DigitalOcean is a well-known cloud server provider that aims to simplify cloud computing so that developers and their teams can spend more time building software that changes the world. It’s designed for developers, and provides an intuitive control panel, predictable pricing, team accounts, and more.
DigitalOcean has many different plans, including Basic (Standard), General Purpose, Memory Optimized, and CPU Optimized.
Currently, DigitalOcean has 10 worldwide data centers spread across 8 regions:
- New York
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- London
- Frankfurt
- Toronto
- Bangalore
- Singapore.
You can choose the server location that is close to you or your customers to get lower latency.
In this post, we will show you how to set up the DigitalOcean server to host your websites on RunCloud.
Let’s get started!
Adding DigitalOcean API Keys to RunCloud
With RunCloud’s server provisioning feature, you can set up a server in DigitalOcean directly from the RunCloud dashboard by providing an API key from DigitalOcean to RunCloud.
To start the integration process, open your DigitalOcean dashboard and navigate to the “API” tab on the lower left of your screen.
In the “Applications & API” menu, make sure that you are on the tokens tab, and click on the “Generate New Token” button to create a new key.
On the next screen, give a suitable name to your key and set the expiration date of the key. Choose the expiration period carefully, because if your key expires, you will need to integrate your server with RunCloud again.
Make sure you have granted the “Write permission”, and then click “Generate Token” to create the token.
After your key has been created, you’ll need to add this key to your RunCloud account to finish the integration process. Go to your account settings and open the “Integrations” tab. Look for the “DigitalOcean” option in the list, and click on it.
Make sure you click on the right option to host the servers, and not the DigitalOcean Space option.
On the next screen, you can add the name of your API key to distinguish it from the rest of the keys, and then paste the key that you copied from the DigitalOcean dashboard.
After you have added the key, it’s a good idea to test the integration by clicking on the “Test Integration” button. If you follow the steps correctly, you should get a success message. Click on the “Save Integration” button to save the changes.
Deploying A Server Using RunCloud
Once you have successfully integrated RunCloud with DigitalOcean, you can start using RunCloud’s automated deployment feature to launch and delete servers automatically.
To deploy a new server simply go to your RunCloud dashboard and click on “Connect a New Server”. On the next screen, choose DigitalOcean from the list of available cloud providers and click on “Deploy Server Automatically”.
Now scroll down to the bottom of the screen and select the installation type. There are two installation options available – you can either choose a native installation or containerized. Read our blog post on containerized architecture to learn more.
Next, you can pick the server stack that you want to use. In this example we will just use the Nginx servers. Now you need to select the API key from the drop down menu – pick the API key that we just created and then click on “Continue”.
On the next screen, you will get the option to select the operating system and other server details. Pick the latest version of the cloud image available, and then select the cloud plan that you want to use. There are multiple cloud plans available with varying costs – pick the one that meets your needs best.
Next, select the instance size depending upon your workload. In this example, we have used the basic plan to deploy a $4 per month server in the Bangalore region.
After you have selected the cloud instance, scroll down to the bottom of the page and give your server a suitable name. Don’t forget to check the box to acknowledge that you understand you will be billed for this cloud instance, and then click on the “Add Server” button to deploy the server.
After you have created the server, RunCloud will automatically deploy a new server on your behalf in your DigitalOcean account, and then install all the necessary dependencies and other software needed to run web applications.
This usually takes five to ten minutes, there is no additional input required from you at this point – just sit back and wait for the installation to complete.
Once the installation has completed, you should see the following screen in your dashboard:
Deploying A Server Using RunCloud One-Click Droplet
RunCloud has pre-built images on the DigitalOcean marketplace that can be used to launch new servers quickly. Go to DigitalOcean marketplace.
Click on the “Create RunCloud Droplet” to create a new server. This will take you to the DigitalOcean dashboard. In this dashboard, select your desired datacenter region, and server size.
In the image section, make sure that RunCloud’s pre-built image is selected.
Tip: You can also search for RunCloud’s other images in the marketplace search box.
After you have configured all the necessary settings, click on “Create Droplet” to deploy the server. This should only take a few minutes.
Once your server is up and running, log into it using SSH. You can use DigitalOcean’s in-built SSH feature for this. After logging into the server, click on the URL displayed to connect this server to your RunCloud account.
If clicking the URL doesn’t work, you can copy and paste the URL into your browser. You will be asked to enter the name of the server and that’s it! You can now manage this server directly from the RunCloud dashboard.
After Action Report
DigitalOcean is one of the top choices to host your websites in the cloud. You can set up your DigitalOcean servers easily using RunCloud’s automatic integration, as well as using a marketplace image.
If you’re tired of managing your own servers – you should switch to RunCloud. RunCloud is built for developers that want to focus on shipping great work, not on managing their infrastructure. We provide a painless server configuration experience, so you don’t need to spend hours figuring it out.
Get started with RunCloud today, and get up and running in minutes.
