Set up your cloud server

Get a newly ordered WebGee cloud server from empty to running an operating system. Applies to all cloud server plans.

The whole process runs from the Cloud Console and takes a couple of minutes.

Open the Cloud Console

1. Sign in to the WebGee client area.

2. Select Services.

   

3. Under My Products & Services, select your cloud server.

   

4. Under Manage, select Open Cloud Console.

   

Configure the server

1. Set the Server Name, Server Hostname and Server Timezone.

   

   Use a fully qualified hostname such as server1.example.com. Mail software in particular behaves badly with a bare hostname, and changing it later means reissuing certificates.

2. Choose an operating system from the templates.

   

3. Optionally add an SSH key.

   

   Adding a key here is worth the extra minute. Without one, the root password is emailed to you in plain text — change it immediately on first login if you go that route. See Connect over SSH for how to generate a key.

4. Select Install, then confirm.

   

Installation usually completes in under 20 seconds.

When it finishes you are taken to the server dashboard.

Check it worked

Connect over SSH using the server's IP address, shown on the dashboard:

ssh root@203.0.113.10

If you added an SSH key you are let straight in. Otherwise use the root password from the email.

First things to do

1. Change the root password if one was emailed to you.
2. Update the system — apt update && apt upgrade on Debian or Ubuntu, dnf upgrade on AlmaLinux or Rocky.
3. Set up reverse DNS if the server will send email, or your messages will be filtered as spam.

If you cannot connect

• Connection times out — installation may still be finishing. Check the dashboard.
• Permission denied — the wrong key, or the password email has not arrived yet. Check your spam folder.
• You are locked out entirely — reset the root password from the Cloud Console: Reset the root password.

Next steps

This gets the server running. Everything after that lives in the Cloud Console:

• The WebGee Cloud Console — where to find it and what it does
• Add an SSH key — so you stop using passwords
• Networking and reverse DNS — set reverse DNS before sending any email
• Back up your server — before you need it

Related

• Reset the root password from the Cloud Console
• What is included with VPS and cloud server management?
• Rescue mode and VNC