How to work with VMs

A virtual machine (VM) created in the VMmanager platform is called a virtual server in the BILLmanager platform. These terms are used interchangeably in the article.

In BILLmanager you can work with virtual machines both on the provider's side (the panel administrator) and on the client's side.

Managing a VM from BILLmanager
Operations with VMs	Provider	Client	Features
Creating a new VM
Editing the VM resources within the specified quotas			The quota is determined by the tariff parameters set by the provider and defined by the client's balance.
Deleting a VM
Enabling a VM			Available to clients only if the provider has added them to a client group , for which these features are allowed.
Disabling a VM			Available to clients only if the provider has added them to a client group , for which these features are allowed.
Changing VM password			Group operations are supported.
Forced stop of a VM			Available only for services with the "Active" status. Group operations are not supported.
Rebooting a VM
Forced reboot of a VM			Available only for services with the "Active", "Processing" statuses. Group operations are not supported.
Going to the VMmanager 6 platform
Managing VM snapshots			Managing VM snapshots is available only if the function is provided by the tariff and the limit on the number of snapshots is not exceeded.

On the provider’s side

The provider can manage virtual machines that have been ordered by users in BILLmanager. The BILLmanager administrator has access to all management features except for creating new virtual machines.

Editing the VM resources

To edit the resources of a virtual machine:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → Edit button.
2. Increase or decrease the amount of resources within the limits established in the tariff settings for each resource type. If the amount of resources increases, the client's personal account or linked card will be charged for these changes. If the amount of resources decreases, the money will be returned to the client to the personal account or linked card. Ordering and refusal of additional resources is determined by the relevant tariff policies. Read more in How to create and configure a tariff plan.
3. To edit resources without performing financial transactions, enable the Do not perform financial operations option.
4. Click Ok to save changes.

Deleting a VM

To delete a virtual machine:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → Delete button.
2. Confirm the deletion. BILLmanager will delete the service and send the request to delete the VM to VMmanager 6.

Enabling a VM

To power a virtual machine on from the BILLmanager platform:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → Enable button.
2. Confirm powering the VM on.

Disabling and forced stop of a VM

To power a virtual machine off from the BILLmanager platform:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → Disable button.
2. If necessary, select the Perform forced stop option. In this case, the VM will be stopped immediately, but you risk losing unsaved data.
3. Confirm powering the VM off.

Changing VM password

To change the password of a virtual machine on the BILLmanager platform:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → Change password  button.
2. Enter or generate a new password for connecting to the VM. Confirm the new password for the VM.
3. Click Ok. 

Rebooting a VM

To reboot a virtual machine from the BILLmanager platform:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → the Reboot button.
2. If necessary, select the Perform forced reboot option. In this case, the VM will be rebooted immediately, but you risk losing unsaved data.
3. Confirm rebooting the VM.

Switching to VMmanager 6

To switch from the BILLmanager platform to the VMmanager6 platform:

1. Go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers → select the service → To panel button.
2. VMmanager will open in a new browser tab.

Managing VM snapshots

You can manage VM snapshots without switchng to the VMmanager 6 interface. To do this, go to Products/Services → Virtual private servers and select the desired virtual machine.

To create a virtual machine snapshot:

1. Click Snapshots.
2. Click Order and enter the snapshot name.

To delete a virtual machine snapshot:

1. Click Snapshots and select the desired snapshot.
2. Click Delete and confirm the deletion.

To restore the virtual machine state from a snapshot:

1. Click Snapshots and select the desired snapshot.
2. Click Restore and confirm the restore.

On the client's side

The client can work with the virtual machine in the BILLmanager client area, and can also switch from the billing platform interface to the VMmanager 6 platform.

Creating an VM

To create a virtual machine, the client orders it in the client area. To do this, the client goes to the Products/Services → Virtual private servers menu → Create a virtual server .

The client chooses a virtual server with the required amount of resources or sets this amount, if the provider has enabled this feature. Then he clicks the Order now button and specifies the rest of the settings for the virtual machine. For example:

• platform license;
• Operating system;
• Number of cores;
• RAM;
• Disk space;
• Public IPv4 addresses;
• Domain name;
• etc. Parameters may differ depending on how the provider has configured the tariff plan and its contents.

After configuring all the parameters of the virtual machine, the client presses the Pay button and pays for the order.

Editing the VM resources within the specified quotas

To manage virtual machine resources, the client goes to Virtual private servers and selects the virtual machine. The information about the selected virtual machine is displayed.

To edit the resources, the client goes to Configuration . Within the limits set by the provider in the tariff for this service and depending on the balance on the personal account, the customer can increase or decrease the amount of resources. For example, he can increase the size of disk space or the amount of RAM. 

When increasing the resources, the customer makes an additional payment, when reducing, depending on the settings of the tariff, the money is returned to the client's personal account. Ordering and refusal of additional resources is determined by the relevant tariff policies. Read more in How to create and configure a tariff plan.

For resource changes to take effect, you must reboot the virtual machine. It can be done:

• at the stage of editing — before paying, enable the Reboot server option;
• manually in the VMmanager 6 platform. Read more in the relevant article of VMmanager's documentation: Operations with virtual machines .

Deleting a VM

To delete a virtual machine, the client goes to the Products/Services → Virtual private servers → selects the virtual machine → menu → Delete server and confirms the deletion.

BILLmanager deletes the service and sends a request to VMmanager 6 to delete the VM.

Rebooting a VM

From BILLmanager, the client can reboot a virtual machine without switching to VMmanager. To do this, the client goes to the Products/Services →   Virtual private servers → selects the virtual machine → menu → Reboot and confirms the reboot.

Switching to VMmanager 6

From the BILLmanager client area, the client can switch to VMmanager 6. To do this, the client goes to the Products/Services → Virtual private servers → selects the virtual machine → menu → To panel button.

VM snapshot management

The client can manage snapshots without going into the VMmanager 6 platform.

To create a snapshot of the virtual machine, the client:

1. Clicks Snapshots.
2. Clicks Order and enters a name for the snapshot.

To delete a virtual machine snapshot, the client:

1. Clicks Snapshots and selects the desired VM snapshot.
2. Clicks Delete and confirms the deletion.

To restore the state of the virtual machine from a snapshot, the client:

1. Clicks Snapshot and selects the desired VM snapshot.
2. Clicks Restore and confirms the restore.