About cloud servers

InfraNest lets you manage your cloud servers — and the firewalls, volumes, networks and load balancers around them — from one place, without hopping between provider consoles. This article is for anyone getting started with servers in InfraNest.

Overview

• See every server across your connected providers, with its Status, type, IP addresses, datacenter and Tags.
• Run the full lifecycle of a server — create, power on/off, reboot, rebuild, use rescue mode, open a console, back up, snapshot and delete.
• Keep servers secure with a per-server security advisor that flags risky settings and lets you fix them in one click.
• Watch server health with CPU, network and disk metrics, and get alerted when something stays wrong for too long.
• Manage Firewalls, Volumes, Networks and Load Balancers alongside your servers, all in the same place.

Find and open your servers

1. Open Servers from the sidebar.
2. Use Search to find a server by name, or Filter to narrow the list by Status or Tags.
3. Select a server from the list to open it and manage it in detail.

NoteInfraNest currently supports Hetzner Cloud (full lifecycle management) and TransIP.

Create a server

1. From the Servers page, select Add server.
2. Choose a provider under Choose a provider.
3. Choose a location under Choose a location.
4. Choose a plan under Choose a plan.
5. Configure your server under Configure your server — set the Operating system, add SSH keys, and optionally add a Cloud-init (optional) script.
6. Fill in Server details, including the Server name.
7. Review the Image & access settings, then select Create server.

While your server is being provisioned, you'll see Creating server…. Once it's ready, you'll see a Server created confirmation and your new server will appear on the Servers page.

Manage a server's lifecycle

1. Open the server you want to manage from the Servers page.
2. Go to the Power & Maintenance tab.
3. Use Power on, Power off, Shutdown or Power Reset to control the server's power state.
4. Use Rebuild to reinstall the operating system, or Rescue to boot into rescue mode for troubleshooting.
5. Use Console to open a live console session if you need direct access.
6. To remove the server entirely, go to Rebuild & delete, select Delete server permanently, type the server's name to confirm, then select Delete server.

WarningDeleting a server is permanent and can't be undone. Make sure you have a backup or snapshot first if you might need the data again.

Keep a server secure

1. Open the server and look for its best-practice checks section.
2. Review flagged issues such as SSH is open to the internet, RDP is open to the internet, Backups off, or No firewall attached.
3. Select Hide passed checks if you only want to see what still needs attention.
4. Use the suggested action for each issue — for example Fix in firewall, Open backups, Open networking or Review volumes — to resolve it.

Watch server health

1. Open the server and go to the Metrics tab.
2. Review the graphs for CPU, Network Traffic, Network PPS, Disk IOPS and Disk Throughput.
3. Go to Alerts to set up a metric alert — select Add metric alert, choose a Metric, set whether it should trigger above (>) or below (<) a value, and set how long it must stay in breach for {n} min.
4. Save the rule. You can Disable rule or Delete alert rule later if needed.

Manage what's around your server

1. Open the server and use the tabs to manage its surroundings:
   • Networking — attach or manage a Private network, assign a Floating IP, or edit reverse DNS.
   • Firewalls — attach an existing firewall or select Create a new firewall instead.
   • Volumes — use Attach existing volume to add extra storage.
   • Backups & Snapshots — turn on Automatic backups or select Start manual backup.

Tips

TipUse Tags to group related servers (for example, by project or environment) — it makes searching and filtering on the Servers page much faster.