The order process for a Cloud Server has a few questions that may be confusing for those unfamiliar with servers and IT jargon. We get asked quite a lot how each question should be answered, so here’s some information you’ll hopefully find useful.
PV or HVM
If you’ll be running Linux pick PV. For Windows, FreeBSD, pfSense, or anything else pick HVM.
Hostname
This is the name that the server will identify itself as, and should be a subdomain of your company’s name, but note that this won’t be the public address of your website.
If your company domain is example.com, your server hostname should be something.example.com. Some customers go for simple things like “server1.example.com”, others have a bit more fun with it naming them after pets, characters, people, etc (eg “orion.example.com”).
It’s entirely up to you, but we recommend you have some fun with it. The only options you shouldn’t pick for this are “www.example.com” or “example.com”.
Root password
This will be the administrator password for your server, pick a strong password!
Additional RAM, Disk Space, Bandwidth, CPU Cores
Unless you’re sure you’ll need extra resources, it’s fine to leave these all at 0 initially. Cloud Servers can be resized after ordering with no fuss, and if you have Server Management (see below), then we’ll be keeping an eye on things and will let you know if this is necessary.
Operating System
This is where you choose what Operating System you’d like to use. We have a wide range of operating systems (some even come bundled with easy to use control panels like Virtualmin and ISPmanager), so if you’d like some help choosing just open a support ticket.
Server Management
We have two pricing levels for Cloud Servers, a cheaper tier for unmanaged (self-service) Cloud Servers, where you look after the server yourself and are responsible for keeping it secure, installing software updates, making any changes, and a managed tier where we look after the servers for you, freeing you up to just get on with running your business.
To keep things simple, management is just an optional add-on for £19.99/month ($32.99/month if you prefer paying in dollars) and includes:
- Regular installation of OS software and security updates
- 24×7 server status monitoring and emergency response to any alarms that occur
- Server health trend monitoring to allow us to detect changes in the health of your server over time
- Up to an hour of our time every month where you may ask us to make any changes you may require (usually £50/hour)
The cost saving on an hour of our time each month alone makes our management add-on extremely good value for money. When you factor in the other things such as the emergency response, monitoring, and regular security patching, the true value of this is hard to beat.
Hopefully this blog post helps make the process of ordering a Cloud Server a bit easier. If you do have any questions during office hours you can either call us (+44 20 7183 7813) or look out for the Live Chat button in the bottom right of our website. Alternatively you can open a support ticket at any time and we’ll get you the help you need to complete your order.
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