Category: Virtual Server (EN)

Create and Use an SSH Key

Using an SSH key has many benefits. But how do you do it? We’ll gladly explain it to you in this post. We’ll show you how to create a new SSH key on Windows and then use it for a secure connection to your vServer.

First, you need to download PuTTY in order to connect to your SSH server. You also need the puttygen.exe.

Create Private/Public Key

Launch the downloaded puttygen.exe.

To generate an SSH key, click on “Generate”. Then, move the mouse cursor randomly across the empty area. This will generate a random code for your key.

In the “Key comment” field, enter your name or a comment for the key. In the “Key Passphrase” and “Confirm passphrase” fields, enter a secure password for your key. You can leave it blank, but it is not recommended.

All you have to do now is save the Public Key (e.g. public-key.txt) and the Private Key (e.g. private.ppk) on your hard drive.

Now connect to your vServer. Log in as Root.

Create the folder “/root/.ssh”. This folder will store the public keys. In the newly created folder, create a file called authorized_keys.

Install Key on the Server

Now open your Public Key on your computer using an editor (such as Notepad or Windows Editor) and copy its contents. The public key can be seen by others because it will be stored on the server. It is the counterpart to your private key, which you will use to log in to the server later.

Open the file with, for example, nano (nano /root/.ssh/authorized_keys), and insert the public key there.

Important: The key must start with “ssh-rsa” and must not contain new lines. Everything must be in one line. Please remove any unnecessary “new lines”.

Example key:

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABJQAAAQEArmkSugnahfqXyCeuxbHjOjTqx7VFt1l4KLY+/zTe4IgIJY+xs8TkWDi+CFaMAJlMQdknbV7v/Suio7/7fS9cvsumu0XpRsRn/hZmBQPhIZlkjJeG9lGUYS1Jr09eyT2fRUEUyb9Qqc8Wdz5eWWBk2y52/xWScgR9nbMzABmv5ucH9z1d2od8rqm93B5haLmVljxRJG3OsYPFB93M4vByj/bptcSroZhJoyKcmIvKsV+6a8HDVw47KSub4wRdACcpHjYdKIDubtEQM8z8y0pdSDxcfi/SVxD2eTewhT6j1uAT1wrTes6EO0V69EwWAa5L+n/oiMnXwSgu9Xd2AXZgRw== Dennis Ziolkowski

Save and finish. Now you just need to establish a connection using the Private Key.

To do this, open PuTTY. Click on the entry under “Configuration > Connection > SSH > Auth” and search for your private key in the field “Private key file for authentication”.

Go back to the “Session” entry and connect to your server as usual. It’s best to save the data under “Saved Sessions” so you don’t have to repeat the step every time.

Now the connection to your server opens. You should now be prompted to enter the passphrase for your private key. Enter the password, confirm with Enter, and voilà: you have successfully logged in to your server using your key.

Disable Password Authentication

To ensure that you can now only log in to your server using the keys from authorized_keys, you need to disable password authentication in the SSH server configuration. To do this, open the configuration file at /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

Find the line “PasswordAuthentication” and set the value to “no”. Save the configuration and restart the SSH server with “service sshd restart”. Your server is now more secure.

Take Further Security Measures

You are not 100% secure yet. For example, you should definitely change the default port of the SSH server. We also recommend installing fail2ban.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Flexible hosting with KVM servers and QCOW images

If you use a KVM server, you may not be able to shrink your hard disk. This is because we use virtualization technology to offer you a flexible and scalable hosting solution. Our technology is based on so-called QCOW images, which are a virtual representation of your hard disk.

What is QCOW?

QCOW (QEMU Copy-On-Write) is a virtual disk file format used by QEMU and KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine). We would like to point out that due to the way QCOW images work, they usually do not allow for disk size reduction. This is because changes to the base disk of QCOW images are usually saved in a separate file, so it is difficult to undo changes to the base disk without rebuilding the entire QCOW image.

If your server is slow and you can’t work properly with it, you should contact us as soon as possible. While you are waiting for an answer, you can already take action and perform some checks yourself.

First of all you should check in the webinterface how much processor load your server currently has. If your processor is running at peak performance, it is normal that it reacts slowly to further tasks, because something is already keeping it 100% busy.

If you detect high bandwidth, your server may be downloading or synchronizing with something and is therefore limited in the network and cannot work fully. Usually it is enough to wait a few minutes. If this doesn’t help, it is also possible that your server is being abused and carrying out DoS attacks. In this case, our automated security will intervene and block your server and IP in case of any abnormality.

