Getting Started: A Complete Guide to Configuring Your New Cloud Server

Setting up a new cloud server is all about getting exactly what you need for your specific project. Because no two workloads are identical, our order process gives you complete control over your server’s hardware, software, security, and management options.

This guide walks you through every step of configuring your new server, explaining the choices available so you can build the perfect environment.

1. Choosing Your Plan & Specifications

Your first decision is the underlying hardware. We offer a range of server specifications categorised into four main tiers to suit different types of workloads:

• General Purpose: A balanced ratio of CPU, RAM, and storage. Brilliant for standard web hosting (like WordPress), small-to-medium business applications, and development environments.

• CPU Optimised: Engineered with a higher ratio of dedicated CPU cores. Perfect for raw processing tasks, high-traffic dynamic websites, and continuous integration (CI/CD) pipelines.

• Memory Optimised: Provides a much higher memory allocation per CPU core. Ideal for RAM-hungry applications like high-performance databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), in-memory caching (Redis), and enterprise software.

• Storage Optimised: Built for workloads requiring massive amounts of disk space rather than top-tier CPU or RAM. Best suited for large-scale file sharing, data warehousing, and media streaming.

2. Operating Systems & Control Panels

Once you have selected your hardware, you'll need to decide on the software foundation.

• Operating Systems: You can choose from a wide variety of Linux distributions, including popular choices like Ubuntu, AlmaLinux, and Debian.

• Control Panels & Applications: If you prefer a graphical interface for managing your server and websites, you can select a control panel to be pre-installed. Options include industry standards like cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin, as well as modern alternatives like OpenPanel.

• Licensing: Please note that commercial control panels require a license. During the configuration process, you will be prompted to select the appropriate license tier based on the number of accounts or domains you plan to host.

3. Selecting a Management Plan

How much hands-on support do you need from our team? Your management plan dictates the level of technical assistance we provide for your server environment.

• Unmanaged: You have full root access and complete responsibility for configuring, securing, and maintaining your server. This is ideal for experienced system administrators.

• Standard (Reactive): We are on hand to help if things go wrong. If you run into an issue or need assistance with standard server configurations, you can reach out to our support team for help.

• Premium (Proactive): Our highest level of support. We actively monitor your server's health, uptime, and performance, stepping in to resolve issues often before you even notice them.

4. Backups & Disaster Recovery

Data loss can be catastrophic, so configuring automated backups is highly recommended. You can choose to skip this step, but we strongly advise selecting one of our robust backup solutions:

• JetBackup: A fantastic, flexible backup system that integrates seamlessly with control panels like cPanel, allowing for granular restores of files, databases, or entire accounts.

• R1Soft CDP (Continuous Data Protection): A high-performance, server-level backup solution that takes incremental snapshots, ideal for bare-metal restorations and deep disaster recovery.

When selecting your backup software, you will also choose an appropriate storage tier based on the amount of data you need to back up and your retention policies.

5. Security Options

Securing your server against malware and intrusions is essential. We offer several powerful, automated security add-ons:

• Imunify360: A comprehensive, multi-layered security suite featuring an advanced firewall, proactive defence mechanisms, and automated malware scanning and cleanup.

• ImunifyAV: A highly effective malware scanner tailored for Linux web servers.

• cPGuard: An excellent, lightweight security suite offering malware scanning, a web application firewall (WAF), and brute-force protection.

Note: All of our servers include a free Firewall, which allows specific ports to specific IP ranges, and more. In addition, we also offer DDoS protection, completely free of charge with all cloud servers.

6. Extra Storage, IPs, and Add-ons

Finally, you can fine-tune your server with a few extra additions to round out your configuration:

• Block Storage: Need more space than your plan provides? You can easily attach additional, high-speed block storage volumes to your server.

• Additional IP Addresses: Purchase extra dedicated IPv4 addresses if your network setup or SSL requirements demand them.

• KernelCare: Highly recommended for keeping your server secure without downtime. KernelCare automatically applies vital kernel security patches without requiring a server reboot.

• Web Server Enhancements: You can add LiteSpeed Web Server licenses for phenomenal website loading speeds, or Softaculous to give your users a one-click installer for hundreds of applications like WordPress and Magento. If you are offering website building to your clients, Sitepad is also available to add on.

Once you've tailored these options to your exact requirements, simply proceed to checkout, and our automated systems will begin provisioning your custom-built cloud server immediately.