Tutorials

2025 8 Jul

Choosing the Right Storage for Dedicated Servers

When renting a dedicated server at ServerAstra, choosing the right storage configuration is essential. Your storage strategy directly affects performance, scalability, and cost - especially for workloads like Web-hosting, multi-site environments, VM platforms, edge services, and AI training/inference. This article outlines the differences between HDDs, SSDs (SATA, NVMe), QLC vs TLC, and RAID setups - based on real-world data and infrastructure use cases. Table of Contents HDD vs SSD for Servers SSD Types: [...]

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2025 22 May

IPMI IPKVM guide

This guide provides comprehensive instructions for accessing your server's IPMI interface, launching the IPKVM console for remote server management, and mounting ISO images, including external ISOs via our Samba/HTTP share. Table of Contents Accessing the IPMI Interface Launching the IPKVM Console Supermicro X9/X10/X11/X12 Series ASRockRack / ASMB9-10 Dell iDRAC8/9/10 ASMB8 / Intel RMM4 HP iLO Mounting ISO Images Mounting Local ISO via Console (few examples) Mounting External ISO via Samba Share or http [...]

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2024 5 Dec

How to Recover files from a stable and working ZFS pool when snapshots are unavailable

When dealing with corruption beyond ZFS ecosystem (i.e. file deletion by accident, removal by malicious script, ransomware activity), we can employ rolling back transactions to help recover files. However, rolling back directly can lead to inconsistencies, especially if writes were partially completed. Instead, this guide will show how to safely inspect, recover, and extract critical data by manually selecting a stable transaction group (TXG) and recovering files before committing any changes. 1. Immediate[...]

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2024 10 Jul

DirectAdmin setup and installation on CentOS, Rocky, AlmaLinux, RHEL, Debian and Ubuntu

DirectAdmin is a powerful and user-friendly web hosting control panel that allows you to manage your server and websites with ease. This guide will walk you through the steps to install DirectAdmin on your server. Prerequisites Before you begin, ensure that you have the following: A clean server or cloud instance at ServerAstra running a compatible Linux distribution (CentOS, Rocky, Alma, RHEL, Debian, or Ubuntu). Root access to the server (provided by our team by default after setup). A valid DirectAdmin [...]

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2024 24 Apr

Installing Arch Linux on a ServerAstra cloud instance or dedicated server

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Arch Linux. This process is aimed at users with a basic understanding of Linux commands and network configurations. Prerequisites Either a server or cloud instance with ServerAstra. Arch Linux ISO access Basic familiarity with Linux command line interface. TIP: For BMC access please refer to Guide to Interpreting the YAML Configuration and Connecting to IPKVM and IPMI IPKVM guide Step 1: Connecting the Arch Linux ISO Select the ISO for Ar[...]

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2023 31 May

Installing Windows on a Cloud Instance via VNC

Installing an operating system like Windows on a Virtual Private Server or Cloud Instance can be accomplished using Virtual Network Computing (VNC). This guide will focus on using the Virtio drivers (virtio-win.iso) during the Windows installation process. Prerequisites ServerAstra Cloud Instance Windows ISO image - you can select one during order or upload your own Virtio drivers (virtio-win.iso) - it is auto supplied for any Windows iso VNC client software (Optional) Steps 1. Prepare the Cloud Instance [...]

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2023 25 Apr

Installing Control Panels via Cloud Panel and Accessing Them

In this article, we will discuss how to install various control panels using Cloud Panel and access them after installation. Cloud Panel supports several popular control panels, including: Webuzo Website: https://www.webuzo.com/ Documentation: https://www.webuzo.com/docs/ Plesk Website: https://www.plesk.com/ Documentation: https://docs.plesk.com/ cPanel Website: https://cpanel.net/ Documentation: https://docs.cpanel.net/ Webmin Website: http://www.webmin.com/ Documentation: http://www.webmin[...]

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2023 31 Mar

Setting Up and Securing SSH on Ubuntu 22.04: A Comprehensive Guide

In this tutorial we will guide you through the process of enabling SSH on your Ubuntu 22.04 system, configuring the appropriate firewall rules to allow inbound connections, and changing the default SSH port for enhanced security. Prerequisites An Ubuntu 22.04 system with root privileges Step 1: Update the System Before you start, make sure your system is up to date. Open a terminal window and run the following commands: sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade Step 2: Install the OpenSSH Server To enable SSH on y[...]

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2023 31 Mar

Set Up and Secure SSH on CentOS, Rocky, and AlmaLinux 7, 8, and 9

This tutorial will guide you through the process of enabling SSH on your CentOS, Rocky, or AlmaLinux 7, 8, and 9 system, configuring the appropriate firewall rules to allow inbound connections, and changing the default SSH port for enhanced security. Prerequisites A CentOS, Rocky, or AlmaLinux system of appropriate version with root privileges Step 1: Update the System Before you start, make sure your system is up to date. Open a terminal window and run the following commands: sudo yum update For CentOS/R[...]

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2023 31 Mar

Setting Up and Securing SSH on FreeBSD 13: A Comprehensive Guide

Here will guide you through the process of enabling SSH on your FreeBSD 13 system, configuring the appropriate firewall rules to allow inbound connections, and changing the default SSH port for enhanced security. Prerequisites A FreeBSD 13 system with root privileges Step 1: Update the System Before you start, make sure your system is up to date. Open a terminal window and run the following commands: pkg update pkg upgrade Step 2: Enable the SSH Service To enable SSH on your FreeBSD system, edit the /etc/[...]

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