Server Provisioning

Server provisioning is an automated process that prepares a server after it is ordered. It includes configuring network settings, checking connections, setting up necessary services, and installing the operating system.

Provisioning ETA:

• From 15 minutes - the ordered server configuration is available in the rack
• 24 hours or more - the ordered server is not currently in the rack or configuration changes are needed

If server hardware needs to be ordered or transported, the server provisioning time is determined by the delivery deadlines.

For tasks where provisioning ETA is critical, we offer the scalable bare metal solution. These pre-configured servers with fixed configurations are integrated into the infrastructure, significantly speeding up provisioning.

During provisioning, the server appears as "Pending" in the customer portal. Once completed, the server reboots into the selected OS (if ordered), and its status changes to "Active", meaning it is ready for use.

Server selection

At this stage, the server is selected based on the following criteria:

• It matches the ordered configuration and is available for installation
• The firmware has been recently updated via our automated system for unleased servers
• New servers are placed near your existing servers in the same location to minimize private network latency
• When conditions are equal, we place servers in the least occupied rack (POD) to maximize future scalability

Powering on the server

Unlike many hosting providers, we keep servers powered off until they are leased (except during brief firmware updates). This helps to reduce wear on the hardware and save energy.

Before provisioning starts, the selected server is powered on.

Switch groups

At this stage, we determine which switches the server connects to:

• Two private network switches
• Two public network switches
• One out-of-band (OOB) management switch

Cloud private network (CPN) assignment

When you order a dedicated server for the first time, we notify all servers.com cloud regions about the new client and assign you a private network.

The Cloud Private Network provides secure communication between your dedicated and cloud servers across all our data centers.

Private, public, out-of-band management network and alias IP allocation

At this stage, the necessary networks are assigned to your server.

By default, a /23 subnet from the 10.0.0.0/8 private range is allocated using a sparsest allocation strategy, allowing easy future expansion without changing IP addresses (only adjusting the subnet mask).

UEFI and BIOS

Servers are configured in UEFI mode by default, supported by modern servers and operating systems.

Supported boot modes by server model are as follows:

UEFI is supported only on Dell 12th generation and newer servers.

Some operating systems cannot be installed automatically via BIOS, including:

• VMware ESXi 8.0 x86_64
• VMware ESXi 7.0 x86_64
• FreeBSD 13 x86_64

OS Installation

The OS is installed using official installers and repositories.

Your network settings and disk partitioning scheme are applied using automatically generated kickstart files.

This is the longest stage, taking up to 90% of the provisioning time.

Availability check

After OS installation, we verify that the server boots correctly and is accessible over public, private, and OOB networks.

VNC access setup

At this stage, we set up access to your server via the VNC console.

We create a WebSocket-to-VNC proxy, linked to the specific server.

Access is provided through iDRAC Enterprise - an integrated KVM-over-IP solution for Dell servers.

Notification

An email with the server access credentials is sent once the provisioning is complete.

Billing starts only after the email is sent.

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