Hostragon Compute VM FAQ

Can I bring my own OS image?

If it is RHEL-based image capable of supporting cPanel, it is OK. We will do our best to use it and deploy your server.

Can I create an image of a Linux OS and use it to launch a new compute instance?

Yes you can. After launching the initial machine, you can create an image from it and use it to launch future instances.

Does these cPanel VMs autoscale?

cPanel servers can scale vertically, but horizontal scaling is not possible at this time. However, we keep an eagle eye on usage and use vertical scaling whenever a system approaches a certain threshold.

Each machine is configured to automatically resize to a bigger instance if such preset parameter is met and it is as a result of resource usage and not misconfiguration.

How does cloud server pricing and purchasing work?

Since these are cPanel instances, we charge each instance per month. But we are working towards charging based on actual usage (compute instance, storage, and network) but it is still a work in progress. If you exceed the pre-set configuration, storage cost and network cost will be calculated based on the amount of data you transfer between virtual machine instances and storage cost will be calculated based on the amount of data you store.

Do your prices include tax?

Yes, our pricing is tax-inclusive.

Can I upgrade my server later?

Yes. Each server is upgradeable.

Do you offer discounts for these cPanel servers?

Yes. We do offer steep discounts of up to 50% off normal prices on our VMs in exchange for a one or three-year commitment.

How long does it take to deliver an instance after order?

Hostragon Compute VMs regardless of shape or size are launched within minutes from the time that you placed the order. However, cPanel configuration can take up to 4 hours to be completed.

Am I billed if my server is powered off?

Yes. You are billed for the resources that are used on the host while your server is in the Active status. When your server is created, you are given a dedicated amount of CPU, RAM and hard drive space. As long as your server exists, no one else can use those resources that have been allocated to you, which is why you are billed even while powered off. If you want to stop incurring charges for a given server, the server must be terminated.

How do I access my instance after it has launched?

We will ask you for a public SSH key during order. This is not required for managed accounts since we are managing it for you and you may need to access the box.

For unmanaged servers, you can remotely connect to your instance by using the industry standard secure shell (SSH) protocol with a public-private key pair for authentication for Linux instances.

How do I set up reverse DNS (RDNS/PTR) for my server?

We will set up reverse DNS automatically when launching your server.

Do you offer internal IP addresses?

Yes. Each server comes with an internal IP address that is used to communicate between servers.

Can I buy extra public IP addresses?

No. These cPanel servers currently supports ONLY 1 static public IPv4 address per instance.

Do you have a control panel?

Yes. Every server comes with cPanel & WHM control panel.

Do you offer images and scheduled snapshots and what are the prices?

You can create an image of an existing machine and can use this image to restore a server or clone a new one. You can create an unlimited number of images on-demand, or you can schedule an automatic daily or weekly image.

We also offer an automatic and periodic creation of snapshots for disks of VM instances.

You can use this feature by first defining a snapshot schedule, which supports frequencies by hours, days and weeks. For example, if the scheduled start time is at 12:00, snapshotting starts anytime between 12:00 and 12:59. The schedule uses the UTC time standard.

The snapshot schedule can be applied to a single disk, or multiple disks within the same region, so you can create scheduled snapshots at scale.

The cost of a standard provisioned space with a region is $0.250 per GB and $0.094 for snapshot storage.

Do I have the ability to reboot my server?

Yes. You can do do that either via our customer dashboard or command line. But you can also create a request for the server to be rebooted.

Does Hostragon have DNS servers I can use?

Yes. You can use our DNS cluster or give us one that you want to use.

Our name-server set is:

• ns1.mydnsnode.com - 34.235.242.161
• ns2.mydnsnode.com - 54.193.217.190
• ns3.mydnsnode.com - 18.181.140.148
• ns4.mydnsnode.com - 18.156.107.253

Please run a dig command for current IPs associated with these or ask our support team for confirmation.

How many accounts can I host?

The number of accounts you can host is dependent on the kind of cPanel license you have opt in for.

• cPanel Solo - 1 Account
• cPanel Admin - 5 Accounts
• cPanel Pro - 30 Accounts
• cPanel Premier - 100 Accounts $0.20 each for additional account.

