Why does my Linode keep rebooting?

There are many reasons why your Linode could be rebooting. Some of the more common possibilities include the following:

• Your Linode may be experiencing kernel panics or other fatal errors. You can read more about what kernel panics are and how to handle them here:

  • https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/linux-kernel-panic

• Are you sharing login details for the Linode or your Cloud Manager account with others? They may be issuing these reboots as the same user.

  If you are currently sharing this login with another person, you may want to provide them a separate login. You may find this guide from our Documentation helpful for granting third-party access to your services in a secure fashion:

  • https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/create-limited-developer-account/

• Are you using our API or CLI? You may be invoking a routine using these utilities which is causing the Linode to reboot.

  If this is undesired behavior, I would recommend seeing where these requests may be coming from. A good option for doing so is your Linode's log files:

  • https://www.linode.com/community/questions/295/how-do-i-check-my-servers-log-files

  If you aren't able to identify this in a timely fashion, you may want to simply revoke your existing Personal Access Token(s) from this page:

  • https://cloud.linode.com/profile/tokens

  This would prevent any reboot routines which depend upon those Personal Access Token(s) from working.

• There is a very slight chance that someone may have unauthorized access to your account. To account for this possibility, I would recommend changing your account password at your soonest convenience. To do so, you can provide your username on this page:

  • https://login.linode.com/forgot/password

  You may also want to enable two-factor authentication, or 2FA, from this page:

  • https://cloud.linode.com/profile/auth

  2FA will protect your account even if someone is able to guess your password successfully. You may also use one of our third-party authentication providers, which may offer their own 2FA option:

  • https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/third-party-authentication/

Finally, it's possible that you may just be directly issuing the reboot requests yourself. However, if this were the case, I would think that you wouldn't be surprised by these reboots. Even so, this would a valid explanation as to why these reboots are occurring.

The possibilities listed above are not mutually exclusive, nor do they cover every possibility. As a result, I would recommend considering all of these options and more as you look further into this matter.