.0/0" \
  --outbound-rules "protocol:tcp,ports:all,address:0.0.0.0/0" \
  --droplet-ids <droplet-id>

# 3. Update system
ssh root@<droplet-ip> << 'EOF'
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade -y
apt-get install -y ufw fail2ban
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw --force enable
systemctl enable fail2ban
systemctl start fail2ban
EOF

Hardening Checklist¶

✅ Use SSH keys (disable password auth)
✅ Enable Cloud Firewall
✅ Configure UFW on Droplet
✅ Install fail2ban
✅ Keep system updated
✅ Use VPC for internal communication
✅ Enable monitoring and alerts
✅ Regular backups/snapshots
✅ Implement least privilege
✅ Use strong passwords for services

💰 Cost Optimization¶

Tips to Save Money¶

Right-Size Your Droplets

# Monitor usage
doctl compute droplet get <droplet-id> --format ID,Name,Memory,Disk,Vcpus

# Resize if needed
doctl compute droplet-action resize <droplet-id> --size s-1vcpu-1gb

Use Snapshots for Idle Droplets

# Take snapshot
doctl compute droplet-action snapshot <droplet-id> --snapshot-name "idle-backup"

# Destroy Droplet
doctl compute droplet delete <droplet-id>

# Recreate when needed
doctl compute droplet create restored --image <snapshot-id>

Clean Up Unused Resources

# List all Droplets
doctl compute droplet list

# Delete unused Droplets
doctl compute droplet delete <droplet-id>

# Clean up old snapshots
doctl compute snapshot list --resource droplet
doctl compute snapshot delete <snapshot-id>

Use Basic Droplets for Dev/Test
Development: Basic $6-12/month
Staging: Basic $12-24/month
Production: General Purpose $63+/month

📈 Monitoring¶

Built-in Metrics¶

# Enable monitoring
doctl compute droplet-action enable-monitoring <droplet-id>

# View metrics via control panel:
# - CPU usage
# - Memory usage
# - Disk usage
# - Bandwidth
# - Network traffic

Custom Monitoring¶

# Install monitoring agent
ssh root@<droplet-ip> << 'EOF'
# Install Prometheus Node Exporter
wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v1.7.0/node_exporter-1.7.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar xvfz node_exporter-1.7.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo cp node_exporter-1.7.0.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin/
sudo useradd -rs /bin/false node_exporter

# Create systemd service
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/node_exporter.service << 'SERVICE'
[Unit]
Description=Node Exporter
After=network.target

[Service]
User=node_exporter
Group=node_exporter
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
SERVICE

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable node_exporter
sudo systemctl start node_exporter
EOF

🔄 Automation with Terraform¶

Basic Configuration¶

# main.tf
terraform {
  required_providers {
    digitalocean = {
      source  = "digitalocean/digitalocean"
      version = "~> 2.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "digitalocean" {
  token = var.do_token
}

resource "digitalocean_droplet" "web" {
  count  = 3
  name   = "web-${count.index + 1}"
  region = "nyc3"
  size   = "s-1vcpu-2gb"
  image  = "ubuntu-22-04-x64"

  ssh_keys = [var.ssh_key_id]

  tags = ["web", "production"]

  vpc_uuid   = digitalocean_vpc.main.id
  monitoring = true
  backups    = true
}

resource "digitalocean_loadbalancer" "web" {
  name   = "web-lb"
  region = "nyc3"

  forwarding_rule {
    entry_port     = 80
    entry_protocol = "http"
    target_port     = 80
    target_protocol = "http"
  }

  healthcheck {
    port     = 80
    protocol = "http"
    path     = "/"
  }

  droplet_ids = digitalocean_droplet.web[*].id
}

🐛 Troubleshooting¶

Common Issues¶

Cannot SSH into Droplet

# Check Droplet status
doctl compute droplet get <droplet-id>

# Check firewall rules
doctl compute firewall list-by-droplet <droplet-id>

# Use recovery console
# Access via Control Panel → Droplet → Access → Launch Console

High CPU Usage

# Check processes
ssh root@<droplet-ip> "top -bn1 | head -20"

# Check system load
ssh root@<droplet-ip> "uptime"

# Consider resizing
doctl compute droplet-action resize <droplet-id> --size s-2vcpu-4gb

Out of Disk Space

# Check disk usage
ssh root@<droplet-ip> "df -h"

# Find large files
ssh root@<droplet-ip> "du -h / | sort -rh | head -20"

# Clean up
ssh root@<droplet-ip> << 'EOF'
apt-get autoremove -y
apt-get autoclean
journalctl --vacuum-time=7d
EOF

# Or resize with more disk
doctl compute droplet-action resize <droplet-id> --size s-2vcpu-4gb --resize-disk

📚 Additional Resources¶

Official Documentation¶

Community Resources¶

Tools & Integrations¶

🎯 Next Steps¶

Get Started: Create your first Droplet
Learn Management: Managing Droplets guide
Explore Networking: Droplet Networking
Set Up Monitoring: Monitoring guide
Automate: Automation with API/CLI

Last Updated: January 2026
Version: 1.0
Maintained by: DevOps Documentation Team