Create a Virtual Machine
Create Linux or Windows Virtual Machines in Gcore Cloud.
Step 1. Select a region
1. In the Gcore Customer Portal, open Instances tab and click Create Instance.
2. Choose the region where you want to deploy your Virtual Machine (VM).
Notice that regions are labeled either Core or Edge. This represents the region’s equipment specifications.
| Core | Edge* | |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment generation | The latest | Different |
| Designed for high scalability on the fly | Yes | Not |
| Available resources | 1000 cores and 30 TB of RAM | Up to 300 cores and 1 TB of RAM |
| Ports for user traffic and storage | Separate | Shared |
| Price | Higher | Lower |
- Edge regions can be transformed into Core regions. Just send us a request.
Step 2. Configure the image
Select the type of hardware architecture on which your VM will be running:
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x86-64 : This architecture is known for its broad compatibility with Linux operating systems and Windows distributions. It is commonly used in general purpose computing applications.
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ARM : ARM architecture is designed for energy efficiency and low power consumption, which also supports strong performance, making it ideal for high-performance computing tasks. However, ARM Virtual Machines are compatible with fewer OS distributions.
Your choice of hardware architecture will affect the available OS options and VM flavors. Choose an OS distribution, a volume, a snapshot, a custom image, or a template from the marketplace.
Step 3. Choose the VM type
Select the appropriate CPU generation:
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Intel® Xeon® Scalable, 3rd Gen or 2nd Gen if you’ve selected x-86-64 architecture at the previous step.
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ARM Ampere® Altra® Max Family if you selected ARM architecture in the previous step.
Choose one of the available flavors.
Step 4. Set up volumes
Enter a volume name, choose its type, and set its size in GiB.
(optional) Add an Attachment Tag.
Step 5. Add network interfaces
If you select a public interface, you can turn on the Use reserved IP toggle and assign a reserved IP address to your VM. Enable the IPv6 dual-stack toggle to use IPv6 addresses.
If you select a private interface, configure a network and a subnetwork according to the following steps.
Info
If you need both a public and private interface, disable the default gateway on the private network’s subnetwork and assign a floating IP to the private interface.
Select an existing network from the dropdown list or create a new one by clicking Add a new network.
If you choose to add a new network, a new window will open where you’ll configure the network settings:
1. Enter the network name.
2. (optional) Turn on the Use reserved IP toggle if you want to assign a reserved IP address to the Virtual Machine. Select the desired IP from the list.
3. (optional) Turn on the Use floating IP toggle if you want to assign a floating IP address and receive incoming connections to the VM.
4. (optional) Turn on the Enable IPv6 dual-stack toggle to use IPv6 addresses.
5. Click Create network.
Select an existing network from the dropdown list or create a new one by clicking Add a new network.
If you choose to add a new network, a new window will open where you’ll configure the network settings:
1. Enter the network name.
2. (optional) Turn on the Use reserved IP toggle if you want to assign a reserved IP address to the Virtual Machine. Select the desired IP from the list.
3. (optional) Turn on the Use floating IP toggle if you want to assign a floating IP address and receive incoming connections to the VM.
4. (optional) Turn on the Enable IPv6 dual-stack toggle to use IPv6 addresses.
5. Click Create network.
Info
If your VM has several subnetworks, ensure that only one subnetwork is routable. Otherwise, there will be a conflict with the default gateway on the server, and you might not be able to connect to the VM.
Select an existing subnetwork from the dropdown list or create a new one by clicking Add a new subnetwork.
If you choose to add a new subnetwork, a new window will open where you’ll configure the subnetwork settings:
1. Enter the subnetwork name.
2. Set CIDR between ranges: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0—172.31.255.255, 192.168.0.0—192.168.255.255. Set the mask between 16 and 29.
3. (optional) Turn on the Enable DHCP toggle to assign IP addresses to machines in the subnet automatically.
4. (optional) Turn on the Non-routable subnetwork toggle to block access to the subnet from external networks and other subnets. If you keep the network routable, you can specify the Gateway IP address. Otherwise, a random IP address will be assigned.
5. (optional) Enter Custom DNS servers to add specific DNS servers.
6. (optional) Turn on Add tags to add metadata to the subnetwork.
7. Click Create subnetwork.
Tip
Optionally, you can turn on the Use Reserved IP toggle to assign a reserved IP address to your VM and turn on the Use Floating IP toggle to assign a floating IP address.
Step 6. Configure firewall settings
For Firewall settings, select the default firewall or create a new one by clicking Add firewall.
If you keep the default firewall, the incoming traffic will be allowed over ICMP, TCP (SSH), and RDP protocols.
If you want to create a new firewall, refer to our article on adding and configuring a firewall.
Step 7. Set up authentication
Configure an SSH key for a remote SSH connection. You can add an existing SSH key or generate a new one. For instructions on how to generate and configure the key, check out this guide: Connect to a VM via SSH.
In addition to SSH keys, you can also set up a password for your Virtual Machine, as described in step 9. Setting a password is necessary if you want to connect to a Linux VM from the Customer Portal.
Configure an SSH key for a remote SSH connection. You can add an existing SSH key or generate a new one. For instructions on how to generate and configure the key, check out this guide: Connect to a VM via SSH.
In addition to SSH keys, you can also set up a password for your Virtual Machine, as described in step 9. Setting a password is necessary if you want to connect to a Linux VM from the Customer Portal.
Configure Access by setting a password for the Admin user.
Info
Your password must contain between 8 and 16 characters, including at least one lowercase letter (a-z), one uppercase letter (A-Z), one number (0-9), and one special character (!#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[]^_{|}~).
You can use the password to connect to a Windows VM from the Gcore Customer Portal or from your computer using RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol).
Step 8 (optional). Configure additional options
Enable the User data toggle to customize your VM during the initial boot by a cloud-init agent.
You can configure your password to connect to your Linux VM from the Customer Portal or via SSH. To do so, insert the following code to the field, replacing **your password** with your chosen password:
Info
On Cloud VMs with Windows OS, you can’t use the password parameter both in the “Access” and “User data” fields. Since the “Access” field is required, configuring user data on Windows Virtual Machines is not possible. Read more about the allowed VM parameters in our API docs.
Warning
If a VM is only in a private subnet, DHCP must be enabled in the settings of this subnet, so you can log in with a password.
- Turn on Add tags to add a key-value pair that forms the metadata of the Virtual Machine description.
- Turn on Add to placement group to determine how to place multiple VMs.
You can add the VM to an existing placement group or create a new one by clicking Add placement group.
Step 9. Specify the number of VMs
Indicate how many machines with the same configuration you need and name the VMs.
The maximum number is limited by your quotas.
For names, use Latin characters, underscores, spaces, and dots.
Step 10. Create a VM
Click Create virtual machine.
Your server will be transitioned to the Building status. The system will allocate resources for your Virtual Machine.
After that, the server will be automatically moved to the Power on status. Your machine is ready to run!