¶ About Accounts
In our IaaS Cloud documentation, the section on Accounts serves as a comprehensive guide to managing user accounts within the cloud environment. Accounts play a pivotal role in granting users access to various resources and functionalities offered by the cloud platform. This section provides an overview of account management procedures, including account creation, configuration, and access control mechanisms. Users will gain insights into the different account types available, along with their respective privileges and limitations. Additionally, the documentation elucidates best practices for securing and administering user accounts to ensure robust cyber security measures and streamline operational efficiency. By understanding the fundamentals of account management, users can effectively navigate the cloud platform and leverage its capabilities to meet their specific computing needs.
An Account typically represents a resource pool, a project or a department in a large organization and ensures that only authorized users can access specific resources. Each account can have multiple users - representing the employees or team members - , allowing for a hierarchical structure that simplifies administration and resource control. Accounts are classified into Admin and User types, with roles and permissions fixed upon assignment. With each new setup, you are provided with a preconfigured domain containing resources and a domain admin account. To fully harness the possibilities of the accounts, familiarize yourself with the fundamental roles inside our IaaS Cloud:
- Domain Admin: has permissions for administrative operations for users who belong to that domain.
- Domain Admin - Reseller: has the same permissions as a Domain Admin with additional actions for sub-domains.
- Resource Admin: has special permission to access and manage team resources, such as create, update, or delete resource groups and assign user groups as owners of a resource group.
- User: mirrors the role given an account, allowing multiple individuals to operate within the same account and share their resources. For more information about this topic, skip to our Users chapter.
- Support User: is a restricted user role which can view resources and perform auxiliary support operations, such as starting or stopping VMs, without the ability to create or destroy resources.
- Read-Only User: has restricted permissions and is only allowed to perform list, get or find operations. Ideal for users who may be interested in monitoring and usage of resources.
¶ Creating Accounts
Adding a new account in our IaaS Cloud always includes the creation of an initial user for the account. Creating a new account involves the following steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Here, you can view all accounts on your domain. To add a new account, click on the Add account button in the top row:
3. Then you have to specify the following parameters:
- Select one of the above-mentioned roles for your new account, which will also apply to all future users within it.
- Give your initial user a unique Username.
- Set a secure Password and Confirm it.
- Choose a primary Email for the user.
- First and Last name of the first user.
- Select the Domain the account should belong to.
- Give your account a unique Account name.
If no account is specified, the username will be used as the account name.
- Optionally, specify a Timezone for the account.
- Optionally, set a custom DNS suffix for the Network domain.
4. Click on OK to save your settings and create the new account and user.
5. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar to see the newly created account or use the configured credentials to log in as the new user of the account.
¶ Working with Accounts
Navigating to Accounts gives you an overview of all created accounts in your IaaS Cloud environment. The list view provides a quick summary of all the important parameters of your accounts, such as Name, State, Role, Role Type, and Domain. Selecting a specific account from the list redirects you to the detail view of that account, which is divided into the action block (1.) on the top right, the information block (2.) on the left, and the management block (3.) on the right.
The action block appears in the first row, and we'll delve into its various functionalities in the upcoming chapters. However, as a quick summary, here are the most important ones:
- Edit account: option to change some of the previously configured account settings.
- Update resource count: updating usage information for network traffic, storage, or instances.
- Disable account: temporarily deactivating the account and stopping all instances connected to it.
- Lock account: similar to disabling accounts, this action temporarily halts account activity, but instances continue running as usual.
- Add certificate: adding a SSL certificate to the account.
- Delete account: removing account, users and all instances connected to it.
Below the action block on the left column is the information summary of your account. It displays details about Status, ID, Role, Domain, and provides a link to View Users connected to the account. Additionally, if the account has allocated instances, you can also view the CPU and Memory usage of your virtual machines.
Next to the information block is the management block of your created account, which offers various views and functionalities for your accounts, divided into the following sections:
- Details: similar to the information block, it provides a quick summary of the most important configuration settings of your account.
- Limits: overview of your limits for this specific account.
- Certificate: optionally assigned certificates to your account.
- Settings: permissions of your account and users within.
- Events: actions performed or scheduled by your accounts and users.
¶ Edit account
Once you have created a new account, it is still possible to edit some minor configuration settings. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on Edit account in the right top action toolbar:
4. Here, you can give your account a new Name and Network domain.
5. Click on OK to save and apply your changes to the account.
¶ Update resource count
Our IaaS Cloud maintains usage information for network, storage, and instances for each account individually. If you want to update these resource counts manually, you can do so with the following steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on Update resource count in the right top action toolbar:
4. Confirm your decision to update by clicking OK and the resource count will refresh to the latest data.
¶ Disable account
As previously mentioned, it is possible to disable an account along with everything connected to it, including additional users and resources; this state is temporary and can be reversed. Disabling an account involves the following steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on Disable account in the right top action toolbar:
4. Confirm your decision by clicking OK and your account will be disabled.
You can reverse the disabling by following the same steps, but this time clicking on the Enable account button:
¶ Lock account
Similar to disabling an account, locking an account deactivates the account and its users. However, all instances connected to the account will continue running in this state. To lock an account, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on Lock account in the right top action toolbar:
4. Confirm your decision by clicking OK and your account will be locked.
You can reverse the locking by following the same steps, but this time clicking on the Enable account button:
¶ Add certificate
It is also possible to configure and add an SSL certificate for the account, which can then be used across all assigned resources. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on Add certificate in the right top action toolbar:
4. Then specify the following parameters:
- Name for the uploaded certificate.
- SSL certificate for your account.
- Corresponding Private key for the certificate.
- Optionally, a certificate Chain of trust.
- Password for the private key.
5. Finally, click on OK to save your certificate.
6. You can see and edit all certificates of an account in the management block under Certificate.
¶ View all users of an account
As an admin of an account, you can view and edit all users belonging to that account. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on View Users in the left bottom of the information block:
4. You will be redirected to the list view of the account's users.
For more information about this topic, skip to our Users chapter.
¶ Delete account
Finally, it is of course possible to delete a created account. However, be aware that every user and resource associated with that account will also be deleted. If you are sure you want to delete an account, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Accounts on the left navigation bar.
2. Select a specific account from the list view.
3. Click on Delete account in the right top action toolbar:
4. Confirm your decision by clicking OK and your account will be deleted.
The process takes up to 24 hours from when your account is closed to when the resources are actually deleted. It is advisable to remove all your resources before deleting your account. If needed, a closed account can be reactivated upon your request during that time.