Phase 6 — The customer panel#

7 lessons · Level: beginner

This phase is written for the person who buys the VPS. It is also useful to a support team, who answer questions about these screens.

What is in this phase#

Lesson 1 — Login, security, and the dashboard#

The two ways in#

You can enter the panel in two ways:

1. Directly, with your email and password, at the panel address of the

provider.

1. With SSO. Press "Manage" on the site of the provider, or in WHMCS, and

you go in without a password.

What to do on the first day#

Version 7.x has Step Up Authentication. It asks for your identity again before a sensitive task.

What the dashboard shows#

• The list of your servers and their condition: running, stopped, or suspended
• The IP, the package, and the location of each one
• A short view of the resource and traffic use

Lesson 2 — Server control#

Power#

CAUTION: Try Shutdown first. If there is no answer, look at the console. Use Power off last, because it can damage the file system.

For a clean shutdown, the QEMU guest agent must run inside the VM.

Rebuild (install the OS again)#

Choose the new OS, give the hostname and the password or SSH key, then press Build.

WARNING: Copy your data out, or take a backup, before you rebuild. A rebuild erases the whole disk, and there is no undo.

Lesson 3 — The VNC console#

In plain words#

The console is like a monitor and a keyboard attached straight to the server. It works even when the network or SSH is broken. If you lock yourself out with the firewall, this is the only way in.

The console was written again in version 7.x:

Is the console black?#

1. Make sure that the server is really running.
2. Press Restart once, and try to see the boot messages.
3. If it is still black, tell the provider. The VNC ports (5900+) can be

blocked.

Lesson 4 — SSH keys and passwords#

SSH keys#

Add your own public key in the panel. When you build a new server, the key goes in by itself.

# make a key on your own computer
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "my-laptop"
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub      # paste this text into the panel

Reset the root password#

One click in the panel does this. The new password is shown once. Put it in a safe place at once.

Advice: When your work is finished, turn password login off inside the VM with PasswordAuthentication no, and use the key only.

Lesson 5 — Backup and restore#

From the side of the customer#

If the provider gives a backup plan, you see it in the Backups tab of the server:

• Automatic backups at a set time
• A backup now, on demand
• A restore from an older backup

What a restore does#

1. The server stops.
2. The data of the chosen point comes back.
3. The server does not start by itself. You start it.

Keep some downtime in hand for a restore.

Note: A backup is the last protection, not the first. Take an on-demand backup yourself before a large change. There can be a cooldown between manual backups, which the provider sets.

Lesson 6 — Traffic, rDNS, and the firewall#

Traffic#

The panel shows the monthly bandwidth of each server. If you pass the limit, the speed can fall or an extra bill can arrive, by the policy of the provider. Read the conditions of your package.

Reverse DNS (PTR)#

If you run a mail server, rDNS is necessary. Without it your mail goes to the spam folder.

If the provider has Automation mode on, you can set the PTR record yourself from the panel. In Manual mode, you must open a ticket.

The firewall#

VirtFusion has firewall rulesets, and you can attach one when the server is made. Keep a firewall inside the VM as well. Two layers are safer than one.

# the firewall inside Ubuntu or Debian
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80,443/tcp
ufw enable

WARNING: Allow the SSH port first, then run ufw enable. In the other order you lock yourself out, and only the VNC console is left.

Lesson 7 — Self Service: make your own server#

In plain words#

A provider can give the customer the power to make and delete servers, inside a set limit. There are two ways to count it:

A customer can hold normal servers and self-service servers together. But a customer cannot delete a server the provider gave them. That server stays under the control of the provider.

The setup, from the side of the administrator#

1. Set the currency and the value of a token, such as 1 token = $0.01.
2. Put the token value in the package.
3. Make a package group.
4. Make a Self Service group, which is a hypervisor group plus a package

group.

1. Make a Group Profile.
2. Set the resource pack, for the users who pay by the hour.
3. Turn Self Service on for each user, and give them a profile.

For hourly accounting, the SSH scheduler must run, to watch the balance and the credit.

Know the limits#

• There is no billing integration for hourly billing. WHMCS supports the

resource pack only.

• Tax display has problems in the price of an hourly package.
• A change to the token value affects the current billing period as well.
• When a balance goes below zero, nothing happens automatically. You must

make your own policy and your own automation.

At the end of phase 6 you can#

• Enter the panel safely, and turn 2FA on
• Start, stop, and rebuild a server
• Handle an emergency with the VNC console
• Manage SSH keys and passwords
• Take a backup and restore it
• Read the traffic, set a PTR record, and write firewall rules
• Understand Self Service and its limits

Next: Phase 7 — Operations and comparison