Dedibox dedicated servers - Concepts

Reviewed on 27 August 2024

Administrator password

The administrator password represents the password of the root user on the system and is set during the installation of your Dedibox server. The administrator account has full rights to modify or delete any data on the server. Make sure to set a strong administrator password.

Access Control List (ACL)

This feature allows you to restrict access to your backup space to the IP address of your Dedibox. The connection attempts (successful or unsuccessful) are stored in your console in real-time.

Auto Login allows you to log into your account without a password (automatic authentication based on your IP address and MAC address). This way, you can avoid transmitting your unencrypted login information over the network. Once this feature has been activated in your account, use the “auto” user and an empty password to connect.

Backup

A backup is a copy of your data, stored in another location. In case of any hardware or software failure, you can restore your data from the backup. It is recommended to make backups regularly. Each Dedibox comes with 100 GB of free Dedibackup storage. You can upload your backups to this storage using the FTP protocol. A 750 GB Dedibackup is available as a further option.

cPanel

cPanel is an industrial leading hosting automation platform. It allows you to automate server management tasks and allows you to provision webhosting accounts to your users.

Dedibackup

A backup solution for your Dedibox. Dedibackup is based on Scaleway’s Object Storage solution and provides FTP access to a secure backup space located in the DC5 datacenter. This allows you to store copies of your data for security purposes.

Dedicated server

A dedicated server is a physical computer hosted in a datacenter and connected to the internet. Each dedicated server is rented to one single customer who has full access to the machine to install any software of their choice on it.

Hostname

A hostname is a name associated with a machine. On the internet, hostnames are formed mostly of two parts: the local name of the computer (e.g., myserver) and the domain name (e.g., mywebsite.org). The complete hostname of that machine would be myserver.mywebsite.org.

IPMI

IPMI or Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) provides a way to access a computer using a network connection. It is independent of the main computer and allows you to access a remote computer that is not responding or powered off. Another use case is the installation of a custom operating system by mounting an ISO file on a virtual optical device. The installation of the remote computer can be done over the network without the need for physical access to the machine.

OS type

Scaleway Dedibox provides a wide range of operating systems that can be automatically installed from the console. The available images are grouped into four use cases:

Server distributions: Linux and Windows distributions designed for server usage. They provide a basic installation and can be customized to your application’s needs.
Virtualization distributions: Distributions designed to host virtual machines on the Dedibox server.
Panel distributions: Distributions with a preinstalled management panel to administrate the Dedibox server from a web-based control panel.
Desktop distributions: Distributions with a preinstalled graphical interface. Server administration can be done from a remote desktop tool.

Partitioning

The partition layout of your Dedibox server can be customized during the installation of the server. You can customize the RAID settings and the disk layout to your application’s needs.

Proxmox

Proxmox is an open-source virtualization distribution based on Debian. It provides both KVM hypervisor and LXC container-based virtualization combined with an easy-to-use web interface to manage resources. Proxmox is available for automatic installation from the Dedibox console.

Remote reboot

This feature allows you to reboot your Dedibox server from the Dedibox console in case it does not respond any longer via the network. You can also use this feature to reboot your server into rescue mode for maintenance actions.

Rescue mode

Rescue mode is a small Linux distribution that is loaded during the system boot into the RAM of your Dedibox server. It allows you to access your system and data in case your server is not reachable on the internet in normal mode. You can perform maintenance tasks on your system and fix broken configurations before rebooting your server back into normal mode.

Secondary DNS

When you run your own DNS server (for example BIND) on your Dedibox, you can use the Secondary DNS server to provide redundancy for your DNS infrastructure. You can allow the transfer of your domains’ primary DNS zone to the secondary DNS server to automatically update it whenever the zonefile on the primary server changes.

Server log files

Your Dedibox server logs important events in log files located in the directory /var/log on Linux-based operating systems. Reading these files is a crucial element in the analysis of any issue with your server. Windows provides a series of tools to track the health state of your server.

Statistics

The statistics page in the Dedibox console provides detailed bandwidth usage information of your server for the internet interface, as well as for the RPN interface (if available on the server). The measurement of your bandwidth consumption is done at the network switch of your server’s rack.

Suchard server

The offers START-2-XS, START-2-S, and START-2-M use a mainboard developed in-house by Scaleway’s R&D teams called Suchard. This mainboard is fully compatible with all Linux distributions. However, to be able to run Windows on this type of motherboard, it is required to deploy a XEN Hypervisor and run Windows inside a virtual machine. The hypervisor reserves 1 GB of RAM, so the amount of available RAM in Windows will display as the server’s total RAM - 1 GB. These offers also exist in a configuration using the Motherboard Dell DSS5100 which can run Windows natively.

During the installation of your server, a user account is created. The user account is a regular user account with sudo rights on Ubuntu Linux.

User password

The password associated with the user login. You can set the user password during the installation of your Dedibox server. For security reasons, it is recommended to choose a temporary password for the installation and to change it once the server has been installed.

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) is a type-1 hypervisor developed by VMware, now under Broadcom following its acquisition. ESXi is a bare-metal hypervisor, meaning it operates directly on server hardware without requiring an underlying operating system. It includes a proprietary kernel that integrates essential OS components, making it a robust and efficient solution for virtualization. Following the Broadcom acquisition, VMware has discontinued free licenses for ESXi, signaling a shift towards a more commercially-focused licensing model.

Windows PE rescue mode

The Windows PE or Windows Preinstallation Environment rescue mode is a minimal Windows operating system. It is used to prepare a computer for Windows installation, copy disk images from a network file server, launch a Windows installation, or have minimal access to fix an error on the server’s operating system configuration.