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RackNerd Launches ctrl, a Proprietary Platform Built for AI VPS
We've been busy behind the scenes, and I'm excited to share a major milestone with the LET community -- RackNerd has moved away from SolusVM, and today officially launched ctrl, our proprietary VPS management platform! To provide some additional background and transparency regarding the transition, ctrl has been about a year in the making. Recently and unrelated to the development of ctrl, our team has also been actively identifying and responsibly reporting security issues in the software we've relied on.
Most recently, this included CVE-2026-68491, which our team discovered and responsibly disclosed to SolusVM/WebPros. Earlier, we also reported the vulnerability in SolusVM's WHMCS integration module, along with other issues along the way: https://docs.solusvm.com/en/solusvm1/release-notes/mainline-branch/v1.30/ -- by the way, there was no impact to any of our infrastructure from any of these vulnerabilities (they were internally discovered and responsibly reported)
SolusVM and the WebPros team have been great to work with. To their credit, they addressed our reports quickly, particularly considering the coordination involved in a software vendor's release process. We appreciate their responsiveness and the role their software has played in RackNerd's journey.
These experiences reinforced the value of the direction we were already taking with ctrl. We expedited development and committed additional resources to completing the project, recognizing that our team's experience could directly shape a platform built specifically for our infrastructure and customers.
At this point in RackNerd's growth, owning that platform was the right next step. With ctrl, we're now in full control (no pun intended!) of our platform's development and product roadmap. There's real value in setting our own priorities and timelines, acting directly on your feedback, and building around our customers' needs from the ground up, rather than continually bolting things on.
That ownership also brings responsibility, and we're committed to the ongoing development and maintenance that come with it. We're excited to keep improving ctrl and putting more features and capabilities into your hands 
And there are already quite a few new things to explore:
- ctrl Network Firewall -- An optional firewall that filters inbound traffic on our network before it reaches your VPS, complementing your operating system's firewall.
- One-Click Apps -- Deploy applications including AdminBolt, AnythingLLM, n8n, Ollama, LibreChat, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Coolify, and more!
- More OS templates -- More options for your next project or deployment.
- A modernized interface -- Manage your RackNerd VPS instances from one unified platform.
- Reference notes -- Keep useful notes alongside your services.
- Improved 2FA & Login History -- Stronger two-factor authentication with recovery codes, plus a clearer login history so you can review recent sign-ins from one place.
That's alongside power controls, HTML5 console access, OS reinstalls, root password resets, network reconfiguration, resource monitoring, and more.
All included with your RackNerd VPS services at no additional cost! For existing customers, the transition is simple -- log into ctrl using the same credentials as before, and your VPS instances will be ready to manage. There's no need to migrate or rebuild your VPS.
New customers will be provisioned directly on ctrl from day one. SolusVM has been completely retired from our environment as of today, with both existing and new customers now using ctrl
We'll continue enhancing ctrl, expanding the One-Click Apps catalog, adding features, and refining the experience. Open to hearing any and all feedback from the community.
Explore ctrl and try the interactive demo here: https://racknerd.com/ctrl-control-panel.php
Explore RackNerd ctrl One-Click Apps here: https://racknerd.com/ai-vps.php
Thank You sincerely for everyone's continued business and support! As I always like to say, we're just getting started! I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead for RackNerd and we look forward to contributing more towards the community as well. 👊
Comments
nice1 dustin
Wow!
a lot of shiny buzzwords. it's all sexy and cool, and then you see WHMCS when you try to order.
What a turn off.
Can you vibe code a custom client panel as well?
I want to buy
nice, $10/yr deals in celebration?!
Nice! Can't wait to see the enhancements/future updates!
Hehe, @dustinc , your demo page scared me for a moment because I didn't see anywhere for a custom iso/boot from options! I did log into my account and clicked on one of my services where I know I still have a netinst iso mounted and I still see it and the boot options. I also noticed it's slightly different than the demo page (more options) but I think that's fine as the demo page does give a good overview of it.
Hi @johndeo983 -- happy to know you find ctrl attractive and the features to be cool. ctrl will continue to evolve, and support RackNerd's growth. What's important to us, is to expand our service offerings in desired locations, and expanding products that our customers demand. As you know, WHMCS is fully customizable when it comes to integration, so if you have any design elements you think we can improve on, we're always open to hearing and making changes
Hi @beanman109 -- Thank You! We've been working on ctrl for quite some time, so it feels great to finally get it into customers' hands. Let's gooo 👊
Hi @seikan -- Thank You! We sincerely appreciate your continued support towards RackNerd over the years too by the way. It means a lot to see you here as we launch ctrl, and I'm excited for you to see what we've been working on
Nice move, congratulations !
