Prerequisites: Make sure you have the appropriate privileges. Only contract owners, administrators, or users with the Create Data Center privilege can set up a VDC. Other user types have read-only access and can't provision changes.
Set Up Storage
Learn how to set up additional block storage for your virtual instances.
Images and Snapshots
Upload your own images or use those supplied by IONOS Cloud.
Manage User Access to various storage elements.
Storage space is added to your virtual machines by using storage elements in your VDC. Storage name, availability zone, size, OS image, and boot options are configurable for each element.
Click the Unnamed HDD Storage to highlight the storage section. You can now see new options in the Inspector on the right.
Storage type cannot be changed after provisioning.
Enter a name that is unique within your VDC.
Select a zone in which you want the storage device to be maintained. When you select A (Auto), our system assigns the optimal Zone. The Availability Zone cannot be changed after provisioning.
Specify the required storage capacity. The size can be increased after provisioning, even while the server is running, as long as this is supported by its operating system. It is not possible to reduce the storage size after provisioning.
You can select one of the IONOS images or snapshots, or use your own. Only images and snapshots that you have access to are available for selection. Since provisioning does not require you to specify an image, you can also create empty storage volumes.
Authentication
Set the root or administrator password for your server according to the guidelines. This is recommended for both operating system types
Select an SSH key stored in the SSH Key Manager.
Copy and paste the public part of your SSH key into this field.
Select the storage volume from which the server is to boot by clicking on BOOT or Make Boot Device.
When adding a storage element using the Inspector, select the appropriate check box in the Add Storage dialog box. If you wish to boot from the network, set this on the server: Server in the Workspace > Inspector > Storage.
It is recommended to always use VirtIO to benefit from the full performance of InfiniBand. IDE is intended for troubleshooting if, for instance, the operating system has no VirtIO drivers installed. In this case, Windows usually displays a "blue screen" when booting.
After provisioning, the Live Vertical Scaling properties of the selected image are displayed. You can make changes to these properties later, which will require a reboot. You can set the properties of your uploaded images before you apply them to storage volumes in the Image Manager.
(Optional) Add and configure further storage elements.
(Optional) Make further changes to your data center.
Provision your changes. The storage device is now provisioned and configured according to your settings.
To assign an image and specify a boot device, you need to add and configure a storage element.
Click on CD-ROM to add a CD-ROM drive so that you can use ISO images to install and configure an operating system from scratch.
Set up a network by connecting the server to other elements, such as an internet access element or other servers through their NICs.
Provision your changes.
The server is available according to your settings.
When you no longer need snapshots or images, you should remove them from your cloud infrastructure to avoid unnecessary costs. For backup purposes, you can create a snapshot before deleting it.
In the Workspace, select the storage device you wish to delete.
Open the context menu of the element and select Delete.
(alternative) Select the element and press the DEL key.
Provision your changes result: The storage device is deleted and will no longer be available.
If you delete a server and its storage devices, or the entire data center, their backups are not deleted automatically. Only when you delete a Backup Unit will the backups it contains actually be deleted.
If you no longer need the backups of deleted VMs, you should delete them manually in the Backup Unit Manager to avoid unnecessary costs.
VirtIO provides an efficient abstraction for hypervisors and a common set of IO virtualization drivers. It was chosen to be the main platform for IO virtualization in KVM. There are four drivers available:
Balloon - The balloon driver affects the memory management of the guest OS.
VIOSERIAL - The serial driver affects single serial device limitation within KVM.
NetKVM - The network driver affects Ethernet network adapters.
VIOSTOR - The block driver affects SCSI based controllers.
Windows-based systems require VirtIO drivers primarily to recognize the VirtIO (SCSI) controller and network adapter presented by the IONOS KVM-based hypervisor. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways depending on the state of the virtual machine.
IONOS provides pre-configured Windows Server images that already contain the required VirtIO drivers and the optimal network adapter configuration. We also offer a VirtIO ISO to simplify the driver installation process for Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2012 & Windows 2012 R2 systems. This ISO can be found in the CD-ROM drop-down menu under IONOS Images which can be used for new Windows installations (only required for customer-provided images), as well as Windows images that have been migrated from other environments (e.g. via VMDK upload).\
Always use the latest Windows VirtIO driver from IONOS.
Add a CD-ROM drive and open the installation menu:
In the Workspace, select the required server.
In the Inspector, open the Storage.
Click on CD-ROM to add a CD-ROM drive.
In the dialog box, choose an IONOS image with drivers (windows-VirtIO-driver-<version>.iso) and select the Boot from Device check box.
Confirm the action by clicking the Create CD-ROM Drive.
Provision your changes.
Connect to the server using Remote Console. The installation menu opens.