Please also note that your server (unless you have a dedicated or KVM server) is shared hosting. Here you share the physical server hardware with several customers at the same time, which can cause slight limitations at peak times due to overuse of one customer. Also, the Mini vServers do not have quite as much processing power as the Power or High-Line models, as we have throttled the GHz of each virtual core.

If you did not find any abnormalities, it is most likely our fault. In this case, we will of course answer you as soon as possible and solve the problem directly at the root. Please note, however, that we cannot do very much during temporary peaks or large DDoS attacks.

So please be available for questions, should we have to adjust something on your server. You can also reach us on Twitter.

No response in the web interface

If Windows is not installing on your server and there is no visible progress in the installation, something has gone wrong. But don’t worry!

In most cases, it is sufficient to first install Linux Debian 11.0 on your server reinstall and then try again to install your desired version of Windows.

If that doesn’t work either, please try with a different Windows server version.

An error regarding the license key is displayed

If you see a license key error (product key), please install Windows Server 2019 instead of Windows Server 2022. Your system is not compatible with Windows Server 2022 in this case. Unfortunately, we cannot change that.

These steps didn’t work either!

If nothing works at all, feel free to contact our support. We will take a look at it! But please let us know that you have already tried the steps mentioned above, so that we can resolve the problem for you as quickly as possible.

Please use intelligent port usage to separate your programs from each other or get additional servers to distribute services across multiple IP addresses.

However, you can book up to 4 additional IP addresses for your server. Simply go to the upgrade/downgrade manager of your server. This way, you can, for example, add a second IPv4 address.

After adding the IP address, you will need to stop and restart the server.

However, please note that our gameserver manager always uses the default IP address of your server.

No. These operating systems are only suitable for use on a home PC. These versions of Windows are not suitable for use as a server operating system. We do not make an exception for security reasons.

This should not be a problem for you. Because the offered Windows server operating systems should differ from the use in contrast to the home systems only little.

You can install either Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019 on your server.

You can also connect to your Windows server via RDP if you use MacOS. However, you need an RDP client for this.

Microsoft provides such a client in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id1295203466?mt=12

Microsoft Remote Desktop

With the Microsoft Remote Desktop program you can conveniently log in to your Windows server.

You can install it on MacOS desktop PC, iPad and even iPhone. So you can access your server remotely at any time.

Advantages over VNC:

• Use full screen
• Use multiple screens
• Use local keyboard layout
• Intelligent screen transfer
• Optimized speed & quality

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We will help you then.

In order for everyone to be able to convince themselves of our servers and us as a provider, we currently offer a free test server (OpenVZ) to anyone interested. Immediately after providing an email address, you will have access to a regular server from our product range for 7 days. For more information, please see the FAQ article: Can I test your servers before purchasing?

However, we often receive confused inquiries and complaints shortly after the test server has been set up, asking why a bill is being received for the free test server or why they are suddenly being forced to extend the server.

We are a prepaid provider!

We want to clarify once again very clearly and transparently: Our test servers are free of charge and do not involve any extension or payment obligations. This is also the case with every other product we offer (prepaid)!

Why don’t I receive a bill?

Immediately after ordering the test server, we create a cancellation for your server. This means that no bill for optional extension will be generated. The server will simply expire after 7 days. If you want to extend the server, you can simply remove the cancellation. You will then receive a bill for the extension on the following night. However, you do not have to pay this bill.

What happens if I don’t pay?

If you do not pay the bill, nothing will happen. The product (in this case, the test server) will be deleted at the end of the term without you ever hearing from us again.

So, no worries! We don’t want to trap anyone, which is why we clearly communicate on the test server order page as well as in the web interface that you have no obligations. Sit back, power up your test server, and see if you are satisfied with the server and us! 🙂

In support, we often receive questions about whether it is possible to change the virtualization method. The question is whether an OpenVZ server can be migrated to KVM.

Unfortunately, the change from OpenVZ to KVM (and vice versa) is not possible for technical reasons. The virtualization methods are incompatible with each other.

If you want to change, you can still contact our support. We will then assign you a new server free of charge for a few days, so that you can set it up in peace. In this case, you will have to transfer the required files manually and reinstall the software.

Each KVM server can activate the backup function free of charge.

You can choose whether you want to create automatic or manual backups.

Between 2 and 5 slots are available to you free of charge.