Dedicated Server Quick Start Guide

Thank you for purchasing a dedicated server from A2 Hosting! This Quick Start Guide is designed to help you get up and running with your new Managed or Unmanaged Dedicated Server.

Managed Dedicated Servers

Your Managed Dedicated Server comes pre-configured for reliable, fast web hosting that you can count on. The primary way of interacting with your server will be through cPanel & WHM.

A2 Hosting Customer Portal

Your new dedicated server details have been sent to you in a “Welcome” email from A2 Hosting. This email does not contain the connection information. Rather, it provides information about how to access your account on the A2 Hosting Customer Portal. The Customer Portal enables you to view your account's product information, including:

• The dedicated server domain name.
• The dedicated server IP address.
• SSH account information.
• DNS name server information.

To find this information, please first log into the A2 Client Area. It can be found at:

https://my.a2hosting.com/

Your new server is located under the orange Your Active Products/Services section as shown here:

This will take you to the Manage page. Below the large graphic in the center, you’ll find the Server Information, Customize Your Hosting, and Additional Information tabs. Click the Additional Information tab:

The resulting page will show you all of the available connection information. Should you need assistance getting connected, please reach out to our Guru Crew and they’ll be glad to help!

For more information about how to use the Customer Portal, please see these articles.

cPanel & WHM

cPanel & WHM is the primary interface for managed dedicated server plan customers. WHM is the Web Host Manager interface. This is the administrative control panel for the server, and it’s where you’ll add new accounts, packages, and set server options. You can learn how to manage accounts here.

Individual accounts are administered via cPanel, which is the user side of the cPanel & WHM product. Account owners will log into cPanel to create email addresses, databases, etc.

You can learn more about how to use cPanel by visiting these KB articles.

DNS For Managed Dedicated Servers

A2 Hosting provides pre-configured DNS servers that you can use for your domains that will be hosted on your new Managed Dedicated Server. Those servers will be listed on the Additional Information page as shown above under the heading Nameservers. The DNS servers utilize the IP addresses for the server as part of their name. If the first and second IP’s were 1.2.3.4 and 4.5.6.7, then the DNS servers would be:

ns1234.a2dns.com
ns4567.a2dns.com 

In the Client Area, they look like this:

You may transfer the DNS for your domains to these servers without any further configuration needed. 

Of course, you can use your own DNS server names if you wish. The Configuring Custom Nameservers article explains how.

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers

A2’s Unmanaged Dedicated Servers are designed to give full root access control to experienced Linux administrators who are looking for a great solution for their custom configuration. There is no pre-installed software except for the Operating System itself. The primary management interface is SolusVM.

A2 Hosting Customer Portal

You can control the basic aspects of your Unmanaged Dedicated Server from the A2 Hosting Customer Portal. After you log in, click My Services, and then click Manage next to your dedicated server plan. Scroll down to see Server Information. From here, you can shut down, boot, or reboot your Unmanaged Dedicated Server. You can also view information about disk space, bandwidth, and memory usage.

For more information about how to use the Customer Portal, please see these articles.

SolusVM

SolusVM is the primary control panel for unmanaged dedicated server accounts. You can access it at https://solvmdedi2.a2hosting.com:5656. SolusVM enables you to control or view the following:

• Disk space, bandwidth, and memory usage for the dedicated server.
• Power control: shutdown, boot, and reboot.
• System control: change which operating system image you want to use for the dedicated server, change your root password or hostname, and access the console.
• IP information, logs, and statistics.

You can also specify contact information. We may occasionally need to contact you regarding your services, so please keep your contact information up to date. You should use an e-mail address that is still accessible even if the dedicated server is not working. 

DNS server setup

If you purchased a new domain from A2 Hosting or transferred a domain to A2 Hosting, you can use the following name servers for your dedicated server:

• dns1.name-services.com
• dns2.name-services.com
• dns3.name-services.com
• dns4.name-services.com

To set the name servers, login to the A2 Hosting Customer Portal. Click My Domains, locate the domain, and then click Manage Domain. To set the name servers, click Nameservers. To create DNS Records for your domain, click Management Tools, and then click Manage DNS. You will probably want to create an A record that points to your dedicated server IP address.

If your domain is with another registrar, you must use their DNS management interface.

For more information about how to configure your domain, please see this article.

Webuzo

If you have an unmanaged dedicated server, you can use Webuzo to install a wide range of applications and frameworks quickly and easily. For more information about Webuzo, please see this article.

Customizations

The ways to customize your dedicated server are simply limitless. If you’re wondering whether or not A2 supports particular customization for your dedicated server, please see this article. 

Need help getting off the ground?

If you need assistance or have a question regarding setting up your dedicated server, please open a ticket on the Customer Portal at https://my.a2hosting.com and one of our Guru Crew will be glad to help you.