Administration

Overview#

Now that you have logged in to your SolusVM server, follow the steps below to complete setup.

Licensing#

To start any SolusVM setup, you need to install a SolusVM license first. SolusVM uses the same licensing and price model as SolusVM. Refer to the Pricing Guide for details.

To install a license:

1. Navigate to Settings > Licensing.
2. Click Activate License, paste your license key, and click Activate.

You are now ready to set up SolusVM.

Adding a compute resource#

Compute resources connect hypervisors to the management physical server. Compute resources provide resources (CPU, RAM, and disk space) the customers consume to deploy their own isolated servers. The industry commonly refers to these as virtual private servers (VPSs). However, this guide uses the term “servers”.

Requirements#

Servers that you want to connect as compute resources must meet the following requirements:

Supported OS versions#

The software components tested at the moment when new OS or OS version was added to the supported OS versions list:

Adding a compute resource#

To add a compute resource:

1. Go to Compute Resources and click Add Compute Resource.
2. Give your resource a name.
3. Specify the hostname or IP address of a server that you want to connect as a compute resource.
4. Choose how to connect to the server:
   • If via SSH, type root as the SSH login and the root password.
   • If via SSH keys, select SSH Key and paste an existing private SSH key or generate a new key pair.

5. Click Save.

   SolusVM now checks if the server you are trying to connect as a compute resource meets the requirements. If the server does not support virtualization, you will see the following error message:

   

   In this case, enable virtualization in the server BIOS settings. To do so, refer to the documentation of your processor manufacturer.

   If the server passed the checks and SolusVM connected it as a compute resource, you will see the screen that suggests selecting a network interface and configuring network.

6. Select the network interface and click Configure Network.

   Warning:

   Changing network settings poses the risk of permanently losing network access to the server. Proceed only if you have one of the following:

   • Physical access to the server.
   • Access to the server’s serial console.
   • 24/7/365 server support.

7. Click OK to start network configuration.

Once the network configuration finishes, you will see the connected server in the Compute Resources list.

You are now ready to create a plan.

Adding a plan#

Plans serve as templates that define how SolusVM deploys servers. Plans preconfigure the amount of resources (CPU, RAM, and disk space) that SolusVM allocates to servers and define which storage type the compute resource uses.

To add a plan:

1. Go to Compute Resources > Plans and click Add Plan.

2. Give your plan a recognizable name.

3. Select a storage type:

   • File Based, LVM, and ThinLVM are local storage types. They define how the compute resource’s disk is partitioned and its data is packed.
   • NFS is a remote storage type.

   There are various reasons why you may prefer one storage type over another. However, we recommend that you take the following considerations into account:

   • Each storage requires that you configure a storage point for it (a directory, a volume group, a thin pool, or a separate server with mounted NFS). If you do not have experience with any of that, select File Based. In this case, SolusVM can create a storage point for you.
   • To be able to create snapshots, select “File Based” and “qcow2”, or “LVM” or “ThinLVM” and “raw”. A snapshot is a copy of a server at a particular point in time. If anything goes wrong with the server (for example, after software update), you can return to the successful server configuration by restoring a snapshot.
   • To save resources and deploy a maximum number of servers, select ThinLVM.
   • Compute resources require that you monitor the resources consumed by customers to prevent overusing resources. ThinLVM requires additional efforts to monitor available disk space. To make monitoring easier, select either FB or LVM.
   • To share a storage point between multiple compute resources, select NFS. However, certain operations may take more time and servers may run slower because NFS is a remote storage type.

4. If you selected File Based or NFS during the previous step, select an image format: qcow2 or raw. With qcow2, you can enable snapshots.

5. Type a number of tokens. The tokens are units used to calculate and show the exact price for a plan for customers.

6. Specify the desired amount of virtual CPU, storage (HDD), and memory.

7. Locations, Operating Systems, and Application fields define for which locations, OS versions, and applications the plan can be used. Locations, Operating Systems, and Applications that are not bound with the plan will be visible but cannot be selected for new virtual server creation.

   

   Filling Location, Operating Systems, and Application you can allow only desired combinations for new virtual server creation like on the following image, where Windows 2022 can be created only in the London location and only on the Enterprise plan.

   

8. Keep the plan visible.

9. (Optional) To prevent resources overuse, you can limit bandwidth and IOPS for each server created under the plan. To do so, click Change resource limits, click Limit, and then set the desired limits.

10. If you selected File Based with qcow2, ThinLVM, or NFS, you can turn on snapshots.

11. Click Save.

Adding a storage point#

Each compute resource requires a storage point depending on a storage type:

• A directory for File Based
• A volume group for LVM
• A thin pool for ThinLVM
• A separate server with mounted NFS

A directory for File Based is just a normal directory, while a volume group and a thin pool are storage abstractions.

