Knowledge base

This guide presents the Infomaniak offer Public Cloud, a solution Infrastructure_as_a_service (IaaS) based on OpenStack which makes available the resources you need for the development of your projects.

Preamble

• The Public Cloud of Infomaniak proposes:
  • GPU instances
  • Linux & Windows cloud instances
  • Block storage / Object storage
  • Orchestration, Network, DNS...
  • Several Geneva-based regions offering a sovereign IaaS solution 100% hosted in Switzerland and compliant with GDPR for multi-region critical applications resilient to extremely competitive costs.
• With personalized and tailor-made offers you won't have any trouble managing your development budget.

Getting Started

• The Public Cloud Infomaniak User Guide presents many tutorials, step-by-step guides, and good practices to follow.
• See also all Public Cloud FAQs and in particular:
  • Create a new project
  • Action on an existing project
• Discover the presentation of the Public Cloud (replay of the Infomaniak 2022 Webinar):
  
  • Simply understand what a Public Cloud (IaaS), uses and to whom it is addressed
  • Complete Tuto to deploy WordPress with OpenStack in Infomaniak Public Cloud (scripts included)
  • Frequently Asked Questions about Infomaniak Public Cloud (2022)

Pricing

• Invoicing operation
• Estimate the cost of resources used
   

Community Area & Feedback

• Click here in order to share a review or suggestion on a Infomaniak product.
• See Reddit page created to facilitate technical exchanges with the user community.

This guide concerns a concern which may arise when initiating proceedings on Public Cloud Infomaniak.

Use image ID

The images of different operating systems, proposed by Infomaniak in the section Images and included in the part Source when you launch a new instance of your Public Cloud, are regularly updated but without changing their name.

Having a stable name can cause problems with automation tools like heat or terraform with the risk that they will recreate VMs without this being desired.

This problem can be avoided using the image id or a personal image:

This guide explains the differences between Web hosting offers Infomaniak to help you choose the best accommodation solution according to your needs.

Starter Accommodation

Free web hosting

Accommodation Starter is offered free of charge with each domain name registered with Infomaniak. It offers 10 MB of disk space in order to create a site (basic pages in HTML language only - no PHP, no database) even without particular knowledge thanks to the tool Welcome page.

• Save or transfer a domain name at Infomaniak
• Read more on the benefits included with a domain name

Shared Web Hosting

The flagship offer to create your sites

These accommodations are shared accommodation (websites will be hosted on servers whose resources are shared with other clients). To ensure the reliability of these shared services, Infomaniak servers use on average only 40% of the power of CPUs and are equipped with the latest generation of professional SSDs.

Web hosting offers 250 GB of minimum disk space and allows to manage multiple websites with multiple domain names. This offer includes all the technologies usually used to create professional sites: PHP, MySQL, FTP and SSH access, SSL certificates, Site Creator and easy installation of current WordPress or CMS, etc.

Cloud Server

Professional Web Hosting

With a Cloud Server, resources allocated to you are not shared with other clients and you can customize the hardware and software configuration of your server according to your needs. A Cloud Server also allows you to use Components which are not available on shared accommodation (Node.js, MongoliaDB, Sol, FFMPEG, etc.).

• One Cloud Server allows you to easily manage your server via the same administration interface as web hosting - you manage sites in the same way.
• One VPS allows you to manage your server 100% autonomously with the version of Windows or Linux distribution of your choice (Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE, ...) - solid technical skills are required to use a VPS, including VPS Lite.

Public Cloud

Open, proven and secure IaaS solution

For Infomaniak it is the infrastructure that propels kDrive, Swiss Backup and Webmail, services used by millions of users. But Public Cloud is accessible to everyone and makes available the resources you need for the development of your projects.

With personalized and tailor-made offers you won't have any trouble managing your development budget. No commissioning fee. No minimum amount. Resiliable at any time. You only pay for the resources actually used with Public Cloud at the end of each month.

Jelastic Cloud

Custom accommodation with the technologies of your choice

Jelastic Cloud allows you to create custom development environments with the technologies of your choice (PHP, Node.js, Java, Docker, Ruby, etc.). This is a flexible cloud offering:

• Horizontal and vertical resizing of resources
• payment according to actual consumption of resources
• easy customization of your infrastructure (redundancy, IP, SSL, load distribution, etc.)

Infomaniak does not directly provide VPN, tunneling, or secure networking services built between two points (VPN = Virtual Private Network). However, you can consider an alternative solution using Infomaniak services such as Public Cloud.

This guide explains how to use this Infomaniak hosting product to create a VPN.

Create a VPN with Infomaniak Public Cloud

Infomaniak suggests using one of the following alternatives to manually create a VPN VM:

• Setting up a VPN via IPsec
• Setting up a VPN using the OPNSense tool

This guide explains how to create a new project with Public Cloud Infomaniak.

