Virtual machines are created from templates. We provide a number of supported configurations, similar to those available for dedicated servers, including CentOS, Debian, and Windows, along with various Control Panels. To create a virtual machine:

 On your Control Panel's dashboard, click the "Build" and then "Create New Virtual Machine" links in the top right corner of your control panel (https://vm.steadfast.net) or go to "Virtual Machines" in the menu on the left and click the "+" button on the top right of your virtual machine listing.

1. Select the template of what OS and pre-installed software you want:

   • Template

     • For Linux, we recommend CentOS 7 x64 or AlmaLinux 8 x64. For Windows, we recommend Windows 2016 Standard x64. If you want a control panel, please select a template with Interworx or cPanel.  We recommend choosing InterWorx.

     • Operating System: Click the box for the Operating System / Distribution group you wish to expand.

     • Template: Choose the base template or a template with specific pre-installed software from the list.  All templates are free except for supported Windows templates which are billed at $0.01 per hour.

     • If you have created custom templates, they will appear under the “Your templates” group.

2. Once you have highlighted the template you want, at the bottom of the web page click on Next.

3. Fill in the Virtual Machine properties form:

   • Label: The label is used to identify your system in the control panel.  it is suggested to use a friendly name so you can easily identify it.

   • Hostname: The hostname is used to identify your system on the Internet and via command line.

   • Password: Give your virtual machine a secure Password. If left blank, a password will be generated randomly.

4. Once you have filled in the Virtual Machine properties, click Next.

5. Select the VM Resources:

   • Resources

     • Set up your VM with at least 256 MB of RAM for a Linux Virtual Machine or 512 MB for a Windows Virtual Machine. You can always upgrade or downgrade your memory once you have everything installed and running.

     • Set the resources needed for this VM: RAM, CPU cores, CPU priority.

     • The amount of CPU resource a VM is given is the CPU priority (you can think of this as its share percentage) multiplied by the number of cores allocated to that VM. This is a minimum guaranteed number, so clients can burst over it, up to 100% multiplied by the number of cores. For example, on our systems:

       • 100% x 1 core = ~2.5 GHz (not burstable)

       • 10% x 1 core = ~250 MHz (burstable to ~2.5 GHz)

       • 10% x 4 cores = ~1000 MHz (burstable to ~10 GHz)

       • Note: You will get a better value getting 10% on each of two cores than getting 10% on one core.

       • Note: On newer plans, only full cores are offered for allocation and are always burstable to 100%, so the priority option may not appear for you.

       • On average, you'll get ~50 MHz usable (guaranteed ~25 Mhz) per 1% of the CPU, up to 100% load per core which is around 2.5 GHz on average.

       • It is recommended to select at least 5% CPU and for standard server operations (multi-threaded applications or multiple applications running) we recommend increasing the number of cores before increasing the percentage to give yourself access to more resources. 

       • Most VMs are fine with 5% of the CPU. If you notice things are running slowly you can always instantly increase your CPU resources at a later time.

   • Primary disk

     • Set the primary disk size.
     • You can set up secondary disks after the initial setup.

   • Swap disk

     • We recommend using SAS storage for swap space. Generally 1 GB is more than enough swap space for most uses, we do not generally recommend using more than 2 GB.

     • Set the swap disk size.

   • Network configuration

     • Unless you have specific plans for using the internal network, set up your initial interface using the public network. There is no fee for selecting higher ports speeds, so you will likely just want to select the maximum 100 Mbps port speed.  The port speed can be set lower if you wish to limit your potential bandwidth fees.

     • Choose a network zone and set the port speed for this VM.

     • An IP address will be assigned automatically based on the network zone selected.  You can add additional IPs after provisioning.

     • The public network gives you access to the public Internet and outbound usage over your included amount is billed per GB. Inbound usage is not charged.

     • The internal network gives you access to other VMs and our internal network and is to be used to connect to the VPN, backup servers, and/or other servers on our network.

6. Once you have selected the initial VM resources, at the bottom of the web page click on Next.

7. We recommend leaving all the default settings as-is on the "Automation Settings" page unless you've been instructed to by our staff or other documentation.

8. Review the confirmation page and then click the Create Virtual Machine button to start the creation process.

We also have directions for setting up VMs using specific common control panels such as InterWorx, cPanel.

If you experience any issues creating a virtual machine, please contact support for assistance.