Follow the options provided by the installation menu.
Remove the CD-ROM drive as soon as the menu asks you to do so, and shut down the VM.
In DCD, specify from which storage to boot.
Restart the server using the DCD.
Provision your changes.
Connect to the server again using the Remote Console to make further changes.
2. Set optimal values: For an optimal configuration, apply the following settings:
MTU:
Internal network interface: 1500 MTU
External network interface: 1500 MTU
Offloading for Receive (RX) and Transmit (TX):
Offload Tx IP checksum: Enabled
Offload Tx LSO: Enabled
Offload Tx TCP checksum: Enabled
Fix IP checksum on LSO: Enabled
Hardware checksum: Enabled
3. Disable TCP Offloading/Chimney:
Default:
netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled
Everything:
Alternatively, modify the Windows registry:
The installation will be active after a restart. The following command can be used to verify the status of the configuration above.
4. Set correct values for any network adapter automatically: You can apply the correct settings for any network adapter automatically by executing the following commands in PowerShell:
Request network adapter information Get-NetAdapter
The following output is displayed:
In the Name field, use the output value instead of "Ethernet".
Create a new file using PowerShell ISE (File > New).
Copy and paste the following code and make sure to change $name ="Ethernet" properly:
Click File > Execute.
Check the settings.
Restart the VM. The correct settings are applied automatically.
5. Activate TCP/IP auto-tuning:
TCP/IP auto-tuning ensures optimal data transfer between client and server by monitoring network traffic and automatically adjusting the "Receive Window Size". You should always activate this option to ensure the best performance.
Activate:
Check:
Users who are not contract owners or administrators need access rights to view, use, or edit resources in a VDC. These access rights are assigned to groups and are inherited by group members.
Users can access a resource with the following access rights:
Read: Users can see and use the resource, but they cannot modify it. Read access is automatically granted as soon as a user is assigned to a group that has this access right.
Edit: Users can modify and delete the resource.
Share: Users can share a resource, including their access rights, with the groups to which they belong.
A user who created a resource is the owner of that resource and can specify its access rights.
The owner is shown in the Security tab of a resource.
In addition to enabling access to resource, for users of authorized groups only, data centers and snapshots can be protected even further by restricting access to users who have 2-factor authentication activated. Other users cannot see or select these resources - even if they belong to an authorized group.
Depending on their role, users can set access rights at the resource level and in the User Manager.
Prerequisites: Make sure that you have the appropriate permissions. Only contract owners, administrators, or users with access rights permission can share the required resource. Other user types have read-only access and cannot provision changes.
Select the required resource
Open the data center:
Images: Menu Bar > Resource Manager > Image Manager > Image.
Snapshots: Menu Bar > Resource Manager > Image Manager > Snapshot.
IP addresses: Menu Bar > Resource Manager > IP Manager.
Kubernetes Cluster: Menu Bar > Resource Manager > Kubernetes Manager.
3. Select the required resource
4. Open Security > Visible to Groups
5. Enable access:
From the + Add Group menu, select the required groups. Read access is granted. Users can see and use, but not modify the resource.
(Optional) Select further permissions (Edit, Share). You may only share permissions that you have yourself.
6. Restrict or disable access:
Select the required group
Deactivate the checkbox of the permission
Read access is retained.
Alternatively, you can click Remove Group. Access will be disabled for all members of the selected group.
Optional: To protect the resource (data center, snapshots) more thoroughly by only allowing access to users whose login is secured with 2-factor authentication, activate the 2-Factor Protected check box.
Contract owners and administrators can also define in the User Manager who may access a resource to what extent.
Prerequisites: Make sure you have the appropriate permissions. Only contract owners and administrators can set the access rights.
Set the access rights in the User Manager
Go to Menu Bar > Management > Users & Groups. That is when the User Manager is displayed.
In the Resources, select the required resource.
Open the Visible to Groups.
Enable access
From the + Add Group list, add the required groups.
(Optional) To enable write access or sharing of a resource, activate the relevant check box.
5. Disable access: deactivate the checkbox of the permission or click Remove Group.
Optional: To protect the resource (data center, snapshots) more thoroughly by only allowing access to users whose login is secured with 2-factor authentication, activate the 2-Factor Protected check box.
Assigning resources to a group
In the Groups, select the required group.
Open the Resources of Group.
To enable access:
Select the required resource by clicking on + Grant Access. This enables read access to the selected resource.
(Optional) To enable write access or sharing of a resource, activate the respective check box.
4. To disable access:
Select the required resource.
Deactivate the check box of the appropriate permission or click on Revoke Access.
You can find more information about managing the Groups here.
