Cloud servers

A server is a computer that stays on and connected to the internet, and answers requests from others: visitors to a website, players in a game, apps that store data. Coritan's servers are physical machines in data centres, and you rent a share of one. That share is what people mean by a cloud server.

A physical machine has far more processor, memory and disk than one customer usually needs, so it runs many customers' servers side by side, each kept apart from the others. There are two ways to share it:

Virtual machine

Software on the physical machine acts as a whole computer, with its own processors, memory, disk and operating system. You control everything inside it, as you would on a computer of your own. A Cloud Compute instance is a virtual machine.

Container

A program runs in a space of its own, with its own files and a set share of the machine, and you have no operating system to look after. On App Deployment, each instance runs in a container, whether it is a game server, a database or an app.

When you order a server or an instance, the order page asks for these:

Plan

The size: how many virtual processors (vCPUs), how much memory and how much disk. Memory holds what the software is working on, such as the game world your players are in. The disk keeps the operating system, your files and your data when the machine restarts.

Location

The data centre it runs in. Choose the one closest to the people who use it, so that their traffic has less far to travel (Data centres and locations).

Software

The operating system image of an instance, or the software a server runs, such as Minecraft or PostgreSQL.

The order page shows the plans, prices and locations you can order at the time.

• An instance has a public IPv4 address. You sign in to it over SSH with a key or a password, or use its console in the dashboard (Connect to an instance over SSH).
• A game server or a database on App Deployment has an address and a port that players or apps connect to. You run it from the dashboard, with a console, a file manager and SFTP (App Deployment).
• A web service or a site on App Deployment answers at an address on our edge, and on your own domains, over HTTPS (Deploy from a git repository).

On Cloud Compute, you look after everything inside the instance, such as installing software and keeping it up to date. On App Deployment, Coritan installs the software you chose or builds your code, and keeps it running, and you look after its settings and its data. Which compute product to choose helps you choose between them.

A server on Coritan is billed by what it uses. Its memory is billed while it runs, its disk for as long as it exists, and the processor time and the data it sends as it uses them. A stopped server costs its disk only, and every month includes some use at no charge when your account has Server access. Your account needs a minimum total of deposits before a server can run (How usage billing works).

An app on App Deployment is billed the same way, by the memory and CPU its instances use, and a spend limit you set stops it at an amount of your choosing (How App Deployment is billed). A plan can also have a price per hour, as a service ordered before usage billing does (How hourly billing works).

• Get a cloud server
• Create an instance
• Order a deployment
• Which compute product to choose
• The Cloud Compute and App Deployment product pages on coritan.com