Getting Started

Welcome to DeltaBlue.Cloud!

Hang on for a few minutes so you can make the most out of DeltaBlue.Cloud.
This guide will explain you howto get your site up and running in minutes.
In order to make things easy we use a typical PHP/MySQL setup as practical example.
We also advise you to read through the Glossary, it will guide you through
certain concepts and terms.

Register Account

Obviously before you can start you will need a DeltaBlue.Cloud account:

Activate Acount

Once registered, you will recieve an activation mail on the corresponding email you have entered.

  • press the activation link in the email

Login

Once activated, you should be able to log in.

  • login with your new account

SSH Key Management

Before you do anything else, we strongly advise you to configure your secure shell access.
SSH supports a pub key authentication mechanism that allows you to securely login to your system with a personal private cryptographic key. Such a cryptographic key pair (= public and private key) can be created with the ssh-keygen utility.

  • create your personal SSH key pair
  • find and press the account tab with your name right above and select "account"
  • select the "security" option in the menu left.
  • copy the content of your public key (.pub file) into the "ssh key" field

Every future Stack Item will be configured with the corresponding SSH key pair access.

Please refer to "remote administration" in the "configuration management" section,
on how-to to toggle your remote secure shell access.

Billing

Before you can actually launch an application you will need to enter your billing details.
However this does not mean that you cannot already start with the creation of your project
and applications. We do allow you to configure every aspect of your project and applications
in advance. This allows you to emulate financial costs before even launching.

  • enter your billing details

Create Project

  • press the create project button
  • enter the name of your new project (for example : project01)

The project is being created with a default environment "production".
You can now start to add one or more applications to your project.

Create Application

  • in the project overview, select the button "add application"
  • enter the name of the application (for example: webapp1)
  • enter the git repository where your code resides (for example: https://$your-git-fdqn/$gitrepo)
  • select your preferred authentication method (basic auth, ssh pubkey or none)

Press next once all selections have been defined.

Select Stack Items

Referring back to our practical example, you will now need to select two corresponding
Stack Items (technologies) for your application. In our case this should be one Stack Item with "PHP"
and one with "MySQL". You should also define the variation (often called flavor) for each home.
Variations define the physical limits of your Stack Item (for example cpu, memory...)and ultimately also the price.

  • select a first Stack Item with the technology PHP
  • select a second Stack Item with the technology MySQL
  • press the button create "application"

You are now ready to launch your application, however before you do,
you may want to configure certain aspects of your application.

Configuration Management

Your project has now been created and is now ready for launch.
You are now able to manage following aspects of your Stack Items.

Details

The details section gives your an overview of:

  • all Stack Items, each with his corresponding technology linked
  • the VCS repository linked to your application
  • the web access url's that have been configured to access your application

Stats

The stats section gives you detailed real-time statistics of your application:

  • real-time web access statistics of your application
  • real-time access visualized on a world map

Bear in mind that they are only available once you launched your application.

Logs

The logs section is the central location where you can find all your application related log files.
The search box allows you to search for specific events/errors in a given time frame.

  • important currently only php access/error logs are fully supported.

Scenario

The scenario tab gives you access to the scenario functionality of the DeltaBlue.Cloud platform.
More detailed information about scenarios and tasks can be found in the Glossary.

  • Scenario

    • administration of automated deploy templates
    • administration of custom tasks(actions)

  • History

    • gives an historical overview of the executed scenario's with output and errors.

advice: You should at least include one standard scenario that automatically deploys your code.
Your site will be directly up and running on application launch.

Configuration

The configuration tab gives you access to all configuration management related features of your applications.

Variables

The variables section allow you to configure your own application specific environment variables for each stack item in your project. More detailed information about environments and variables can be found in the Glossary.

Ports

The ports section allows you to configure the external access towards your application.

External Access

Referring back to our practical example, 2 port contexts should already be visible there:

  • a default HTTP port context
  • a default MySQL port context

You can make your MySQL port publicly available on your domain name by toggling the remote access button. The HTTP port context is enabled by default.

Custom Port

In order to make your own custom port publicly available:

  • press button "add port"
  • enter a name for your port context (for example pop3 )
  • choose a local listen port 110
  • choose as protocol tcp
  • toggle the radio box public
  • enter public port 110
  • select single instance
  • press save
Remote Administration

In order to enable remote administration (secure shell) to your PHP home:

  • press/toggle the remote administration button.

The system will automatically enable and configure remote administration for your Stack Item.
You should be able to log once the new settings have been applied through the "apply to server" button.

Certificates

This configuration section allows you to configure and and activate SSL on your domain names.
You should be aware that every domain name is considered as a separate context. You might have
to repeat the SSL provisioning method for each domain name you want to secure (SSL).

We support 2 methods:

  • Let's Encrypt

The DeltaBlue.Cloud platform has full integration with Let's Encrypt.
SSL Activation can be easily activated through the "Enable Let's Encrypt" button.
No additional actions are needed.

  • Bring your own certificate

The platform allows you to upload your private key, x509 certificate and CA in order to configure the SSL context of your domain name. No additional actions are needed.

MySQL

The MySQL section is only visible if you are using a MySQL stack item in your application.
The section allows you to create new databases, users and passwords on your MySQL Stack Item('s).

Launch Your App

Ok, now that you have seen all configuration management features , you are really ready to launch your application. Press the "launch" button and your application will be up and running in minutes.
Open your browser and enjoy your site being up and running on one of your configured domain names.

Enjoy effortless deployments and let DeltaBlue.Cloud guide you to the moon!