Knowledgebase

Welcome To BIP!

Thank you for choosing BIP as your cloud hosting provider! This guide will help you sign up for an account and access BIP’s Cloud Manager, a browser-based control panel which allows you to manage your BIP virtual servers and services.

From there you’ll set up a Linux distribution, boot your BIP Server, and perform some basic system administration tasks. If you’ve already created an account and booted your BIP server, skip ahead to connecting to your BIP server using SSH.

Sign Up

If you haven’t already signed up for a BIP account, start here.

1. Create a new account at the Sign Up page.
   
   Sending Email from a BIP Server
   Newly created BIP accounts have restrictions on ports 25, 465, and 587. If you’d like to send email from a BIP server, review the Running a Mail Server guide, then open a ticket with our Support team.
   
   

2. Sign in and enter your billing and account information. Most accounts are activated instantly, but some require manual review prior to activation. If your account is not immediately activated, you will receive an email with additional instructions.

Create A BIP Server

For a fully detailed tutorial on all the BIP Cloud Manager features click here.

1. Log in to the Cloud Manager with the username and password you created when signing up.
   Remember login to cloud manager requires 2 factor authentication for your security. Download google authenticator for android devices.

2. On the left under shortcuts, click Order New Service.

3. Select from the Categories on the left had side the hosting package type you would like to use.

   Note

   Use a Linux LXC VPS Hosting package to quickly deploy software platforms and system configuration options to your Linux distribution. Some of the most popular pre-installed BIP LXC VPS hosting packages include LAMP stack, VPN, or WordPress. You can view our catalog online at the BIP App store and read more about the different packages we offer. If you do not see a package you want just open a support ticket and we will be happy to install it for you.

4. Choose the region where you would like your BIP server to reside. If you’re not sure which to select, see our How to Choose a Data Center guide. You can also generate MTR reports for a deeper look at the route path between you and a data center in each specific region.

5. Select a BIP plan.

6. Give your BIP server a label. This is a name to help you easily identify it within the Cloud Manager’s Dashboard.

7. Create a root password for your BIP server in the Root Password field. This password must be provided when you log in to your BIP server via SSH. The password must meet the complexity strength validation requirements for a strong password. Your root password can be used to perform any action on your server, so make it long, complex, and unique.

8. Click Create. You will be directed back to the BIP page which will report the status of your BIP server as it boots up. You can now use the Cloud Manager to:

   • Boot and shut down your BIP server
   • Access monitoring statistics
   • Update your billing and account information
   • Add additional BIP services, like Block and S3 Object storage
   • Open a support ticket and perform other administrative tasks

9. Be sure to bookmark the BIP Status page or subscribe to our system status updates by email.

BIP Network Helper

BIP Network Helper is a host-side service which automatically sets a static IPv4 address and gateway for your BIP server. It is enabled by default.

Note

If BIP Network Helper is unable to determine the operating system during boot, or if you boot an unsupported operating system, BIP Network Helper will not attempt to write any new configuration files. Be aware that BIP Network Helper configures only IPv4 addressing; your BIP server IPv6 address is assigned by SLAAC. If you need help with network settings that are not auto assigned please open a support ticket in your Cloud Manager account.

Connect To Your BIP Server Via SSH

Communicating with your BIP server is usually done using the secure shell (SSH) protocol. SSH encrypts all of the data transferred between the client application on your computer and the BIP server, including passwords and other sensitive information. There are SSH clients available for every operating system.

• Linux: You can use a terminal window, regardless of desktop environment or window manager.
• macOS: Terminal.app comes pre-installed and can be launched from Spotlight or Launchpad.
• Windows: There is no native SSH client but you can use a free and open source application called PuTTY.

Find your BIP Server’s IP Address

Your BIP server has a unique IP address that identifies it to other devices and users on the internet.

1. Click the BIP menu item in the Cloud Manager’s left hand navigation.

2. Find your BIP server, click on it’s name and navigate to Networking.

3. Your IPv4 and IPv6 addresses appear under the IPv4 and IPv6 sections.
   
   
   

Log in Using SSH

Once you have the IP address and an SSH client, you can log in via SSH. The following instructions are written for Linux and macOS. If you’re using PuTTY on Windows, follow these instructions.

1. Enter the following into your terminal window or application. Replace the example IP address with your BIP server’s IP address:
   
   ssh root@23.154.224.90
   
   
   
2. If this is the first time connecting to your BIP server, you’ll see the authenticity warning below. This is because your SSH client has never encountered the server’s key fingerprint before. Type yes and press Enter to continue connecting.
   
   
   
   After you enter yes, the client confirms the addition:
   
   
   
   
3. The login prompt appears for you to enter the password you created for the root user above.
   
   
   
   
4. The SSH client initiates the connection and then the following prompt appears:
   
   
   
   

Note

If you recently rebuilt an existing BIP server, you might receive an error message when you try to reconnect via SSH. SSH clients try to match the remote host with the known keys on your desktop computer, so when you rebuild your BIP server, the remote host key changes.

To reconnect via SSH, revoke the key for that IP address.