How difficult will this be if I'm not a Linux Systems Administrator?

Managing a Linux server requires an in-depth understanding of how Linux works. The same applies to cPanel WHM.

If you don't have any experience as a systems administrator, please order the server as managed so our team of engineers can help you with its management. A production server is not the right place for you to stat learning as that obviously will lead to unwelcome and unexpected results.

Will you help me install software packages in my Linux VM?

That will depend on your service level. For managed accounts or managed servers, we will provide all the support the server need to be of use to you.

For unmanaged account/servers, you will be responsible for installing and maintaining all software on your server.
However, we may grant such request depending on the scope and time that it will take to get done.

What level of support do you provide?

We have two service levels: Concierge and Custodian.

With our unmanaged server, we support the server hardware, data center environment, and internet connectivity, but we do not support the software installed on your server, including the operating system and its configuration. You are given a server with unrestricted access and our support team does not assist in the installation of software or troubleshooting any kind of issue related to the software installed.

With Concierge support level, we act as a person who has charge of the entrance of a building and is often the server's representative; you.

More like an employee stationed in an apartment house lobby that screens visitors, controls operation of elevators, accepts deliveries to the tenants, etc.

• the initial server setup/configuration
• basic system security & hardening
• kernel updates
• reboot & repair any issues detected
• 24/7 server monitoring and exclusive notification

With Custodian, we are the keeper, the guardian entrusted with guarding or maintaining your server.

We provide additional support that include monitoring, operating system and application infrastructure layer support, and technical guidance.

• the initial server setup/configuration
• system security & hardening, server security firewall, IDS (intrusion detection system/login failure detection), advanced WAF, protection against common URL based hack injections, protection against http based attacks, multi-layered defense architecture ensures precision targeting and eradication of malware and viruses, and host of other security related configurations
• server optimization so you can get the most out of your server's specs
• kernel updates and routine maintenance
• 24/7 server monitoring and reboot & repair any issues detected
• the server backups & restorations
• disaster recovery setup & business continuity service

What happens to my data when I terminate my instance?

After you terminate your compute instance, you have the option to keep its boot volume for later reuse. If you choose not to keep the boot volume, it's deallocated and wiped out. Local NVMe storage for storage-optimized instances is wiped out and deallocated. Any data in the block volumes attached to the instance persists and remains available for later use.

Before terminating the instance, you can create a custom image of the boot disk and use the custom image to launch new instances at a later time.

Can I send outbound emails from my instance?

Direct outbound traffic from the server is blocked. However, we will set up a mail gateway for you using SMTP.

How do I monitor the health of my instances?

Beyond the normal Linux performance monitoring tools such sysstat, vmstate, iostate, dstat, atop, ioping, the tools that we use for monitoring provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of each machine.

Each machine we deploy is configured to send instantaneous notification & critical/warning alerts for downtimes and degraded performance via email, mobile phones, Slack, PagerDuty, OpsGenie and webhooks.

We use a combination of Google Cloud Monitoring, netdata, Pingdom, OpsDash and other tools like that to keep an eye on each system.

If anything happen to you system, you will receive a notification informing of that immediately.

Is my server safe and secure with Hostragon?

Our servers and virtual machines are designed to run securely. And our security engineers work around the clock to spot threats early and respond quickly when detected.

So your system is safe with Hostragon and will always be protected against malicious hackers. It is one of the sureties we give customers who adheres to our recommended security best practices.

Do you provide DDoS protection?

Yes we do and it is because we genuinely believe that Hostragon should be the best logical choice for businesses who are serious about security.

Every virtual private machine or bare-metal dedicated server we host or manage comes with anti-DDoS suite, advanced AI-powered firewall/WAF with machine-learning rulesets, login/intrusion detection, automatic virus & malware scanning and removal, malicious PHP script detection and blocking, brute-force attacks at both network and HTTP levels and native integration with CloudFlare Firewall.

I want to manage the server myself? How do I securely do that?

There is a lot that goes into ensuring that a system is configured properly to be deemed secure.

