Quickstart

Quickstart

Deploy a VM, connect to it via SSH, and attach a block storage volume. End to end.

Prerequisites

• A ZSoftly Public Cloud account (sign up)
• An SSH client (Terminal on macOS/Linux, PowerShell or Windows Terminal on Windows)

Step 1: Add an SSH key

Before creating a VM, add your public SSH key to the portal to connect without a password.

1. In the portal, go to Profile → SSH Keys
2. Click Add SSH Key
3. Paste your public key (from ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub or ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)
4. Give it a name and click Submit

If you don’t have an SSH key yet:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com"

Step 2: Create a network

Your VM needs a network. For a simple setup, use a Public Network.

1. In the portal, go to Networks → Public Network
2. Click the + icon
3. Choose a Location
4. Assign to a Project (or use the default)
5. Give it a name and click Create

Step 3: Create a VM

1. In the portal, go to Instances
2. Click the + icon
3. Configure:
   • Location: same as your network
   • Image: choose an OS (e.g., Ubuntu 24.04)
   • CPU Type: Shared CPU for testing, Dedicated for production
   • Plan: General Compute, pick the smallest that fits
   • Project: assign to your project
   • Network: select the public network you just created
   • Public IPv4: enable this
   • SSH Key: select the key you added in Step 1
   • Server Name: give your VM a name
4. Choose a Billing Cycle (Hourly for testing)
5. Click Review & Deploy

Your VM will be ready in 30–60 seconds.

Step 4: Connect via SSH

Once the VM shows as Running:

1. Go to the VM’s Overview page to find the Public IP Address
2. Connect from your terminal:

ssh root@<public-ip-address>

If you used Ubuntu, the default username is ubuntu:

ssh ubuntu@<public-ip-address>

Step 5: Attach block storage (optional)

To add persistent storage separate from the root disk:

1. Go to Block Storage in the portal
2. Click + → Create Block Storage
3. Select the same Location and Project as your VM
4. Choose the Instance to attach to
5. Select a Volume Size
6. Click Create Volume

Once attached, format and mount the volume on your VM:

# Find the new disk (usually /dev/vdb)
lsblk

# Format it
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdb

# Mount it
sudo mkdir -p /data
sudo mount /dev/vdb /data

# Make it persistent across reboots
echo '/dev/vdb /data ext4 defaults 0 2' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Next steps

• VPC networking: isolate your infrastructure with private networks
• Object storage: S3-compatible storage for files and backups
• Kubernetes: managed container clusters
• ZCP CLI: manage everything from the terminal