SolusVM can create a directory for the File Based storage type but you need to create other storage points yourself.

To add a storage point to a compute resource:

1. The procedure of creating a storage point depends on the storage type you have selected while creating the plan:

   • For LVM, create a volume group{target=_blank}.
   • For ThinLVM, create a thin pool{target=_blank}.
   • With File Based, you can go to the next step. SolusVM will create a directory for you.
   • For NFS, prepare a separate server with mounted NFS and attach the server as SolusVM storage.

2. Log in to SolusVM and go to Compute Resources.

3. Click the name of the created compute resource, go to the Storage tab, and then click Add Storage.

4. Select a storage type that your created plan has.

5. Depending on your storage type:

   • Provide the directory path for File Based.
   • In the drop-down list, select the volume group, thin pool, or NFS storage, which you created during step 1.

6. (Optional) By default, the system uses the storage for balancing new servers according to the chosen balancing algorithm (random or round-robin in Settings > Compute Resources) if the Use for New Servers setting is turned on. Keep this setting on because you now have only one storage point. If later you have multiple storage points and one of them is overloaded compared to others, you can prevent new servers from being created in this storage point by turning off Use for New Servers.

   Note:

   If you share NFS storage between compute resources, you will not be able to turn off Use for New Servers on one particular compute resource. Currently, turning off Use for New Servers affects all compute resources that use the storage.

7. (Optional) Select a storage tag for your storage point.

8. Click Save.

Adding an IP block#

IP block is a range of IP addresses from which each created server receives its IP address. Assigning an IP address turns a mere server partition into a real server.

An IP address identifies a server and allows it to communicate with other devices in the Internet, which is essential if the server hosts websites.

You can add either an IPv4 or an IPv6 block. An IPv6 block is more difficult to add. For this reason, the procedure of adding an IPv6 block is as a separate topic in the Administration guide.

To add an IPv4 block:

1. Get a range of IP addresses. Usually you buy IP addresses from data centers and hosting providers or allocate a range of IP addresses within your local network.

2. Go to Network and click Add IP Block.

3. Give your IP block a name.

4. Keep IPv4 selected.

5. Specify the following values:

   • The beginning and the end IP addresses of the IP block
   • Gateway
   • Netmask
   • Primary and secondary name servers

6. Select one or more compute resources to assign the IP block to.

7. Click Save.

You have created the compute resource, the plan, the IP block, and the storage point. You are more than halfway through. You now need to create a location.

Adding a location#

A location is a label that informs customers where a particular node is actually geographically placed. Usually customers want to choose a compute resource closest to their geographical location to decrease network latency. To give customers information about geographical locations of available nodes, you need to create locations and assign them to compute resources.

By default, SolusVM creates the Default location. You can edit it or add new locations.

To add a location:

1. Go to Compute Resources > Locations and click Add Location.
2. Give your location a name and description.
3. (Optional) If you place all your nodes in the same region, your customers do not have a variety of locations to choose from. In this case, you can hide this single location from customers: they will not see it when creating servers. To hide the location, turn off visibility.
4. Select which plans are options for new virtual server creation in this location. Plans that you do not bind with the location are visible, but users cannot select them for new virtual server creation.
5. Select the icon (a flag that represents a country) according to the actual geographical location of the node that you added as a compute resource.
6. Select one or more compute resources to assign the location to.
7. Click Save.

You have added the location and assigned it to the compute resource.

To use the default location instead of creating a new one, assign the existing location to a compute resource.

To assign an existing location to a compute resource:

1. Select the icon next to the location that you want to assign.
2. Select one or more compute resources to assign the location to and then click Save.

You are almost there! The last step left before customers are ready to create servers.

Setting up email notifications#

SolusVM can send automatic email notifications to your customers when the system deploys their servers. These emails contain information that is necessary for connecting to the server command line via SSH: the IP address of a created server and the root password.

To start sending out these email notifications, you need to get an SMTP server and then specify its settings in SolusVM.

To set up email notifications:

1. Get an SMTP server. You can use such email services as SendGrid, MailGun, Mailchimp, or others or set up your own mail server (for example, Postfix).

2. Log in to SolusVM and go to Settings > Mail.

3. Specify the following settings:

   • Outgoing mail server hostname.
   • SMTP port (usually one of the following: TCP 25, 465, or 587).
   • SMTP username and password.
   • The email from which the system sends email notification.
   • The name that appears in the email notifications’ signature.

4. Select the Use TLS checkbox.

5. (Optional) To check if the specified SMTP settings are correct, you can send a test email. To do so, select the Send test email checkbox and type the desired email address.

6. Click Save.

Congratulations!

Everything is done from your side as the administrator. Customers are now ready to create their servers.

Let’s see how they do it.