However, there are few things that are considered standard best practices and among these is:

• Firewall: Your first line of defense for any machine that connects to the internet or host externally facing applications is to restrict who can reach the instance using firewalls.

  Acceptable general best practice is to allow access only on the ports your application needs access to. And then, access restricted to the ports from one or more IP addresses (for example, the IP address for your home computer) or a continuous range of IP addresses (such as the address range for your corporate network). This provide you an extra level of flexibility and security when deploying applications on the server.

  For servers we manage, each server is pre-configured with Linux-standard firewall.

• Secure Connections: But firewalls are not a standalone solution. To protect sensitive information such as login credentials, ensure that these connection that occurs is over secure channels such as SSH or HTTPS.
• Strong Passwords: Make it habit to create and use strong passwords for all accounts on the system including the "root" account. We often ask customers to use 1Password Strong Password Generator at https://1password.com/password-generator

  But even more is to ensure that the passwords been use, is only by authorized people who should have access to your server.

• Eliminate Password Usage: Password is messy and prone to errors. Configure your machine that it uses ONLY authorized_keys for every access. Moreover, apply the security principle of least privilege for every access given or granted.
• Updates: Do not run outdated softwares/applications on your machine as that often opens up the machine to vulnerabilities. Make it habit to run routine check in order to ensure that all software is up to date.
• Monitoring: & Logging Linux makes it easy too log everything and you can use these logs to identify any abnormal activities or deviation from expected pattern. when you see something that is out of the ordinary, investigate to ensure that your server is not being hijacked by malicious software. You can also use logging to create log-based metrics for monitoring and alerting on unusual behavior.

As previously mentioned, there are several things one can do but these, are good starting point.

Can you help me fix a compromised server?

For unmanaged servers, our security team will help fix it but will bill you per hour for the task. For servers that we manage, we are responsible for investigating the source of vulnerability and taking steps to mitigate it.

Are these cloud cPanel servers PCI-DSS compliant?

Not when they are first deployed. However, we can configure them to be PCI-Compliant if and when needed.

Are these cloud cPanel servers HIPAA compliant?

We really cannot determine if a given customer is meeting their obligations under the laws applicable to them, and it remains our customers’ obligation to understand the laws applicable to their use of the services and select appropriate services to meet those obligations. We do understand the needs of many of our customers in the healthcare space to implement appropriate security measures to protect the sensitive information they work with.

To help customers in the health-care industry meet their compliance requirements with regards to HIPAA, we do offer our dedicated hosting service that will enable you meet this regulatory requirement.

What kinds of traffic can I configure with firewall rules?

TCP, UDP, and ICMP traffic can be matched in addition to traffic from a source IP address or CIDR.

What actions am I permitted to perform on the virtual machine?

It is your server and you can do whatever you want with it. On managed servers though, there are some restrictions. For example, we don't give the owner root access and for actions you want performed on the system, we expect you to submit a request via ticket, chat or phone. It is the only way we can maintain some semblance of order and meet our SLA to you. Too many hands they say spoil the broth.

How do I place a server order

• Either visit our Lightsail or Amazon EC2 page.
• Select the machine that meets your budget and workload needs.
• Type in the Hostname which is the name you want the server to have.
• Type in the Root Password. Don't worry, we will strengthen this if it is strong enough.
• Type in the name-servers you want to use.
• Generate a new SSH key in OpenSSH public key format. The supported lengths are 1024, 2048, and 4096.
• Go through the checkout process and complete the order.

We will deploy the order once it comes in and payment is verified.

We understand that this might get too technical. So if you are not sure what to do, please do contact our sales team contact our sales team or via live chat so we can handle every part of this process.

How do I contact for technical support?

Our core objective is to make the cloud easy for you to use. And to meet that goal, we have created many different ways for you to get the support that you need to get the most out of the cloud.

• Your first stop should be our knowledgebase, which is the best source for articles and tutorials to help you get the precise answers that you need.
• Do you have a quick question that you can’t find an answer for in the Hostragon Knowledgebase, open a ticket submit a ticket with our support teams to report a problem or make a service request.
• Or call us if it is an emergency.