A cloud server is a virtual root server: a virtual machine of its own with dedicated CPU cores, memory and disk, on which you run an operating system of your choice. You get full access as root (or as your own user with sudo rights) and decide yourself which software you install and how you set up the server.
What your server runs on
- Virtualisation with Proxmox VE: every cloud server is a virtual machine of its own (KVM) with its own kernel.
- Several host nodes: the virtual machines run distributed across several servers of our cluster.
- Ceph storage on NVMe: your server's disk does not sit on a single drive but in distributed storage across several nodes. Every piece of data is stored three times - if a drive or an entire node fails, your data is still there.
- Fast internal network: the nodes are connected internally with 2× 10 Gbit/s.
- High availability: if a host node fails, the cluster automatically restarts your server on another node. More on this under High availability.
- Data centre in Germany, GDPR-compliant.
Stored three times is not a backup
Storing data three times protects against hardware failures, not against errors inside the system: if you delete a file or an update damages your database, this applies to all three copies immediately. That is what snapshots and the external backup are for.
Cloud server, managed server or container hosting?
| Cloud server (root server) | Managed server | Container hosting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | full root access | no root access, control panel | your own containers within a resource quota |
| Operating system | you choose from our catalogue | we set it up | we provide the platform |
| Updates and hardening | your task | our task | platform us, containers you |
| Restore from backup | yourself in the customer area | by our team on request | see container hosting |
Choose a managed server if you want us to take care of the operating system, updates and monitoring. With container hosting you run applications as containers without managing a server of your own.
Your responsibility as operator
With root access you are the operator of the system. Please keep the operating system and applications up to date, secure access and make sure that your services do not violate applicable law or our terms and conditions. You will find recommendations under Security: recommendations for your cloud server.
Next steps
- Order a cloud server - choose resources, term and options
- Set up the server in the customer area - operating system, access and hostname
- First login via SSH
- Adjust the firewall rules