Documentation01 Sep 2026Joy Team1 min read

OS templates, reinstall and the guest agent (summary)

A short version of how Joy installs your server and what the guest agent is used for.

Every Joy region has Compute Fabric nodes with prepared templates for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04 and Windows Server 2019 / 2022 / 2025. When you deploy, we clone the template (full clone, independent disk), resize it to your plan, boot it and use the QEMU guest agent to write the static IPv4, gateway and DNS, set the root / Administrator password, set the hostname, regenerate machine-id and SSH host keys, and enable RDP on Windows.

Do not remove qemu-guest-agent — password resets and live stats depend on it. Reinstall keeps your IP and VM id, wipes the disk and repeats the process. The full guide is at Reinstall, OS templates and the guest agent.

reinstalltemplates
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You need a Joy account and a running server. Commands assume Ubuntu 24.04 unless stated; Windows steps are marked.

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