Prerequisites

• Having read and understood the Start Guide.
• Possession Public Cloud on your Manager Infomaniak.

Create a new project

To access Public Cloud:

1. Click here in order to access the management of your product on the Manager Infomaniak (Need help?).
2. Click directly on the nameallocated to the product concerned, on which a new project will be created
   
3. Click on the button Create a project:
   
4. Name your project.
5. OpenStack ID is automatically created (in the form PCU-XXXX), it is possible to add a description (to specify to whom the identifier e.g. is intended).
6. Set a password.
7. Click on Create to complete the creation of the project:
   

Resource level

The highest level of resources your organization has access to is automatically assigned to the project. You can edit it at any time once the project has been created. Please also read this guide if you are looking for information aboutactions on an existing project.

This guide details the operation of the billing of your Public Cloud Infomaniak.

Invoicing operation
 

What means of payment are accepted?

It is only possible to pay Public Cloud service invoices with a credit card. 
 

When is the credit card charged?

The billing period is from the first day of the month to the last day of the month. The credit card is usually debited on the first day of the following month (depending on your bank there may be a few days late in the debit). An invoice is issued at the time the card is debited.

Are extinct instances billed?

Extinguished instances are not invoiced, except:

• storage that continues to use space even if it is unused
• the GPU and IPv4 addresses of instances placed on a public network

I started an instance for less than an hour, how will I be charged?

In this type of case, the calculation includes the median use of resources each hour multiplied by the hourly rate.

Example: an instance at an hourly rate of CHF 10 and was in service for 15 minutes on the last hour, so it will be charged CHF 10 * 15 / 60 = CHF 2.50
 

What are ICU Infomaniak?

Openstack bases its billing through token, as a result the Infomaniak Cloud Unit or ICU was created. This token converts the cost of using resources on Openstack to CHF or EUR.

Conversion table ICU to CHF or EUR:

Read more

• Start Guide: Public Cloud
• Public Cloud: Action on an Existing Project
• Full product documentation: https://docs.infomaniak.cloud

This guide explains how to set up a discussion list system with your Mail Service, thanks to Mailman and to Public Cloud Infomaniak!

Preamble

• Mailman is a free application to manage mailing lists, chat lists and newsletters.
• These files are prepared so you can easily set up Mailman.
• The deployment of the server and its firewall is done with TerraForm, Infrastructure as a Code (IaaC) tool and the configuration of the server with Ansible.
• The software allows you to create discussion lists for your different contacts (direction@, ecommerce@...).

Preparation...

... of your environment

• To be in possession of a Mail Service Infomaniak to make this tutorial.
• Mailman deployment files on Public Cloud can be downloaded on this github Infomaniak.

... from the Environment Mail

1. Create an address mailman@domain.xyz (aid) and carefully store the created password (it will be used in the server configuration).
2. Add the following aliases (aid):
   • postorius
   • mylist
   • mylist-bounces
   • mylist-confirm
   • mylist-join
   • mylist-leave
   • mylist-owner
   • mylist-request
   • mylist-subscribe
   • mylist-unsubscribe

Your Mail environment is ready for deployment!

...of the Public Cloud

1. First, create a Public Cloud project and 1 user (aid)
   • Beware of the Public Cloud password, a 2FA authentication on your Infomaniak account is highly recommended.
2. Click here to access the Openstack dashboard and inform the PCU-XXXXXX with the password defined previously.
3. Download your file openrc, it allows you to identify yourself as an administrator of your environment from the command line; it contains information such as the data center where your machines, your login, password, etc. are located.

You now have the file you can use to connect to the Openstack administration.

...of the instance

To make your future instance accessible on its different communication ports (SSH & HTTP & HTTPS), create a security group to assign a rule group to a machine with the following command:

openstack security group create —description "Port 22 - 80 - 443 pour Mailman" mailman-sec

Add Rules to the safety group: mailman-sec

openstack security group rule create --dst-port 80 --protocol TCP mailman-secopenstack security group rule create --dst-port 443 --protocol TCP mailman-secopenstack security group rule create --dst-port 22 --protocol TCP mailman-sec

You can perform all of these commands in graphical ways from the Horizon dashboard https://api.pub1.infomaniak.cloud/horizon/auth/login/ in the tab Network -> Security Group (be aware of the cloud documentation on this subject).

Deploy the instance that will contain MailMan. For command line use you can use the following command:

openstack server create --flavor a1-ram2-disk20-perf1 --security-group mailman-sec --network ext-net1 --key-name <votre-clé> --image "Debian 11.5 bullseye" mailman3

Once you are connected to the machine, update it:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install the openstack client:

sudo apt install python3-openstackclient -y

Installation of Ansible (allowing automatic e-mailman deployment):

sudo apt install ansible -y

Mailman deployment

In order to deploy Mailman to the machine, import the SSH key and your OpenRC file via SFTP into the machine running the Ansible configuration.

