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Getting started

Getting started

This guide will help you create your first project, securely configure access rules, launch your first virtual machine, protect it with a firewall, enable High Availability (HA), and configure automated backups.

Roadmap

  1. Project creation
  2. VM launch
  3. Security Group configuration
  4. Firewall configuration on the VM
  5. High Availability (HA) enablement
  6. Backup Job configuration

Before you begin

  • Review the Resources and limits page to understand how the platform works and what limits apply.
  • Prepare an SSH key on your computer (you will need the public part of the key to paste into the form).
  • Install an SSH client. You can also use the web console (VM → Console) if needed.
  • For prepaid accounts, make sure you have sufficient balance.

Steps

1. Create a project

  1. Open the management panel: Console → Public Cloud.
  2. Click Create project, choose a convenient zone, enter the Project name, and confirm the creation.

2. Create a virtual machine (VM)

  1. On the overview page of your new project, click Create VM.
  2. Select the operating system image, specify the hostname, username, and password.
  3. Add your public SSH key into the corresponding field.
  4. Configure the required resources (vCPU, RAM, disk size, and CPU mode).
  5. Enable the public WAN (Public WAN) option so the machine gets internet access.
  6. Click Create. The VM creation and initial setup via cloud-init takes up to one minute.

3. Create a Security Group

To easily manage the same rules (such as SSH access) across multiple servers, it is recommended to use Security Groups.

  1. Navigate to the Datacenter → Security groups section.
  2. Create a new security group. Use a short Latin name (up to 15 characters).
  3. Add an IN rule to allow connections: select protocol TCP, port 22 (SSH). In the Source field, specify your IP addresses in the x.x.x.x/32 format.

4. Configure Firewall on the VM

Now you need to protect your virtual machine from unwanted traffic. To do this, open VM → Firewall (rules apply only to the public WAN interface).

  1. Toggle the Global Status switch to On.
  2. Change Policy In to DROP — this will block all incoming traffic except for what you explicitly allow.
  3. Click Apply to apply the policy.
  4. Add permission for SSH: click Insert Security Group and select the group from step 3, or click Add Rule and create a standard rule only for this machine.
  5. Now you can securely connect to the machine via SSH.

5. Enable High Availability (HA)

HA mode automatically restarts your virtual machine on another physical server if the current node fails. This feature is provided completely free of charge — you only pay the standard hourly cost of your VM’s vCPU and RAM.

  1. Navigate to the Datacenter → High Availability section.
  2. Toggle the HA switch to On for your virtual machine.
  3. If necessary, create an affinity rule to determine whether specific VMs should run on the same physical server or must run on different ones.
  4. You can always check the current HA status on the Summary tab in the VM’s settings.

6. Create a Backup Job

Automatic schedules (backup jobs) are the primary tool for regularly saving the state of your VMs. By default, you can create 1 backup job per project, but you can add multiple virtual machines to it.

  1. Open Backup → Jobs.
  2. Click Create backup job.
  3. Specify a Job name (e.g., Production VMs) and make sure the Enabled toggle is active.
  4. Select the days of the week for the backup (at least one day is required). Backups are initiated within the allowed time window: 00:00–06:00.
  5. Configure Retention: for a typical VM, Keep daily = 7 is sufficient.
  6. Select your VM in the Virtual machines table and click Save.

Watch out

  • Until you activate the Firewall (step 4), your VM with a public IP will be completely open to the internet on all ports. Configure the firewall immediately before hosting any important data or services on the machine.
  • If you stop the VM, billing for CPU and RAM stops. However, you will continue to pay for the allocated disk, attached Floating IP, backups, and Cloud Gateway.
  • HA protects against hardware failures (restart usually takes up to a minute) but not from OS-level crashes. Use backups (step 6) to protect your data.
  • Backups are billed based only on the real (on-disk) space used after compression and deduplication — see Datastore.

Next steps

  • Create a VM — detailed description of all VM creation form parameters.
  • SSH and console — how to connect to the created VM via SSH and the emergency noVNC console.
  • Backup jobs — configuring automatic backups for your VM.
  • High Availability — ensuring high availability and configuring affinity rules.
Platform capabilitiesResources and limits