First steps with pre-installed applications

Last updated 7th September 2021

Objective

OVHcloud offers Public Cloud customers pre-installed application images for quick and easy deployment of applications with few clicks only.

This guide will provide the first steps for each and every pre-installed application image on our Public Cloud platform.

Requirements

• A Public Cloud instance in your OVHcloud account

Instructions

Common steps

Install your chosen pre-installed application

Using the OVHcloud Control Panel / API or the OpenStack Horizon / API, install your chosen application on your Public Cloud instance.

Application login details

Once the instance has been installed with your chosen pre-installed application, you can retrieve your login details via the OVHcloud API only.

1. Log in to the API console here.
2. Then go to here.

API call

POST /cloud/project/{serviceName}/instance/{instanceId}/applicationAccess

Parameters

serviceName

This is your cloud project ID

instanceId

This is the UUID of your instance

Let's Encrypt SSL

This section only applies to WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! and PrestaShop installations. It will not work for other installations.

1. You must create or edit two A records in the OVHcloud Control Panel which point to the IP address of your server. For example if your domain name is "personaldomain.ovh" then you need to create A records for:

   personaldomain.ovh
   www.personaldomain.ovh
   

If your domain is registered with OVHcloud you can follow this guide.
If your domain is registered with another company you will need to contact them for assistance to set up your A records.

2. You may need to wait 24 hours before the two records propagate fully. You can always check it with mxtoolbox. If the IP for your domain is showing on mxtoolbox the same as your server's IP address then you can proceed to the next step.
3. SSH into your server with the CentOS user and execute the following commands to install Certbot.

sudo -i
dnf install -y epel-release
dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache mod_ssl
echo "ServerName personaldomain.ovh;" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
systemctl restart httpd

4. Generate your SSL using Certbot (follow the on screen instructions)

certbot certonly -d personaldomain.ovh --webroot

When asked about "Input the webroot", you need to enter something like "/var/www/wordpress". If you are installing Joomla!, you need to replace "wordpress" with "joomla".

Now you need to get certbot to also place it into the ssl.conf file. To trigger this, enter:

certbot -d personaldomain.ovh --apache

When prompted, answer the first prompt with "1" and also the second prompt with "1".

You should get the following output if your SSL has been generated:

IMPORTANT NOTES:
 - Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/personaldomain.ovh/fullchain.pem
   Your key file has been saved at:
   /etc/letsencrypt/live/personaldomain.ovh/privkey.pem
   Your cert will expire on 2020-11-12. To obtain a new or tweaked
   version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again
   with the "certonly" option. To non-interactively renew *all* of
   your certificates, run "certbot renew"

cPanel

This section will explain the first steps specifically for the cPanel pre-installed image. Steps marked with * will have FAQ at the end of the steps.

1. Get your one time login URL following these steps.

2. Click on the URL that is returned by the API.

   If the link has expired already, please SSH into the instance using the CentOS user and execute the "whmlogin" command to generate a new one or just reinstall the instance.

3. Read and accept the terms of cPanel.
4. Provide your email and nameservers you wish to set on the server *.
5. Set your root password which you will use the next time you log in to WHM *.

No further steps are necessary to complete the first configuration of this application.

Can I use my own nameservers?

Yes, you can. But you need to make sure you create glue records with your domain registrar. For example if you want "ns1.mydomain.com" and "ns2.mydomain.com", you must set up glue records for both which must point to the IP of your server. If your domain is registered with OVHcloud, you can follow this guide.. Please note that this can take 24 hours to create.

Why set root password?

WHM by default uses the root user for authentication and the one time link allows access to complete first setup and change root password. Next time you login to WHM you must use the root user and the password you have set.

Where is my license for cPanel?

OVHcloud at the moment does not provide any licensing for Public Cloud servers other than Windows licensing. Customers must purchase a licence from a third party vendor for cPanel. For this we recommend cPanel directly.

Plesk

This section will explain the first steps specifically for the Plesk pre-installed image. Steps marked with * will have FAQ at the end of the steps.

1. Get your application access URL by following these steps.
2. Click on the URL that is returned by the API.
3. Log in using the username and password returned by the API.
4. Once logged in, Plesk will ask you to provide:
   a) Your contact information
   b) A new password for the "admin" user which you will use for login on the Plesk panel
   c) Licence information*
   d) Read and accept their end-user licence agreement
   
   
   

No further steps are necessary to complete the first configuration of this application.

Where is my licence for Plesk?

OVHcloud at the moment does not provide any licensing for Public Cloud servers other than Windows licensing. Customers must purchase a licence from a third party vendor for Plesk. For this we recommend Plesk directly.

Virtualmin

This section will explain the first steps specifically for the Virtualmin pre-installed image.

1. Get your application access URL by following these steps.
2. Click on the URL that is returned by the API.
3. Log in using the username and password returned by the API.
4. Once logged in Virtualmin will have several optimisation questions for you to answer. It will help Virtualmin configure itself to meet your specification.

No further steps are necessary to complete the first configuration of this application.

Vestacp

This section will explain the first steps specifically for the Vestacp pre-installed image.

1. Get your application access URL by following these steps.
2. Click on the URL that is returned by the API.
3. Log in using the username and password returned by the API.

No further steps are necessary to complete the first configuration of this application.

Docker

This section will explain the first steps specifically for the Docker pre-installed image.

1. SSH into the server using the CentOS user.
2. Check that Docker is working using the "docker run hello-world" command.

No further steps are necessary to complete the first configuration of this application.

Go further

Join our community of users on https://community.ovh.com/en/.

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