# Connect DigitalOcean > Connect DigitalOcean to manage your Droplets and DNS from InfraNest, and to pull the SSL certificates on your account into your certificate list. Source: https://infranest.io/docs/connect-digitalocean Last updated: 2026-10-26 --- Connect your DigitalOcean account to manage Droplets and DNS right from InfraNest, and to keep an eye on your SSL certificates' expiry dates. This is for anyone running servers or domains on DigitalOcean. ## Overview - Connect once and your servers, zones and records appear automatically. - Manage Droplets, volumes, VPCs, firewalls, load balancers and DNS directly from InfraNest — not just view them. - Certificates on your DigitalOcean account show up in your certificate list, covered by your expiry reminders. - DigitalOcean will host DNS for any domain, no matter where you bought the name — you don't need to move the registration. > [!NOTE] > If you'd rather not use the one-click button, you'll need a DigitalOcean API token. See **Create a DigitalOcean API token** for the steps and which permissions to give it. ## Connect DigitalOcean 1. Go to **Integrations** and open **DigitalOcean**. 2. Give the connection an **Account label** (**Optional** — useful if you connect more than one account). 3. Choose which features to use it for: **Servers**, **DNS** and **Certificates**. 4. Either select **Connect with DigitalOcean** and approve it in the window that opens, or paste your **API token**. 5. Leave **Email me when this integration has problems** ticked if you'd like email warnings. 6. Select **Connect**. ![Connect DigitalOcean](/media/7d782498-582f-4e8a-a737-2e72771247f9) ## What you get once it's connected - **Servers** — create Droplets from here, and your existing ones appear with their size, region, addresses and tags. Power them on and off, reboot, rebuild, take snapshots, turn DigitalOcean's weekly backups on or off, and see CPU, bandwidth and disk graphs you can build alerts on. - **Volumes, VPCs, firewalls and load balancers** — created, changed and deleted from here, not just listed. Attach a volume to a Droplet, edit a firewall's rules and apply it across several Droplets at once, and give a load balancer its services and targets. - **DNS** — see and edit your zones and records, and create or delete zones from here. Point your domain's nameservers at `ns1.digitalocean.com`, `ns2.digitalocean.com` and `ns3.digitalocean.com` and DigitalOcean answers for it. - **SSL certificates** — the certificates on your DigitalOcean account appear in your certificate list, with their names and expiry dates, so they're covered by your expiry reminders. ## Tips - DigitalOcean doesn't sell domains. It hosts DNS for names registered elsewhere, so there are no domain actions here — renewals, transfer locks and WHOIS privacy stay with whoever you bought the name from. - CPU graphs need DigitalOcean's monitoring agent on the Droplet. Bandwidth always works because DigitalOcean measures it outside the machine, but CPU, memory and load come from an agent only installed if monitoring was switched on when the Droplet was made. Droplets created from InfraNest have it on by default; for an older Droplet, turn on monitoring in the DigitalOcean panel and the graph starts filling. - Disk speed is graphed, but not disk operations. DigitalOcean reports megabytes per second read and written, so that graph works and you can alert on it — but it doesn't report operations per second, so that alert isn't offered. - Some things stay in the DigitalOcean panel: the console, recovery mode and mounting an ISO have no API. Backups run on DigitalOcean's own weekly schedule and can't be started on demand — take a snapshot when you want one now. - Rules built around tags are shown but not editable. DigitalOcean can point a rule at Droplets, tags or load balancers as well as plain addresses, and InfraNest only understands addresses. Those rules appear in the firewall marked **Managed at the provider** and are kept exactly as they are when you save — the rest of the firewall is yours to edit as normal. To change one of these, use DigitalOcean's own control panel. - A VPC's address range is fixed once it's created, and a Droplet can't be moved to a different VPC afterwards. Renaming one works here. - Volume names and sizes can't be changed from here for any provider yet — attach, detach and delete are what a volume offers today. - Certificate files can't be downloaded. DigitalOcean never hands the certificate itself back over its API, only the details, so InfraNest can show you what a certificate covers and when it expires but has nothing to give you to download. - The shortest TTL is 30 seconds — DigitalOcean refuses anything lower. - The SOA record is read-only, which is normal — DigitalOcean maintains it for you. ## Troubleshooting - **"Authentication failed"** — the token was deleted, or it expired. DigitalOcean tokens can be created with an expiry date; make a new one and paste it in under **Reconnect**. - **"DigitalOcean could not be reached" when connecting** — this means exactly what it says: the connection wasn't refused, DigitalOcean simply didn't answer while we were checking it. Nothing is wrong with your account or your approval. Wait a minute and select **Connect** again. - **Some things work and one thing is refused** — your token has custom scopes and is missing one. The simplest fix is a Full Access token; otherwise see **Create a DigitalOcean API token** for the exact list. - **You connected with the button and a certificate won't import** — the approval you gave covers only the features ticked at the time. Disconnect, tick **Certificates** as well, and connect again. The same applies to **Servers**: a connection made for DNS alone was never given access to your Droplets. - **A Droplet's CPU graph is empty while bandwidth works** — that Droplet has no monitoring agent. See the Tips section above; it isn't a problem with the connection.