Create a server

Create a new cloud server on one of your connected providers, right from InfraNest — no need to open the provider's own dashboard. This is for anyone who needs to spin up a server without digging into provider-specific tools.

Overview

• Provisions a real server on your chosen provider account, using options InfraNest fetches live so you only see what you can actually order.
• Lets you set protection (backups, firewall) at creation time, so the server starts out covered.
• Tracks the build for you and updates the status and IP address automatically — no manual refreshing needed.

Create a server

1. Go to Servers and select create a server.

2. Choose the provider account to create it on.

3. Set the basics: a name, server type (size), location, and image (operating system). InfraNest fetches the available options live from your provider, so you only see what you can actually pick.

   Locations are grouped by continent and sorted by country, so a provider with datacenters on four continents reads as a map rather than a list; each one names its country under the city. Plans are grouped into the families your provider sells — Basic, General Purpose, CPU-Optimized and so on — cheapest family first, so the form opens on the least expensive option rather than the most. The table shows the cheapest few in the family you've picked, with a link to show the rest.

   A plan your chosen location can't build is greyed out and says so, so you find out before you order rather than after. Prices are shown in the currency your provider quotes: euros for Hetzner and TransIP, US dollars for DigitalOcean.

   The name is the one thing with a rule to it, and the rule is your provider's — the line under the field states it for whichever account you picked. All of them want a hostname: letters, numbers, dots and dashes, with a letter or number at each end of every part. web, web-01 and web.infranest.io are all fine. You don't have to remember that. A capital is turned into a lowercase letter as you type — MyServer becomes myserver without moving your cursor — and anything else that won't do, like a space or an underscore, gets a Use "my-server" button under the field that fixes it in one click. If the name is already on that provider account, the same button offers you the next free one.

4. Add options if you need them: SSH keys, a username, cloud-init user-data (a startup script), and tags.

   The Apps tab next to OS holds your provider's ready-made application images — WordPress, Docker, GitLab and so on — already installed and configured on a base operating system. Where a provider offers hundreds (DigitalOcean's marketplace does), the grid gets a search box above it and scrolls in place rather than running down the page. Each tile is one app, however many builds of it your provider publishes: pick the app, then use the Version box underneath to choose which build and which base operating system.

5. Under Protection, you can switch on automatic backups and attach a firewall you've already set up. The firewall list only offers firewalls on the account you're creating in — if it's empty, create one on the Firewalls page first and it'll appear here.

   When your provider accepts a firewall as part of the create request, InfraNest sends it there, so the machine is protected from its very first boot. Hetzner works this way. Providers whose API has no such field — DigitalOcean is one — get the firewall attached immediately after the server exists instead, which leaves a short window at boot. If that window matters to you, keep the machine off the public internet another way until the firewall shows as attached.

6. Create it. The server appears in your list straight away, marked Being created while the provider builds it.

While it's being made

Some providers hand you a finished machine in seconds; others accept the order first and build it after. Either way the server is listed here from the moment you create it, and InfraNest keeps checking with the provider until it's ready — every few seconds at first, less often as time goes on. You don't need to refresh the page or wait for a sync: the status and the IP address fill themselves in.

Being created means exactly that — it's been ordered and paid for, and there's no machine to reach yet. That's different from Unknown, which means we couldn't get an answer from the provider about it.

If it's still being created after half an hour, InfraNest stops watching so closely and picks the server up on its regular check instead. Nothing is lost — the server keeps updating, just less often. A server stuck like that for much longer is worth checking in your provider's own control panel.

Tips

TipPress Create server even if the form feels incomplete — it lists everything still missing, and each line is clickable, taking you straight to the field it's about.

Troubleshooting

• Can't create a server? Provisioning depends on your plan (the cloud feature and a server limit). If you're at your limit, you'll see a note on the Create server button.

WarningIf the firewall you picked can't be used any more — someone deleted it at the provider, for example — creating the server stops with an error instead of quietly giving you a server with no firewall. Refresh the firewall list and try again.