Question

Moving to a smaller droplet

Posted July 1, 2014 8.6k views

I am planning to move to a smaller droplet, since the current setup is overcapable. Now, I know, DO doesn’t support resizing to a smaller disk - I guess I will just have to move the installation manually. What is the best way to do so? Are there tools that allow you to transfer a complete Linux installation to another machine? Or will I have to reinstall all my applications on the target droplet?

My current droplet is the $10/mo Debian 7 x86 droplet, I want to move to the $5/mo droplet.

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bensnik
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bensnik

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5 answers
vps July 1, 2014

Not sure if downsizing but you could try https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-resize-droplets-using-snapshots.

Basically create a snapshot of current droplet. Then recreate it as smaller size using the snapshot as image.

If it doesn’t work you could just restore the snapshot you just created! Only risk is a little downtown.

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bensnik July 1, 2014

I have already tried that and it gives me the error that you cannot instantiate a droplet from a snapshot of a bigger droplet. This is obvious, for a 30 GB HDD droplet could have more than 20 GB hard drive used, meaning it is physically impossible to migrate the droplet directly.
In my case, I have less than 5 GB hard drive used however, so that should not pose a problem in that regard.

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vps July 1, 2014

Good to know. I was figuring if droplet wasn’t using more space than what you are downsizing to you would be ok.

Wondering if that is something DO might be able to correct in future.

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bensnik July 2, 2014

To follow up on this, I just manually reinstalled everything, since I was able to clear up some clutter this way.

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maxcollects January 12, 2017

hey guys,

not the most technical guy here but were you able to figure out how to resize my current droplet? i am realising that i am paying more than i need and i desperately want to resize my $90/mo droplet

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