Vultr is a cloud server provider that aims to make it easy for developers and businesses to deploy their infrastructure on its advanced cloud platform. It has become one of the leading choices for hosting websites. Vultr has a global presence with 32 data centers across the world – You can select the server location that is nearest to you or your target audience.

In this article, we will show you how to host your websites on Vultr using RunCloud. RunCloud is a server management platform that lets you connect, configure, and manage your web applications on any cloud server provider, including Vultr.

RunCloud makes it very easy to connect your Vultr server to its dashboard. Let’s see how!

RunCloud offers a server provisioning functionality that allows you to create and delete new servers directly from the RunCloud dashboard with just a few clicks. All you need to do is add the Vultr API key to your RunCloud account.

Adding Vultr API Key to RunCloud

The Vultr API key is a unique identifier that allows RunCloud to communicate with your Vultr account and create servers on your behalf. To get the Vultr API key, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to your Vultr account and go to the API settings tab on Vultr.
  2. Click on the “Enable API” button to generate your API key.
  1. Next, go to your RunCloud dashboard and navigate to the RunCloud Integrations tab in the account settings. Select “Vultr” from the list of available integrations.
  1. On the next screen, provide a descriptive name for this connection in the label field. In the “Personal Access Token” field, paste the API key generated in step 1.
  1. Finally, you need to whitelist IP addresses listed in the RunCloud dashboard on your Vultr account. This will allow RunCloud to access your Vultr account on your behalf. To do this, you need to individually copy each IP address (without the subnet mask, i.e. /32 at the end of the address) and add it to Vultr.

For example, if you want to add 52.53.52.35/32, you will need to type 52.53.52.35 in the first box and then write 32 in the next box; then you need to click “Add” to add it to the list. You need to repeat this step for all of the IP addresses.

This might seem like a lot of work for something so trivial, but this is required to properly secure your account. If you do this properly, you can set it and forget it. Once you have added all of the IP addresses, it should look something like this:

  1. After all of the necessary IP addresses have been whitelisted, you can go back to the RunCloud dashboard and test the integration. If you receive a success message, you can click “Save Integration” to add the key to your account.
  1. If you received an error during the last step, you should double check the list of IP addresses that you have whitelisted. If you got access to your Vultr account via an invitation, the root account will need to enable the necessary permissions to create and manage servers via API on their Vultr dashboard.

To find the root user of your account, go to your Vultr profile menu, there you should see the email address of the root user that manages your account.

That’s it! Your Vultr API key is now added to RunCloud and you can use it for building servers.

Provisioning a Vultr Server with RunCloud Integration

After adding the API key to your RunCloud account, you can build your Vultr server from the RunCloud dashboard in just a few clicks. You can choose from different OS images, plans, data center regions, and instances without leaving your RunCloud dashboard.

Here are the steps to build your Vultr server with RunCloud:

  1. Click on the “Let’s get started” button on the RunCloud dashboard to create your first server.
  2. On the next screen, you will see a list of available server providers. Choose Vultr and click on the “Deploy Server Automatically” option.
  1. Next, scroll down and select your installation type, as well as your server. After this, select the Vultr API key that we just added to RunCloud.
  1. On the next screen, you will see a list of options to customize your server. You can choose the OS image (we recommend the latest version), the server plan, the data center region, and the instance that suit your needs.

    After adding all of the details, click on the “Add server” button to start building your server.
  1. RunCloud will provision your server automatically, and show you the progress on the dashboard. It may take a few minutes to complete.

When the provision is done, you will see your server details on the dashboard. Congratulations! You have successfully built your Vultr server with RunCloud.

Video Tutorial: How to Set Up a Vultr Server from RunCloud Dashboard

If you prefer watching a video tutorial, you can check out this YouTube video that shows you how to set up a Vultr server from the RunCloud dashboard.

Method 2. Setup Vultr Manual Server Installation.

Another way to set up your Vultr server with RunCloud is to use the manual server installation method. This method requires you to create a new server on Vultr using Ubuntu 22/24 LTS OS image, and then run the RunCloud installation script on your server using an SSH client. But before we do that, we need to create a firewall.

Using the Vultr Firewall

Vultr provides a network-level firewall that runs in front of your server. Configuring it is optional, but it can help reduce unwanted traffic before requests ever reach your instance or the OS firewall.

This section applies only if you are hosting on Vultr. If you are using another provider, or prefer to manage access purely via the server firewall configured by RunCloud, you can skip this step.

By default, a Vultr firewall group blocks all incoming connections. You must explicitly allow the ports your server needs to function.

Create a Firewall Group in Vultr

  1. Log in to your Vultr dashboard.
  2. Go to Network > Firewall.
  3. Click Add Firewall Group.
  4. Enter a descriptive name, such as “RunCloud Server Firewall”, and create the group.
  5. Open the newly created firewall group to manage its rules.

Add Required Inbound Rules

Add inbound rules to allow traffic needed for RunCloud and standard web hosting. Each rule should be created individually.

Allow the following inbound traffic:

  • TCP port 80 – required for HTTP traffic
  • TCP port 443 – required for HTTPS traffic
  • TCP port 34210 – required for RunCloud to communicate with your server

For SSH access:

  • TCP port 22 – required only if you connect via SSH. You can remove this rule later or restrict it to your IP address if you do not need ongoing SSH access.

Optional performance enhancement:

  • UDP port 443 – enables HTTP/3 support if your stack and clients support it

All rules can initially be set to allow traffic from anywhere. If you prefer a more restrictive setup, you can limit SSH access to trusted IP addresses.

Apply the Firewall Group

Once the rules are in place, attach the firewall group to your server instance. Firewall rules only affect new connections, so existing connections will not be interrupted.

At this point, your Vultr firewall will block any inbound traffic that is not explicitly allowed, while still permitting RunCloud and your websites to operate normally.

Provision VPS and Connect to RunCloud

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. After opening the necessary firewall ports, go back to the Instances tab and click the “+” button to deploy a new server.
  2. On the next screen, select your desired machine type and region. Then choose Ubuntu as your OS image, and select the version that you want (22 or 24 LTS).
  1. After this, choose the plan, location, hostname, and other options that suit your needs.

    If you plan to use automated backups on RunCloud, you can turn this feature off on Vultr.

    Finally, select the firewall group we created from the drop-down menu, then click the “Deploy Now” button.
  1. Wait for a few minutes while Vultr creates your server, and assigns an IP address and a root password to it. When the server has been provisioned, note down the IP address and password for your server.
Vultr dashboard
  1. Go back to your RunCloud dashboard and click on the “Connect New Server” button. Choose Vultr as your server provider and click on the “Connect via IP Address” option.

    Select your server stack, enter the IP address of your server and click on the “Continue” button.
  1. On the next screen, paste the root password of your server from the Vultr dashboard. This will install the RunCloud agent on your server.

    Wait for a few minutes while the script installs the necessary packages and scripts on your server. You will see a success message when it’s done.

That’s it! You have learned how to set up a manual Vultr server installation with RunCloud. You can now start deploying web applications.

Video Tutorial: How to Set Up Vultr Server with RunCloud

Final Thoughts

In this article, we have shown you how to use the server provisioning feature of RunCloud to set up a Vultr server from the RunCloud dashboard. This is a convenient and fast way to create your Vultr server without leaving RunCloud.

Vultr is a great option for hosting your websites, as it offers high-performance architecture, 100% local SSD, and high-performance Intel CPUs for as low as $5 / month.

Once you have set up your server, you can start creating your websites, adding your domains, and installing various web applications using RunCloud.

Here are some tutorials that you can follow:

We hope you enjoyed this article and learned something new. If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below.