Creating the VPS

After you have created the customer account, set up the VPS as follows:

Creating the Physical VPS

1. Navigate to the user from the list of accounts on the left. Then, click on the Add/delete services tab.
2. In the Add a VPS for this admin section, select the next available VPS hostname in the VPS Server hostname box. This should be a VPS on node00004.gigatux.com in the UK, not node00001.gigatux.com. When you choose a VPS, ensure that it has a valid number at the end (e.g. node00004.gigatux.com:05 and not node00004.gigatux.com:) and that there is just one IP address set for the VPS.

   

3. Select the product that the user has purchased. For new VPSs, this will be a product ending in ' L', e.g. Solo L as opposed to simply Solo or Solo E.
4. Ensure that Setup physical VPS (LVM) is set to Yes.
5. Click Add VPS and wait a short while for the VPS to be created.

Verifying that the Physical VPS has been created

1. Log in to the relevant dom0 (e.g. node00004.gigatux.com) as your username and then su to root.
2. cd to /var/lib/dtc-xen/mnt
3. Examine the contents of XY.setuplvm.*, where XY is the VPS number you created. The contents should look something like this:

   File descriptor 12 left open

   File descriptor 51 left open

   File descriptor 52 left open

   File descriptor 53 left open

   File descriptor 54 left open

   Seleted xenXY: 20224MB HDD and 128MB RAM

   Creating disks...

     Logical volume "xen08" created

     Logical volume "xen08swap" created

4. Ensure that the first value corresponds to the correct hard drive size requested (minus swap), and the second corresponds to the correct swap size (which should be the same as the memory allocation).
5. N.B. Further information can be obtained by typing lvdisplay /dev/lvm1/xenXY[swap].

Windows VPS

Check whether the customer intends on using Windows by seeing, in WHMCS, whether the customer has checked the Windows Server 2008 Standard License box. If this is checked, there are further steps to take:

1. Log in to the physical node that the customer's VPS is set up on (e.g. [email protected])
2. Run the command ln -s /usr/share/dtc-xen-hvm/Windows_2008_with_SP2.iso /var/lib/dtc-xen/ttyssh_home/xenXX/ where XX is the VPS ID.

Update WHMCS

You now need to update the user's WHMCS account product with the details of the VPS. In particular, please update the:

• Server
• Username (do not assume that as it is filled in automatically that it is correct in WHMCS)
• Password
• vserverid (e.g. 05 if you created VPS ID 05)
• Dedicated IP
• Additional IPs (if applicable, one to a line)

Now click Save Changes and at the bottom of the screen where it says Send Message, select the GigaTux - VPS Account Welcome Mail message and click Send Message. If this is a Windows VPS, also send the message called Windows License Keys.

Finally, close the Provisioning ticket if one was opened upon account payment.

We're now done

The VPS is now set up, but there is no Operating System on there at present, so it's pretty useless. We no longer install the initial operating system but provide information for users via WHMCS. Only if you get any requests for help in installing the OS should you follow the below:

Install the Operating System

1. Navigate to the user from the list of accounts on the left. Then, click on the Client interface tab, followed by the VPS in the new tab set, and then Installation.

   

2. Select the operating system as required:
3. Set the root password to be the same as the user's login password for the DTC control panel.
4. Click Reinstall operating system.

Verifying that the Operating System has been Installed

1. Log in to the relevant dom0 (e.g. node00004.gigatux.com) as your username and then su to root.
2. cd to /var/lib/dtc-xen/mnt
3. Examine the contents of XY.log, where XY is the VPS number you created. Because this installation process may take a while, you may want to output this log file as it is appended to. This can be done by typing tail -f <file>.
4. Upon completion, the contents of this look something like this (for debian):

   I: Configuring apt-utils...

   I: Configuring klogd...

   I: Configuring tasksel-data...

   I: Configuring sysklogd...

   I: Configuring tasksel...

   I: Base system installed successfully.

   Customizing vps...

   Making VPS devices with MAKEDEV generic

   Copying modules...

   Unmounting proc and filesystem root...

   Install script finished

5. If there are any errors before this stage, you will need to try and manually correct them and reinstall the operating system again. You can ignore errors similar to the below though:

   rm: cannot remove `/var/lib/dtc-xen/mnt/26/dev/pts': Is a directory

   mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/lib/dtc-xen/mnt/26/dev/pts': File exists