For Linux and macOS:

ssh-keygen -R 23.154.224.90

For Windows, PuTTY users must remove the old host IP addresses manually. PuTTY’s known hosts are in the registry entry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys

Install Software Updates

The first thing you should do after connecting to your BIP server is update the Linux distribution’s packages. This applies the latest security patches and bug fixes to help protect your BIP server against unauthorized access. Installing software updates should be performed regularly.

Arch Linux

pacman -Syu

CentOS

yum update

Debian / Ubuntu

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Note

You may be prompted to make a menu selection when the Grub package is updated on Ubuntu. If prompted, select keep the local version currently installed.

Fedora

dnf upgrade

Gentoo

emaint sync -a

After running a sync, it may end with a message that you should upgrade Portage using a --oneshot emerge command. If so, run the Portage update. Then update the rest of the system:

emerge -uDU --keep-going --with-bdeps=y @world

OpenSUSE

zypper update

Slackware

slackpkg update
slackpkg upgrade-all

Set The Hostname

A hostname is used to identify your BIP server using an easy-to-remember name. Your BIP server’s hostname doesn’t necessarily associate with websites or email services hosted on the system, but see our guide on using the hosts file if you want to assign your BIP server a fully qualified domain name.

Your hostname should be something unique, and should not be www or anything too generic. Some people name their servers after colors, animals, or planets. After you’ve made the change below, you’ll need to log out and back in again to see the terminal prompt change from localhost to your new hostname. The command hostname should also show it correctly.

Arch / CentOS 7 / Debian 8 / Fedora / Ubuntu 16.04 and above

Replace example-hostname with one of your choice.

hostnamectl set-hostname example-hostname

CentOS 6

Replace example-hostname with one of your choice.

echo "HOSTNAME=example-hostname" >> /etc/sysconfig/network
hostname "example-hostname"

Debian 7 / Ubuntu 14.04

Replace example-hostname with one of your choice.

echo "example-hostname" > /etc/hostname
hostname -F /etc/hostname

Slackware

Replace example-hostname with one of your choice.

echo "example-hostname" > /etc/HOSTNAME
hostname -F /etc/HOSTNAME

Gentoo

Enter the following commands to set the hostname, replacing example-hostname with the hostname of your choice:

echo "HOSTNAME=\"example-hostname\"" > /etc/conf.d/hostname
/etc/init.d/hostname restart

OpenSUSE

Replace example-hostname with one of your choice.

hostname example-hostname

Update Your System’s hosts File

The hosts file creates static associations between IP addresses and hostnames or domains which the system prioritizes before DNS for name resolution. Open this file in a text editor and add a line for your BIP server’s public IP address. You can associate this address with your BIP server’s Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) if you have one, and with the local hostname you set in the steps above. In the example below, 23.154.224.90 is the public IP address, example-hostname is the local hostname, and example-hostname.example.com is the FQDN.

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
23.154.224.90 example-hostname.example.com example-hostname

Add an entry for your BIP server’s IPv6 address. Applications requiring IPv6 will not work without this entry:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
23.154.224.90 example-hostname.example.com example-hostname 2500:3c02::a132:b454:c734:d322 example-hostname.example.com example-hostname

The value you assign as your system’s FQDN should have an “A” record in DNS pointing to your BIP server’s IPv4 address. For IPv6, you should also set up a DNS “AAAA” record pointing to your BIP server’s IPv6 address.

Open a support ticket to have us add your DNS Records. For more information about the hosts file, see Using your System’s hosts File

Set The Timezone

All new BIP servers will be set to UTC time by default. However, you may prefer your BIP server use the time zone which you live in so log file timestamps are relative to your local time.

Arch Linux / CentOS 7 / Fedora

1. View all available time zones:

   timedatectl list-timezones

2. Use the Up, Down, Page Up and Page Down keys to navigate. Copy the time zone you want as a mouse selection. Then press q to exit the list.

3. Set the time zone (for example, American/New_York):

   timedatectl set-timezone 'America/New_York'
   

Debian / Ubuntu

1. Though newer versions of Debian and Ubuntu use systemd with timedatectl, the recommended method to change timezones for these distributions is to use tzdata. It can be called using dpkg:

   dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
   

2. Arrow up or down to the continent of your choice and press Enter. Then do the same for the region.

Gentoo

1. View a list of available time zones:

   ls /usr/share/zoneinfo
   

2. Write the selected time zone to /etc/timezone (for example, EST for Eastern Standard Time):

   echo "EST" > /etc/timezone
   

3. Configure the sys-libs/timezone-data package, which will set /etc/localtime appropriately:

   emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data
   

OpenSUSE

1. View a list of available time zones:

    yast2 timezone
   

2. Arrow up or down to the Region of your choice and press Enter.

3. Press Option+Z (on a macOS) or ALT+Z (on Windows/Linux) to select the Time Zone.

4. Use arrow up or down to move through the list of time zones. Press Enter to make your selection.

5. Press F10 when done.

Slackware

1. Call the timeconfig tool in a terminal:

   timeconfig
   

2. Select NO Hardware clock is set to local time.

3. Select a timezone.

Check the Time

Use the data command to view the current date and time according to your server.

root@localhost:~# date
Thu Sep 24 11:27:31 EST 2020

Next Steps

Now that you’ve learned the basics of using the BIP Cloud Manager and working with your BIP server, secure it and your BIP account from unauthorized access. See the following guides to begin: