In short: A dedicated server provides exclusive physical hardware, root or administrator access, dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity, and out-of-band IPMI access. Secure both the operating system and the management interface before hosting production workloads.
Collect the handover information
- Server hostname and assigned IP addresses
- Installed operating system and storage layout
- Administrative login method
- IPMI address and separate IPMI credentials
- Network gateway, prefix and DNS information
Find the service in Services > My Services in the Client Area. Contact us if any expected handover detail is missing.
Secure access first
- Change initial operating-system and IPMI passwords.
- Use unique credentials for the operating system and IPMI.
- Apply current firmware and operating-system security updates where appropriate.
- Create named administrator accounts and use SSH keys for Linux.
- Restrict management services by firewall or trusted source address wherever possible.
- Test IPMI console and power controls without interrupting a production workload.
Check storage and recovery
Confirm the expected disks are present and that any RAID or mirroring is healthy. RAID improves availability after a disk failure but is not a backup. Configure independent backups and perform a test restore before relying on the server.
Prepare for production
- Configure monitoring and alerting.
- Confirm forward and reverse DNS.
- Document firewall rules and recovery access.
- Test application, database and file-system recovery.
- Record authorised technical contacts and an escalation procedure.
For hardware faults, include the server identifier, symptoms, affected services, relevant logs and whether you authorise a reboot. Open a technical or datacentre ticket for assistance.
Service information: Virgo Networks dedicated servers.
