Create a Bare Metal Instance
The following steps are applicable to creating a bare metal instance.
If you need a bare metal instance, you can follow the steps as shown below.
Prerequisites
You have signed up an account with your email and sign in to zenConsole.
You are highly recommended to plan the network in advance, especially the public CIDR blocks and the private IP ranges of subnets and VPCs.
See Bare Metal Billing for more details about pricing of bare metal instances.
Procedures
On the upper left corner of zenConsole, go to Products > Bare Metal > Bare Metal Instance > Create Bare Metal Instance. The overall steps of creating a bare metal instance is shown below. For detailed operations, please refer to the links of specific chapters.
Step 1 - Basic Configuration
1. Instance Pricing Model
Subscription model is supported for now. You prepay the bill in each subscription term before you can use them. The longer the subscription term, the bigger the discount. You can select the subscription term in Step 4 - Order Confirmation.
Note
You will not be able to terminate or downgrade service until the end of your subscription term.
2. Instance Location
Bare metal instances are zone-specific resources and you need to provision your instances in specific zones in cities. You can filter the zones by different conditions.
If you haven't found the location you need, click Restock Inventory on the right.
See Select a Location for more details.
3. Instance Specification
Select your instance specification according to actual needs. Each model contains a certain amount of free bandwidth or data transfer in the order, and the actual display shall prevail. You can check the details in Network configuration.
If you haven't found the specification you need, click Restock Inventory on the right.
See Models, Zones & Operating System for more details.
4. Instance Operating System
Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows, Debian, ESXi and Custom-iPXE are supported. You can also install the operating system later using an ISO file via IPMI access after creating the instance.
See Models, Zones & Operating System for more details.
Note
Instances with OS of ESXi or Windows can not communicate with others in a VPC. However, you can manually achieve communication.
5. RAID Setup
Several physical disks can be combined into an array for better speed and fault tolerance. Zenlayer supports the most common RAID types: 0, 1, 5, and 10.
See Set up RAID for more details.
Note
You should have at least 2 drives to set up RAID.
The S model and models of LCC, LCE and LCG does not support RAID.
6. Partiton Layout
Create and format hard disk partitions (volume) to better use your storage space.
See Create Partitions for more details.
7. Login Credential Setup
Set up the ways to log in to your instance. Root password, SSH keys and custom password are all supported. Please keep your password safe.
See Set Login Credentials for more details.
8. Instance Name and Quantity
Label your instance and hostname and select the quantity to create instances with the same configurations in batches.
Step 2 - Network Configuration
1. Public Network Setup
If the included free bandwidth or data transfer is not enough, you can purchase more bandwidth or data transfer over public network.
See Set up Public Network for more details.
2. Private Network Setup
If you want to run your instances in private network, you can add instances into a subnet for Layer 2 network provisioning and into a VPC for Layer 3 network provisioning.
See Set up Private Network for more details.
3. NIC Setup
Expand More Settings to label your public and private Network Interface Card (NIC) if needed. You can also modify them in detailed information of instances.
Step 3 - Add-on Information
1. Elastic IPs
You can check 1 × Elastic IPv4 address and select the quantity to purchase.
2. Resource Group
Assigning the instance to a resource group allows you to better organize your instances and manage team member permissions.
Step 4 - Order Confirmation
1. Subscription Term
The longer term you subscribe, the more discount you enjoy. Please note that the term-based discount is only applied to instances and certain add-on services.
2. Promo Code
If you have a promo code, you can apply it to enjoy the higher discount compared with term-based discount. The instances applied the promo code discount can enjoy the discount in subsequent renewals.
Review your order resources and summary. If there are no problems, please read through the policy documents and check the agreement.
Result
Installation typically takes a few minutes. Once installation is complete, your instance is ready for use.
Note
Please pay close attention to your email as an IPMI password will be sent if you choose a login credential of system-generated root password.
Creation may fail and you will get order refunded. Please check the elastic IP list, instance list and orders to confirm.
What to do next
You can check and manage your BMC instances in Bare Metal > Bare Metal Instance.
In Actions, you can log in to IPMI, power on/off instances, reboot instances, change OS, view order and unsubscribe/resubscribe instances.
Click the name of instance, and you can perform the following operations:
View bandwidth usage and other basic information in Overview.
View bandwidth usage and other basic information in Overview.
View public and private networking settings, and change bandwidth under Flat Rate pricing model, attach a VPC, or create an elastic IP, and so on in Networking.
Reinstall operating system and change basic configurations of your instance in OS.
Log in to IPMI or change IPMI password in IPMI.
Power on, power off or reboot your instance in State.
Unsubscribe/resubscribe your instance in Unsubscribe.
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