Provisioning public instances
You can provision your public virtual server instances through the IBM Cloud® console.
For the IBM Cloud console, you must have an upgraded account to order virtual servers. For more information about upgrading your account, see Pay-As-You-Go account.
Before you begin
Before you begin, review the following prerequisites.
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Review the deployment options available to you. For more information, see Public virtual servers.
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Review virtual server instance capacity considerations.
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Open the virtual server instance page from the IBM Cloud console.
Provisioning a public virtual server instance
To provision a virtual server instance, you need to consider the following information.
You must be logged in to see all available options.
Public instance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Billing | Depending on your virtual server instance, you can select either hourly or monthly billing. The primary difference, other than cost, is that hourly instances don't have an included bandwidth allocation. At the end of a billing period, the bandwidth usage and the number of hours that each instance was active on the account are calculated. For example, if you cancel an hourly instance after 10 days, you pay for only the hours for those 10 days. If you cancel a monthly instance after 10 days, you pay for the whole month. If you're interested in the suspend billing feature, which is only available on hourly instances, see About suspend billing. |
| Hostname | Hostname can contain labels that are made of alphanumeric characters and dashes, which are separated by periods. Labels cannot be numeric only, begin or end with a dash, nor have consecutive dashes or periods. |
| Domain | Must have two or more labels that can be made of alphanumeric characters and dashes, which are separated by periods. Labels can't begin or end with a dash, or have consecutive dashes or periods. The last label must be letters only. |
| Placement group | You can select a placement group for your instance. If you add a placement group, the "spread" rule means that the instances are on different physical hardware. For more information, see Placement groups. |
| Location | Locations are composed of regions (specific geographic areas) and zones (fault tolerant data centers within a region). Select the location where you want your virtual server instance to be created. |
| Popular profiles | Consider selecting from popular profile configurations that support the most common use cases. Profiles contain preconfigured instances that are ready to use in a matter of minutes. |
| All profiles | For more information about available profile options for public instances, see Public virtual servers. |
| SSH keys | SSH keys allow access to an instance without using a password from corresponding clients for each public key that is implemented on the instance. If you decide to add an SSH key, provide a public key of your SSH key, which you can use to log in to your instance after it is provisioned. |
| Image | An image is the deployed operating system for your instance. You can select a number of free options such as CentOS and Ubuntu. Paid options such as Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are also available. It's important to note that Windows requires a 100 GB primary disk. |
Public instance add-ons
If you choose any OS, control panel, or software add-ons, they must be compatible with your image to avoid an error when you are ordering your instance. For example, you can’t provision a Red Hat image with a Microsoft database.
Depending on your instance billing type (hourly or monthly), some add-ons might not be available.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| OS add-ons | If you select monthly billing, you can select the following image add-ons: R1Soft® Server Backup Manager provides high-performance disk-to-disk server backup and a central management and data repository. If you select the R1Soft add-on, you must purchase an R1Soft Backup Agent pack, which is a CDP add-on in the Services section. Selecting one without the other causes an error with your order. Veeam Backup and Replication combines automated backup along with restore and replication capabilities. Veeam also provides advanced monitoring, reporting, and capacity planning. VMware vCenter automates deployment of the underlying VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter Server layers that you need for a flexible and customizable VMware solution. |
| Control panel software | If you select monthly billing, you can add a control panel for web hosting. |
| Database software | You can select a database software to install. IBM Cloud supports any database software that is deployed during the provisioning process. You can also install your own database software after the server is deployed. |
| Services | Some services are automatically selected for you, depending on your billing and image selections. You can choose from any of the remaining service add-ons for your instance. |
| Provision script | Provisioning scripts are commonly used to apply a customer-specific configuration to a server and to aid in automation of your scaling strategy. Provisioning scripts can be any file that the operating system (OS) can run, including combined binary files or any OS-supported language. Provisioning scripts can't be used on cloud-init images. For more information, see Provisioning scripts. |
| User data | You can add user data that automatically performs common configuration tasks or runs scripts. User data can be used on cloud-init and non-cloud-init images. |
Attached storage disks
If you need extra storage, you can attach storage disks to your instance. The type of storage disks that are available to you depend on the profile that you select. For example, balanced local profiles and a few of the GPU profiles use local storage disks. If you select monthly billing, you can add IBM Cloud Backup for Classic and choose the option that best fits your needs. For more information, see IBM Cloud Backup for Classic services.
Network interface
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Uplink port speeds | You can select the uplink speed for your instance, up to 1 Gbps. These virtual uplinks are backed by redundant physical uplinks to the IBM public and dedicated networks. The public and dedicated speed is always the same at the time of order, with the option to upgrade or downgrade a link if needed. If you select the 100 Mbps rate-limited option, the maximum instance throughput is limited only by the physical bandwidth available to the virtual server host. If you select the 1 Gbps non rate-limited option, you can achieve higher network performance through extra configuration. For more information, see Configuring virtual server settings for improved network performance. |
| Private and public security group | You can use security groups to enact a set of IP filter rules that define how to handle incoming and outgoing traffic to both the public and private interfaces in your instance. For more information, see About IBM Security Groups. |
| Private and public VLAN | Your virtual server instance is placed on an automatically assigned VLAN by default. You can choose a different VLAN if you already have one in your selected data center. For more information, see About VLANs. |
| Private and public subnet | Selecting a subnet is optional and to be used only when you require your device to use an IP address from the subnet. If you select a subnet, verify that you have enough IP addresses to fulfill the request. If you do not have enough IP addresses for your subnet, your order can be delayed or canceled. For more information, see About subnets and IPs. |
Network interface add-ons
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Bandwidth | 250 GB is included with monthly instances that have a public uplink. You can purchase larger allocations at a reduced cost compared to the overage rate. |
| Hardware and software firewalls | Firewall services prevent unwanted traffic on your servers, reduce the likelihood of an attack, and allow your server resources to be dedicated for their intended use. |
| Primary IP address | A primary IP address is automatically assigned to your instance. |
| Public secondary IP addresses | These subnets are owned by you during your virtual server instance ownership. You can cancel the subnet separately, but if you cancel your instance, the subnet is also removed. For more information, see About subnets and IPs. |
| IPv6 and public static IPv6 addresses | You can select an IPv6 address or public static IPv6 addresses for your instance. |
| VPN management | This option is automatically selected for your instance with unlimited SSL VPN users. For more information, see About VPN. |
Next steps
A series of emails is sent to your administrator: acknowledgment of the provisioning order, provisioning order approval and processing, and provisioning complete. The provisioning complete email includes a link to your Device Details page after you log in to IBM Cloud.
After your virtual server is provisioned and available to use, you can configure your virtual servers by using the IBM Cloud console or SoftLayer API. For more information, see Configuring virtual servers.