Howdy, I think you're leaning on the right direction, some new RackNerd promotions
We do need to run some new promotions, and are in the works of deploying hundreds of new nodes. We have confirmation of 7 pallets of gear incoming, and have sourced the drives, and expect to build late next week. From there, it'll allow us to start planning 
In the mean time check out our new specials page: https://racknerd.com/specials
@PuDLeZ -- Boom! Yes sir, the demo is a recreation meant to give everyone a quick feel for ctrl, so it doesn't show every single option you'll find when managing a VPS within the actual ctrl. Glad you checked your service and found the features and settings right where they should be
You make a good point though. I'll run this by the team and see how we can improve the interactive demo to show more of the smaller/finer details of what's available. Doesn't hurt! We have more enhancements planned for ctrl too, and I'm looking forward to sharing those as they roll out 😎
Hi @commercial -- appreciate it! Having our own platform opens up a lot of possibilities for what we can build next. We're excited that our product and development roadmap (not to mention security) is no longer tied to the decisions of a third-party vendor
You already know it, full steam ahead from here!
How much of ctrl is vibed?
Hi @yoursunny -- hahaha, fair question in 2026
ctrl comes from actual engineering experience, and more importantly, years of dealing with the ins and outs of virtualization infrastructure firsthand at scale. There are certain things you simply don't learn until you've operated this stuff for years, dealt with the edge cases, broken things, fixed things, and figured out what is needed and wanted from both a customers and operations perspective.
I mean, at this point we were basically maintaining SolusVM for them 😂https://docs.solusvm.com/en/solusvm1/release-notes/mainline-branch/v1.30/ - not to mention the things we were patching on just to keep the wheels spinning on it. All jokes aside though, we’re happy to do it as it helps other providers out, and credit to WebPros for being receptive on the feedback. The platform served us well during its time.
So this wasn't a "build me a panel and make no mistakes" type of project, but instead ctrl is the result of taking many years of operational experience, intaking valued client wants, including everything we liked, disliked, fixed, worked around, and wished existed in the platforms we've used, and engineering our own platform around that experience with security in mind. While we continue to invest in third party platforms, there's no better time to invest in our own - and we're extremely proud of how well our team has done. By the way, if anyone has missed it we've recently reached another milestone, massive achievement: https://www.inc.com/profile/racknerd-llc
Congratulations and great work, @dustinc!
Hi @Xrmaddness -- Thank You sir! And sincerely, thank you for supporting RackNerd since our early years. I never lose sight of those who have been around with us for the journey yourself included
Always appreciate seeing you around here, and of course partying it up with you in our threads around the holidays hahaha. Many more good times ahead!
speaking of holidays, isn't it like only 60 days until we all start losing some sleep?!
Hahaha @PuDLeZ, now's the time to load up on coffee, good reminder! It's going to be a party, and with ctrl, couldn't be better!
Looking good. The Network firewall could come in handy and block traffic before it even reaches your door. I really appreciated that the api is up on day one, and documented. Plus a bonus. quadruple bandwidth this month :-)
@dnelowwolend -- Woot woot, glad you're finding the ctrl Network Firewall feature, and API implementation to be useful for your use case
And LOL, the free bandwidth reset this month certainly doesn't hurt either, on top of the usual reset coming on the 1st too. We're definitely having some fun with the launch!
Cool! Love custom panels.
Kudos for making the switchover transparent. I logged in with the same credentials I used in Solus.
Are RDNS and Custom ISO on the upcoming feature list?
Congrats on the launch of CTRL! How about tripling the bandwidth on our existing VPSes to celebrate?
Hi @raindog308 -- Boooom! Good stuff, and glad to hear the switchover was seamless for you
The goal was to make this friction-free for our customers.
Custom ISO capabilities are already supported within ctrl, though at the moment the ISO itself is manually mounted by our team through a support ticket (after which you can unmount it yourself in the panel when you're done). So the functionality is there today, and we're looking at further refining that workflow over time.
Self service rDNS is also supported today across certain locations/IP ranges -- specifically where the parent IPv4 allocation is a /24 or larger. We're currently looking into ways to extend that capability to IPs that belong to smaller parent blocks as well, though in the meantime those can be handled via a support ticket.
So both are very much on our radar to further improve, with parts of each already in place
Hi @Arirang -- thank you sir! We sincerely appreciate your continued business and support too
As part of today's ctrl launch, we actually reset the bandwidth meter to zero for all VPS services as of today September 22 -- and with the 1st of the month just around the corner, another reset isn't far behind either.
This is so cool! I can't wait to buy one on Black Friday. Will we still have flash sale events on Black Friday?
Hi @suut, appreciate the love and support! As always, as long as we build the demand, Chef's always in
nice!It would be great if there were a VPS offer priced below $10.
Sir their last Black Friday is still going on, and I think it will be for the next 6 years so no worris.
Hello, I would like to double my black friday.
Invoice #69420
Thanks!
Hi @openid! Glad to see you're onboard with our new proprietary panel
Deployment is smooth, and the features are advantageous for our valued customers. I'm with you on more deals, we're known for bringing deals, cycling new ones, and so on, so keep an eye out 