Documentation

Getting started

Step-by-step path from project setup to a working VM and backup job.

Video

This video walks through creating a project, VM, backup setup, and enabling HA.

Before you begin

  • Public Cloud overview — platform and limits.
  • A hostd account with access to Public Cloud.
  • An SSH client on your computer (or use the browser console).
  • For prepaid accounts: sufficient balance.

Steps

1. Create or open a project

Open Console → Public Cloud and create a new project or select an existing one.

2. Create a VM

  1. In the project, click Create VM.
  2. Choose a Linux image, hostname, and username.
  3. Add an SSH key in the form.
  4. Set CPU mode (Performance, Eco, or Slim), vCPU, RAM, and OS disk from the form tiers.
  5. Attach a public WAN interface, a private LAN interface, or both.
  6. Click Create and wait for the VM to provision.

3. Connect to the VM

Wait about a minute (cloud-init configures the guest in the background), then connect by SSH using the public IP and username from the create form, or open VM → Console for noVNC access.

4. Add a backup job

Open Backup → Jobs and create a backup schedule for your VM.

Watch out

  • Cloud-init can still configure the guest after the VM status is running.
  • A stopped VM stops CPU and RAM billing, but disk, reserved public IPs, backups, and Cloud Gateway still bill.

Next steps