Use software/clients such as putty, termius, mobaxterm... (any tool that manages the SSH / SFTP) to make the import easily, you only need to provide the following information to connect to the machine:

• IP of the previously created machine
• port: 22
• SSH key created previously: import file .pem
• user: debian

In this guide, the software Termius was used to move SFTP files on the machine.

Download the folder containing the installation files:

wget https://github.com/reneluria/mailman-cloud 

Now you have to move the SSH key and the PCP file to the downloaded folder:

mv cle.pem mailman/mv PCP-XXXX.sh mailman/

Move to file:

cd mailman/

Definition of right 600 on the key to protect and enforce it:

sudo chmod 600 tf-keypair.pem

Create an inventory file to set parameters: SMTP, Domain...

nano inventory

The following template should be provided in this file by changing the lines commented on by your environment variables:

mailman ansible_host = Public IP of the VM Target

mailman ansible_host=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
[all:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
ansible_user=debian
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=id_tf_keypair
fqdn=mailman.<yourdomain>
mail_host=mail.infomaniak.com
mail_account=mailman@<yourdomain>
mail_password=<email_password>
mailman_user=mailman
mailman_password==<interface_password>
mailman_domain=parano.ch
mailman_email=<your_email>

Run the command ctrl + s then ctrl + c To leave Nano.

Always placed in the mailman directory, run the script with ansible:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml -D

Mailman is now deployed to your IP address: X.X.X.X/mailman3

Log in

Log in on mailman with the identifiers provided in the file inventory higher to then:

• > Create a domain -> create my "malistic" list

In the parameter list, modify:

• DMARC mitigations: it is recommended to use "Replace from the list address"
• Edit Messages: it is recommended to use "Reply to the list" and "Reply to the first band"

This guide lists the different Linux distributions and versions of Windows that you can deploy in 1 click when launching a new instance of your Public Cloud.

Operating systems available

The images of the various operating systems, presented by Infomaniak in the section Images and included in the part Source when you launch a new instance of your Public Cloud, are currently:Alpine Linux 3.17

• Amazon Linux 2
• Arch Linux
• CentOS 7
• CentOS 8 Stream
• CentOS 9 Stream
• CirrOS 0.6.1
• Debian 10.13 buster
• Debian 11.6 bullseye
• Fedora Cloud OS 37
• Fedora Core OS 37
• FreeBSD 13.1
• Infomaniak Rescue Image
• OPNsense 22.1.2_2-amd64
• Oracle Linux 9
• RancherOS 1.5.8
• RedHat Enterprise Linux 9
• Rocky Linux 9
• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic Beaver
• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa
• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish
• openSUSE Leap 15.4 JeOS
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Datacenter
• Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Standard
• Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Datacenter
• Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Standard
• Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Datacenter

Make sure that always focus on ID the image rather than its name when deployed.

This guide solves a possible concern in the activation of your Windows Server license.

Edit Save Key

Open the utility Run (touch logo Windows + R).

Remove Save Key

Run the following command:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -upk

Add new key

Relaunch the utility Run then execute the following command:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk {KEY}

replacing {KEY} by the key of your configuration below:

Enable Windows

Relaunch the utility RunThen run the following command to associate the key with the Infomaniak activation robot:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -skms kms.infomaniak.cloud

Relaunch the utility RunThen finally run the following command to activate your Windows system:

cscript.exe c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

This guide explains the different actions that it is possible to carry out since the Manager with Public Cloud.

Access additional options on a project

To access the Public Cloud:

1. Click here in order to access the management of your product on the Manager Infomaniak (Need help?).
2. Click directly on the nameallocated to the product concerned:
   
3. Click on the action menu ⋮ to the right of the object in the array that appears to access to the additional actions:
   

List of actions on a project

Actions available	Description
‍‍ Rename project	Rename project
Open the Openstack dashboard	Allows direct access to the OpenStack Horizon dashboard
Delete Project	Allows you to delete the project (it will be necessary to indicate your Infomaniak login password)

Access additional options on a user

Click on Manage users in point 3 above to access users.

Click on the action menu ⋮ to the right of the OpenStack user of the project concerned:

List of actions on a user

Actions available	Descriptions
‍‍ Edit Description	Allows you to add or modify the user's description
Change Password	Allows you to change the password for access to the project for the user
Download openStack file	Allows you to download a configuration file to access your project from the CLI
Delete User	Allows you to delete the project user

Read more

• Start Guide : Public Cloud
• Public Cloud: How Billing Works