How To Setup UpCloud Server To Host Your Websites

UpCloud is a popular European cloud server provider that was founded in 2011 and been recognized twice as the #1 Performance Leader among the top 10 Cloud Hosting Providers in Europe by Cloud Spectator.

It is one of the top choices to host your websites. The most interesting part, UpCloud gives you a 100% Uptime SLA that will offer compensation to the customer for any disruption of service longer than 5 minutes.

UpCloud uses its own proprietary MaxIOPS storage technology to give you industry-leading performance and reliability. It is claimed to be faster than SSD, built on enterprise-grade SSDs but up to 2x faster compared to industry-standard cloud servers.

UpCloud offers a very simple pricing plan. The lowest plan is for only $5 / month, you can get 1GB Memory, 1 CPU Core, 25GB SSD, and 1 TB Transfer.

Currently, UpCloud has 9 worldwide datacenters: Amsterdam, Chicago, Frankfurt, Helsinki, New York City, London, San Jose, and Singapore. You can choose the server location that is close to you or your customers.

In this post, we will discuss how to setup UpCloud server to host your websites (web applications).

UpCloud Promo Code 2020

For RunCloud customers who would like to try out UpCloud we have a special free trial promo offer. You can use the special promo code RunUpCloud when you sign up to UpCloud and receive $50 credit free. If you deposit $10 within 7 days, then you can keep that $50 credit for 60 days. That should be plenty of credit to test UpCloud system to your satisfaction.

We hope you enjoy the promo code and take UpCloud for a test drive. We would love to hear about your UpCloud experience, so please come back and leave your comments below!

Register to UpCloud with special promo code

Choosing RunCloud To Setup Your UpCloud Server

There are many ways to host your website using UpCloud, for example, you can read this UpCloud tutorial, How to install single node WordPress LEMP CentOS 8, which requires some basic Linux skills to do it.

Then why should you use RunCloud to setup your UpCloud server?

There are many strong reasons for you to use RunCloud for UpCloud.

  • RunCloud simplifies server management experience. Either using UpCloud or other providers, you only need to master RunCloud once for all cloud server providers. You don’t need to be a Linux expert to build a website powered by UpCloud.
  • You can easily manage multiple servers (UpCloud and others) from one single RunCloud dashboard.
  • You can manage multiple web applications (websites) in one server using RunCloud.
  • You can easily change the web application stack from native Nginx to Nginx-Apache2 hybrid and vice versa for each web application in your server. No need to spin a new server only to try to use Nginx or Apache.
  • You can easily change the PHP version (7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4) of each web application in your server anytime. A different web application may require a different PHP version and no need to spin a new server to host another website with a different PHP version.
  • You can easily set up Let’s Encrypt SSL/TLS (https) to secure every web application in your server. RunCloud also supports wildcard Let’s Encrypt SSL and custom certificate.
  • You can easily clone your web application in the same server or to other servers in your RunCloud dashboard.
  • You can get notification from RunCloud server health monitoring when server load is high, RAM memory is nearly full, and disk space is low, directly to your email, telegram, or slack.
  • RunCloud supports many web applications, including WordPress (one-click install), Laravel, and any PHP web applications.
  • For WordPress users, you can use RunCloud Hub to optimize your website with server-side page caching and Redis object cache.
  • For professional WordPress developers, you can use the one-click WordPress Staging feature to create a staging version of your website easily.
  • For professional developers, you can use Git deployment from Github, BitBucket, Gitlab, to deploy your web application easily.
  • For power users, you can use the Custom Nginx Config feature to customize Nginx easily from RunCloud dashboard, without having to edit it manually.
  • For agencies, you can use our Team feature to assign a different team member to a different server with separate permission.

If you still do not have a RunCloud account, please register for 5 days free trial, no credit required.

Get Started With RunCloud

Connecting your UpCloud server to RunCloud is very easy. RunCloud provides three different methods for UpCloud.

  1. Server Provisioning using UpCloud API key
  2. Direct Server Installation via IP Address and root password
  3. Manual Server Installation via IP Address

Method 1. UpCloud Server Provisioning (Recommended)

With our Server Provisioning feature, you can set up a server in UpCloud directly from the RunCloud dashboard by providing an API key from UpCloud to RunCloud.

You only need to leave the RunCloud dashboard once to get this key and add it to RunCloud 3rd Party API Key Settings.

Within the RunCloud dashboard, for any future server creations, you will be able to add new servers without having to leave your dashboard.

Video Tutorial: Setup UpCloud Server

YouTube video

Create UpCloud API Key

In UpCloud, your API key is basically the username and password of your UpCloud account. You only need to enable the “Allow API connection” option from your UpCloud account settings.

But, this is NOT a good practice to use your main UpCloud username & password for the API key. It is better to create a dedicated subaccount that you can use for the API key.

You can create a subaccount for UpCloud here,

Create UpCloud subaccount for API key

For this subaccount permission, uncheck “Access to control panel” option, and only enable “Allow API connection” option. This subaccount will be dedicated for API connection only and can not be used to access your UpCloud control panel.

Add UpCloud API Key to RunCloud

There are two ways to add UpCloud API key in RunCloud.

You can use “Add a new key” shortcut when you try to build a server using RunCloud and choose UpCloud.

Or you can go to the “3rd Party API Key” menu by clicking your profile (top right), then click the Settings menu. You can see the list of all server provider API keys that you have added to RunCloud.

Once you have added your API key, you can start building the UpCloud server directly from the RunCloud dashboard.

Build Your UpCloud Server

To get started, click on the “Let’s get started” button to set up your first server.

A screen will pop up showing you a list of available server providers.

Select UpCloud server provider, click “Build Server” provision type, and select the API key from the list.

You can build a server from all available data center regions and instances from your UpCloud account.

Choose OS Image, select the data center region, select an instance, and click on “Add this server” to start building your server.

After clicking the “Add This Server” button, RunCloud will begin provisioning your server automatically.

Once the provision is complete, you will land on the RunCloud dashboard.

If successful, data about your UpCloud server will appear, and you have successfully set up your UpCloud server with RunCloud.

Done!

Method 2. Setup UpCloud With Direct Server Installation

Using the direct server installation method, you have to go to your UpCloud dashboard, create a new server using Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.04 / 20.04 LTS OS image.

You can connect this server by providing your server IP address and root password, then sit back and relax, and our direct server installation will set up your server in minutes.

YouTube video

Method 3. Setup UpCloud Manual Server Installation.

Using the manual server installation method, you have to go to your UpClouddashboard, create a new server using Ubuntu 16.04 / 18.04 / 20.04 LTS OS image.

You can log in as root user to your server using an SSH client (OpenSSH/putty), run RunCloud installation script, then sit back and relax, our manual server installation will set up your server in minutes.

YouTube video

Summary

UpCloud is one of the top choices to host your websites using UpCloud enterprise-grade hardware, high and consistent performance with MaxIOPS storage technology, with 100% Uptime SLA, which starts from $5 / month.

After set up your server, you can continue to,

Categories: Server Management, Tutorials

Simplifying Server Management

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