¶ About First Steps
This tutorial will guide you through the first steps inside our IaaS Cloud platform. You will learn the basic navigation and understanding of the important modules within our environment. At the same time, you will create and run your first network, instance, and volume. This is a great way to start your journey with our IaaS Cloud. So, without further ado, let's get started.
¶ Before you start
To complete the actions below, you must have:
- An IaaS Cloud account registered. For more information, skip to our Registration tutorial.
- A user with the permissions to create new resources. For more information, read our Accounts chapter.
- Logged into your account.
¶ Getting started
¶ Dashboard & Navigation Bar
Once you log into your account, you will be welcomed by our IaaS Cloud dashboard. It is simply set up and consists of three blocks: summary (1.), events (2.), and the navigation bar (3.):
The summary section gives you a quick overview of all running and stopped VMs and additionally created resources, such as volumes and networks. This allows you to monitor the status of your resources at a glance, ensuring you can manage your infrastructure efficiently. Right next to it are all recent events that occurred inside your domain, with the option of a more detailed view by clicking the View Events button. This feature helps you stay informed about significant activities and changes within your environment. On the left side is the navigation bar of our IaaS Cloud. Here, you can find and navigate to all important resources and modules of the platform. The intuitive layout of the navigation bar facilitates quick access to various sections, enhancing user experience. If you're interested in any of the modules, just visit the corresponding chapter in this documentation for more detailed information and guidance.
¶ Creating your first Network
To create our first instance, we need to set up a network first. We offer various network configurations, but for this tutorial, we will configure a basic L3 isolated network. This setup is ideal for simple use cases and getting started quickly. If you want to set up an L2 or a Shared Network, please refer to our specific documentation for detailed instructions.
To create a L3 network, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to Network → Guest networks on the left navigation bar.
2. Click on Add network in the top row:
3. Click on the Isolated tab to access the appropriate network settings, then specify the following parameters:
- Name of the L3 network.
- Short Description text of the network.
- Zone of the network.
The network and your instance must be in the same zone, so choose the zone where you plan to deploy your first VM later.
- Optionally, you can assign a specific Domain and Account to the L3 network.
- Customize DNS suffix for the Network domain.
- Select an appropriate Network offering.
- Specify an ID of the network in an external system.
- Gateway and Netmask of the L3 network.
- Optionally, specify DNS 1 and DNS 2 to set a custom IPv4 or IPv6 for the isolated network. If left empty, the DNS specified for the zone will be used.
4. Click on OK to save and create a L3 network.
¶ Configuring & Starting your first Instance
After setting up the network, we can proceed to create our first instance in the IaaS Cloud. Follow these steps to do so:
1. Navigate to Compute → Instances on the left navigation bar.
2. Click on the Add instance button in the top row:
3. First choose a deployment zone for your instance. The options you can select from are WSB1, FRA1 and FRA2.
Your instance and network must be in the same zone. Select the zone where you created your network in the previous step.
4. Next, select an Image from the template or ISOs list. You can choose from a wide variety of operating systems, applications, or custom images.
5. Now, choose a Compute offering according to your needs. The hardware offerings vary in pricing, CPU cores, and RAM memory. You can find more information about that in our service offerings.
You always have the option to adjust your service offering later on, easily increasing or decreasing your instance's performance. For a detailed step-by-step guide, skip to the Changing Service Offerings chapter.
6. Optionally, select an additional Data disk. If nothing is selected, you will receive an standard 8GB root disk.
7. Now, you need to select the Network you previously created from the list.
8. You can select an SSH key pair, which you must create beforehand. This step is optional, but we highly recommend SSH key pairs for added security and ease of access.
9. Click on Advanced mode if you want configure User Data and Affinity Groups.
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Finally, you can configure some last details and give your instance a Name and Group. You can also decide whether your instance should start right after creation or not.
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Click on Launch instance to create your instance.
The instance should be marked as Stopped. If you selected Start instance in the previous step, the virtual machine should shortly switch from Starting to Running. For more information, skip to the chapter Starting & Stopping Instances.
¶ Attaching your first Volume
The essential steps for setting up your first virtual machine in our IaaS Cloud are now complete. However, to work effectively with your resources, it is recommended to add additional disk space as needed. Follow these simple steps to create and attach your first volume:
1. Navigate to Storage → Volumes on the left navigation bar.
2. Click on the Create volume button in the top row:
3. Then you have to specify the following parameters:
- Name of the disk volume.
- Zone of the volume.
As in the previous sections, please select the same zone as the instance and network you have already created.
- An appropriate Disk offering.
- Arbitrary Size of your volume.
5. Click OK to save and create your volume.
Once you have created your volume, you only need to attach it to a virtual machine, and you’re ready to go:
6. Select the volume you just created from the list view.
7. Click on Attach disk in the top right action block:
8. First, choose the instance you want to attach the volume to by selecting the VM ID.
9. Optionally, assign a Device ID to map the volume to the guest OS. If no Device ID is informed, the next available ID will be chosen.
10. Finally, click on OK to attach the volume to the instance.
Once the state of your volume switches from Allocated to Ready, the volume is successfully connected to your instance.
¶ Conclusion
Congratulations! You've completed your first steps with the cloud platform. You successfully created your first network, configured a new instance, and attached an additional volume to your resource pool. This tutorial serves as an excellent starting point for your journey within our IaaS Cloud. However, there's much more to learn and discover. We encourage you to delve into our other Tutorials or explore specific chapters from our comprehensive Overview to further enhance your cloud experience.
If you have any questions or encounter issues, please don't hesitate to contact us. We're here to help. Wishing you a fantastic experience with our IaaS Cloud!