Creating and administering servers is fairly easy thanks to the Enomaly platform front-end.
Let’s start by showing you how to create servers. There are two main ways to create a server, selecting an image from the App Center or installing one yourself, here we explain both approaches.
Creating a VM from the App Center
There are several pre-packaged images on our App Center. They are simply images with a specific operative system already installed and some minor configuration. On some cases, the images come also with a specific service, such as a monitoring one for instance.
You can create your VM easily by going to the VM tab and select “New VM” and then choosing the option “Choose from App Center”. Alternatively you can go directly to the “App Center” tab which has the exact same result. Once there, simply choose the desired one and click on the “+” button on the lower right. Remember that there are several pages of images so make sure to browse through them all.
Once we click on the plus button, we are presented with a small popup window. Here we can name the server (VM Identity), select the “Appliance” (which has been pre-selected if we have chosen it directly), select the “Hardware template” according to this page, adding an additional disk if you want to (although a default one 20 GB is included) and the network, which should be on default unless you have told us to add a new one.
After clicking on “Create” we are taken to the Logs tab, where a progress indicator shows us how much is left to have our server ready. Here is where the platform looks for available resources and assigns them to you. This process usually takes a few minutes or more depending on the size of the disks and how many VMs you are provisioning at once.
Finally, once the VM has been installed, you can access it. See below for ways to access your server.
Creating a VM from scratch
Not all operative systems have images on the App Center and not all versions. We usually keep the most popular ones there to make it easy to manage and update. However, there is an alternative route where you can install the system directly.
This time go to “New VM” on the VM Tab and select the option “Install My Own”. Again, you can name your identity but instead of choosing a pre-packaged image you get a list of ISO images. You will notice that there are a few ones that are not available on the App Center. You also have the “Advanced” options tab available and the ability to select a bigger or smaller default disk if desired.
Since we are installing the operative system on our own, the only way to access the server at this point is through VNC. There is no SSH server or other means yet.
After the server has been provisioned, access it through VNC and you will have the machine booted up with the installation process starting. From there on, install the operative system as you would do on any physical server of your own.
Access the server through VNC
Through VNC you can access your server with a graphical interface. Make sure you have the latest Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed since you won’t be able to run the applet if you don’t. Some modern browsers let you know that you are trying to use Java but you don’t have a plugin to do so. You can download Java from here. After installing it you will probably have to restart your browser and in some cases, your computer.
Locate your running VM and click on the “Details” button (the icon with the letter “i”). There go to “Remote Console” and copy the “VNC password”. Alternatively, if you want to use your own VNC client, you can find the IP address and the port right here.
With your password, go to the VM row again and this time click on the “Remote Console” (the one on the corresponding “Running VMs” subsection row).
A popup window like the one above should appear asking you for the VNC password, just paste or type the one that you have. Once you are inside, just continue operating your server as you normally would.
Remember that this is not the fastest or the most comfortable way to access your server but it’s always available. A virtual server can fail due to software issues as much as a physical one, so this is a great way to locate any problems. For instance, if your machine is stuck at boot time, it had a kernel panic or a BSOD.
When in doubt on why you cannot access your server, use this option.
Access your server through SSH
SSH access is a secure and fast way to control any server. Linux, *BSD or even Windows with an OpenSSH server installed.
This is the recommended approach since it’s text based and pretty fast compared to a full-blown remote graphical interface. To be able to use SSH you need two things, a SSH server setup on your virtual machine and a SSH client.
Most of the Linux and BSD images on your App Center come with Open SSH installed. The login credentials are always located on the “Details” page on each VM. Once you have the IP, login user and password written down, load up your SSH client and continue using your server through SSH. Of course, once you enter for the first time you will have to change the default password, always make sure you choose a strong one!
If you are using this option, chances are you already know several SSH clients but we recommend a simple one that has most of the features you would ever need, Putty. You can use any one you prefer, of course.
In case you are installing the VM directly, you will have to make sure to install the OpenSSH server and set it up for remote access. This could vary so please refer to the official installation guide for the operative system of your choice.
Operating your Virtual Machines
Please make sure to check out our Admin Panel guide, there you will find information on how to start, stop, pause and resume servers.
In general, using the Admin Panel you can create and operate as many machines as you want and even with fixed basic limit, you may contact us and we’ll give you a boost.
Remember that for your servers to be scaled up and down in terms of processing power, they need to be powered-off. You can easily change the amount of Core and Memory by selecting another “Hardware Template” and you can also add and remove disks. The process of vertically scaling usually takes around a minute or less, so the downtime is minimal. And if you want no downtime at all, you can have redundant servers, the choice is up to you.
You can add virtual netword cards on the “Network” Tab of the VM Details subsection. If you need a specific private network segment, you will have to contact us and we’ ll help you.
Cloud Computing and common uses
Finally, remember that you have the flexibility of Cloud Computing at your fingertips. You only pay for the Core and Memory that you consume, and a small fee for the disk storage.
There are several situations that this could come in handy, here we name just a few:
Development:
Any project under development usually needs just a few servers. They don’t even need to be the greatest servers in terms of performance.
A great way to save at the beginning, since the profit usually comes after the product has been released. You could create servers for a specific feature, and then turn them off or even delete them.
Testing:
Testing on online systems require all kind of different situations and it’s hard to do that with dedicated physical servers. With virtual servers, one could create automated testing scenarios that are only fired up through Quality Assurance controlled stages. And then turned off, with a few clicks.
Stress Testing:
Further more, it’s hard to generate a great deal of traffic on a development phase. Or even when you are live, stress-testing your live site is not a convenient way to do it. With the API and automated scaling you could hit a server when everything you’ve got and then turn them off after generating useful metrics.
Scaling in minutes and not days, makes all the difference in the world.
Performance scaling (up and down!):
When your site is live, hitting “the wall” on performance is always an unpleasant situation to be in. Imagine be able to scale your Site, Web App or Game to your heart’s content.
Also, since you know that at certain time in the morning, there are not that many users, why pay for that idle processing time? Scale your servers down!
Calculated traffic peaks:
Sometimes you know there is going to be this one-time event that will drive a great deal of traffic to your site. Why buy 20 servers just for one event? And then what?
And many more. Really, anything that needs redundancy and scaling in a matter of minutes, not days.