English (US) Русский 简体中文

Articles in this section

Create Instance

Creating the instance

Instance list management

Creating the instance

Instances are created inside the projects. You can use the default project or create a new one (for more information, see the How to create and delete a project article).


1. Open a project and click on the Create Instance button.

1.png

The price is calculated automatically during the configuration.

2.png

2. Choose the region that is more suitable for you: Luxembourg, Moscow, Manassas, or Singapore.

1._____________.png

3. Select an operating system image: our template,  volume, snapshot, custom image, or a template from the marketplace.

Images.png

After choosing an image, pay attention to the information below. "For login to OS" prompt will help you to connect to the instance with Linux OS via SSH from a device on Linux OS. More details in the How to connect to the virtual machine via SSH article.

5.png

Important! If you want to connect to an instance with Linux OS from a device on Windows OS, use a special application, for example, PuTTY.

4. Choose the necessary configuration depending on your goals and budget (on the chosen type will depend your tariff plan). Please, keep in mind that if you choose the Windows server, the cost of the Windows license will be added to the configuration cost.

Different configuration sets are available in different regions. There are eight types of instance configurations in total: Shared, Standard, vCPU, Memory, High Frequency, SGX, GPU, and GPU-HF. 

mceclip1.png

  • The Shared type is best for workloads that do not require high performance. The main peculiarity of such a type is that instances with Shared type use core partially. With this type, only Ultra volume type can be used. 
  • The Standard type is best suited for a wide range of workloads that require predictable computing performance.
  • The vCPU type is a CPU-optimized virtual machine. They are best suited for tasks and projects that intensively use the central processing unit (CPU) and require predictable computing performance. For example, batch processing of large data sets and video encoding.
  • The Memory type is a virtual machine with optimized memory that is best suited for tasks and projects that use memory intensively, as a rule, these are databases.
  • The High Frequency type is a virtual machine with the high clock rate of the CPU (3.7 GHz in the basic configuration). This type of instance is suitable for those who value the CPU’s high performance and speed. It is perfect for applications requiring single-threaded performance, financial and probabilistic analytics, and automation of computational processes.
  • The SGX type is a virtual machine supporting Intel SGX technology. This is a set of processor instructions that can be used by applications to isolate private areas of code and data (enclaves), providing them with better protection against disclosure or modification. This type of instance is ideal for those who want to store critical, sensitive data in the cloud. Any confidential information can be placed in enclaves, including customer payment data — all information will be under reliable protection.
  • The GPU type is a virtual machine with a graphics card that is suitable for working with graphic information, deep and machine learning applications, and high-performance computing.
  • The GPU-HF type is a virtual machine machine with the high clock rate of the CPU and with a graphics card. This type of instance is ideal for those who want to perform complex calculations that require graphics accelerator resources and value the CPU’s high performance and speed.

Notice: for the "Shared" configuration, the bandwidth is limited up to 100Mbps. For all other configurations up to 1gbps.

5. Select the volume type and size. If it is necessary, add more volumes. Their number and total capacity are limited by the allocated quota, which you can increase on request. Read more about the provided quotas in this article.7.png

There are four types of Volumes:

  • High IOPS SSD - high IOPS network SSD disk - highest performance network SSD block storage designed for latency-sensitive transactional workloads (60 IOPS per 1 GB).
  • Standard - standard network SSD disk - high-performance network SSD block storage with stable and high random I/O performance, and high data reliability (6 IOPS per 1GB).
  • Cold - network HDD disk - lowest cost HDD block storage for less frequently accessed workloads (this Volume type is not available in the Manassas region).
  • Ultra - Network Block Storage. Can be used for non-critical data and less frequently accessed workloads. This volume type is available only with the Shared instance type. 

6. Add interfaces: you can add as public as private interfaces.8.png

If you have early created networks, select the created network from the drop-down list. To create a new network, click on the Add a new network button, and enter the network name.

After creating a network, you should configure a subnet (address range for machines in the cloud). If you have early created subnets, select the created subnet from the drop-down list.

To create a new subnet, click on the Add a new subnetwork button, enter the subnet name, and set the CIDR range for the subnet (the valid range for the subnet mask is: 16-24): 

  • 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255
  • 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
  •  192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255

Only private IPv4 addresses can be used in subnets.

subnetwork.png

If the Non-routable network toggle switch is turned off, the interface will be created with a default gateway.