IONOS provides you with a number of ready-made images that you can use immediately. You can also use your own images by uploading them via our FTP access. Your IONOS account supports many types of HDD images as well as ISO images from which you can install an operating system or software directly, using an emulated CD-ROM drive.
The following image types can be uploaded:
Snapshots are images generated from storage that have already been provisioned. You can use these images for other storage. This feature is useful, for example, if you need to quickly roll out more virtual machines that have the same or similar configuration. You can use snapshots on HDD and SSD storage, regardless of the storage type for which the snapshot was created. To create snapshots, users who are not contract owners or administrators need to have the appropriate privileges.
You can create snapshots from provisioned SSD and HDD storage. Regardless of the underlying storage type (HDD or SSD), snapshots use up HDD storage space assigned to an IONOS account. Therefore, if you want to create a snapshot, you must have enough HDD memory available.
The VM can be switched on or off when creating a snapshot. To ensure that data still in the RAM of the VM is included in the snapshot. It is recommended that you synchronize the data (with sync under Linux) or shut down the guest operating system (with shutdown -h now under Linux) before creating the snapshot.
Prerequisites: Make sure you have the appropriate permissions. Only contract owners, administrators, or users with the Create Snapshot permission can create a snapshot. Beforehand, ensure that you have sufficient memory available.
Open the required data center.
(Optional) Shut down the server. Creating a snapshot while the server is running takes longer.
Open the context menu of the storage element and select Create Snapshot.
(Optional) Change the name and the description of the snapshot.
Click on Create Snapshot to start the process.
The snapshot is being created. It will be available in the Image Manager and in My own Images > Snapshots.
IONOS offers FTP access for each of our data center locations so that you can upload your own images. An image is only available at the location where it was uploaded.
You can manage your uploaded images and the snapshots you created with the DCD's Image Manager. You can specify who can access and use them. Only images and snapshots to which you have access are displayed.
To open the Image Manager, go to Menu Bar > Resource Manager > Image Manager.
If you want to upload an image, you must first set up a connection from your computer to the IONOS FTP server. This can be done using an FTP client such as FileZilla or tools from your operating system. Then copy the image to the FTP upload of the IONOS data center location where you wish to use the image. After uploading, the image will be converted to a RAW format. As a result, dynamic HDD images are always used at their maximum size. A dynamic image, for example, whose file size is 3 GB, but which comes from a 50 GB hard disk, will be a 50 GB image again after conversion to the IONOS format. The disk space required for an uploaded image will not affect the resources of your IONOS account and you will not be charged.
FTP addresses:
Frankfurt am Main (DE): ftps://ftp-fra.ionos.com; Karlsruhe (DE): ftps://ftp-fkb.ionos.com; Berlin (DE): ftps://ftp-txl.ionos.com; London (GB): ftps://ftp-lhr.ionos.com; Las Vegas (US): ftps://ftp-las.ionos.com; Newark (US): ftps://ftp-ewr.ionos.com; LogroƱo (ES): ftps://ftp-vit.ionos.com
In the DCD, FTP addresses are listed here: Menu Bar > Image Manager > FTP Image Upload
Characters allowed for file names of images: a-z A-Z 0-9 - . / _ ( ) # ~ + = blanks.
Note: Images created from UEFI boot machines cannot be uploaded. Only MBR boot images are supported.
Example: Windows 10
In Windows 10, you can upload an image, without additional software, as follows.
How to set up FTP access
Open Windows Explorer.
Select Add a network location from the context menu.
Enter the IONOS FTP address as the location of the website, e.g. ftps://ftps-fkb.ionos.com. An image is only available at the location where it was uploaded.
In the next dialog box, leave the Log on anonymously check box activated.
In the next dialog box, enter a name for the connection which will later be visible in Windows Explorer, e.g. upload_fkb.
Confirm your entries by clicking Finish.
The FTP connection is available in Windows Explorer.
How to copy an image to the FTP upload.
Open the FTP access on your PC.
In the login dialog box, enter the credentials of your IONOS account.
Copy the image you wish to upload to the folder matching the image type (HDD or iso).
As soon as the upload begins, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from IONOS.
After the upload has been completed, the image will be available in the Image Manager and in Own Images.
If you no longer need a snapshot or image and want to save resources, you can delete it.
Open the Image Manager: Menu Bar > Resource Manager > Image Manager.
To delete a snapshot, open the Snapshots tab and select the snapshot you would like to delete.
To delete an image, open the Images tab and select the image you would like to delete.
Click Delete.
In the dialog that appears, confirm your action by entering your password and clicking OK. The selected item is deleted and cannot be restored.
HDD images:
VMWare disk image
Microsoft disk image
RAW disk image
QEMU QCOW image
UDF file system
Parallels disk image
ISO images:
ISO 9660 CD-ROM