Important! Enabling this feature makes it possible to get a non-routable subnet, which allows you to bind many private interfaces to the machine and use the virtual machine in several private networks.

Also, you can specify your own Gateway IP in the "Gateway IP" field, if it's necessary.

Then select one of the public IP address binding options:

  • Create a new floating IP
  • Use existing floating IP
  • Without floating IP

For more information about network configuration and floating IP addresses, see the article Networks, subnets, floating IP, firewalls.

7. Add a firewall. If you have an early configured firewall before, select the created firewall from the drop-down list. To create a new one, click on the Add firewall button, or use the default firewall, which allows incoming traffic over ICMP, TCP (SSH) and RDP protocols.

10.png
You can set rules for all connections except port 25 for outbound traffic — it is blocked by default.

8. Add an SSH key or generate a new one for a remote connection to an instance. For more information about adding a key, see the Connect to Instance via SSH article. You connect via SSH to all machines except Windows instances.

11.png

If you select Windows Server OS, you should set a password for the Admin user. It can contain Latin letters (a-zA-Z), numbers (0-9) and special characters (!#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[]^_{|}~). Valid length is from 8 to 16 characters. You can connect to the Windows instance from Control Panel or from your computer using the RDP protocol.

12.png

9. In Additional features, you can add metadata for processing by a cloud-init agent running on a virtual machine, to do it insert your script in the User data field.  

13.png
For example, you may insert a script that will allow connecting to a Linux instance directly from your Control Panel or via SSH using a password (this script is not needed to connect to a Windows server). Enter this code with the password chosen by you into the User data field:

#cloud-config
password: your password
chpasswd: { expire: False }
ssh_pwauth: True

Using the specified password you will be able to connect to your instance. It is not necessary to specify the password explicitly, you can enter its hash (the same password, only in a converted form; the system will be able to read it, but for a person, it looks like a random set of symbols). Then, even if someone gets into the system, he or she won’t know the password — only the hash will be stored inside. And the system will open its doors only to the user who knows the password. To generate a hash, you can use the Python script:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/17992126/117471
# pip3 install passlib
import sys
from getpass import getpass
from passlib.hash import sha512_crypt
passwd = input() if not sys.stdin.isatty() else getpass()
print(sha512_crypt.hash(passwd , rounds = 5000 ))

Also, you can tag your instance. To to do it, activate the Tags option, and set the necessary ones.

Tags are key-value pairs that form the metadata of the virtual machine description.

14.png

10. If you want to create multiple virtual machines with the same configuration, specify the number you want (the maximum is limited by your quotas) and add names (only Latin characters, underscores, spaces, and dots are allowed).

15.png
To complete the configuration, click on the Create virtual machine button after that the server will be deployed in the cloud.

In the first few minutes, during the activation process, the server will be in the Building status. Resources for the virtual machine will be in the process of allocation.

After that, the server will automatically switch to the Power on the status. It means that the machine works.

Managing the Instances

The list of virtual machines is located inside the project, in the "Instances" section

1._The_list_of_VMs.png

Actions with single Instances

To open the Instance settings menu, click the selector on the right from the selected machine, and select the "Overview" option

2.__________.png

To delete an Instance, click the selector on the right from the selected machine and select the "Delete" option

3._Delete.png

The "Delete" section in the Instance settings menu

4.____________________.png

In the window that opens, select the volumes and floating IP addresses attached to the machine that you want to delete and click "Delete instance".

5.______________.png

Actions with multiple Instances

You can perform identical operations for multiple Instances at once. The available options:

  • Power off
  • Power on
  • Reboot
  • Delete

Select the virtual machines you want to perform the operation by checking the box to the left from the selected virtual machines

6._________.png

Or mark all Instances at once by checking the box in the upper left corner from the list

7.______________.png

Next, select the desired action in the "Actions" selector in the upper-right corner of the screen.

8.______________.png

Please, note! When deleting Instance in this way, the associated volumes and floating IP addresses are deleted without pre-confirmation, as in the case of a single deletion.

Search by Instance

For a quick search of a virtual machine please use the search box above the list

9.____________.png

 

Related articles