Quick start: your first instance

Welcome to Gigahost. This page goes from nothing to an SSH session on your first instance, in the browser, or with the ghost command-line client on an x86-64 Linux machine. Each step links to the page that explains it in full.

In the browser

The website needs nothing installed: it makes your account key, activates the account and rents the instance.

1. Creating your account

   The Create an account page (/account/new) makes your account key in the browser. Keeping the account.seed it downloads, or its line in a password manager, keeps the account: Gigahost cannot reconstruct the key, and whoever holds it controls the account. The same file works with ghost later, which ghost key import puts in place. Creating your account key

2. Activating it

   Sign up with GitHub makes the account, with the trial credit while trials are open and your GitHub account qualifies; or an MMX deposit to the address the page shows, with your deposit memo, activates the account once it is confirmed. Either way, the page logs you in when the account is made. Activating in the browser

3. Renting an instance

   The Capacity page lists the offerings. An offering’s page rents it with an image and your SSH public key, and the instance’s page shows its address once it runs. Finding and renting an instance

4. Connecting

   ssh root@ADDRESS

   Log in as root. For an instance with a Shared IP, the instance’s page shows the SSH command to use instead, such as ssh -p 1020 root@203.0.113.7. Connect with SSH

5. Logging in again later

   Log in with your account key, on the Log in page, takes the account.seed file or its line. Logging in with the account key

With ghost

1. Installing ghost

   curl -fsSL https://api.gigahost.cloud/install/ghost.sh | sh
   ghost --version

   ghost --version prints the installed release. The script needs curl, jq, and openssl. It installs ghost as ~/.local/bin/ghost and tells you if ~/.local/bin is not on your PATH. Install

2. Creating your account key

   ghost key generate
   ghost key inspect

   The account key is your account: there is no email or password. ghost key generate stores it as a seed file, by default ~/.config/ghost/account.seed. ghost key inspect prints your deposit_memo among the public identities. Accounts and security

   Your seed file is the only copy of your account key

   Gigahost cannot reconstruct the account key. If every copy is lost, encrypted hosted backups can become permanently unrecoverable, the balance cannot be reached, and anyone who obtains a copy can control the account. An offline copy, kept private, protects against both.

3. Funding your account

   ghost account activation-terms

   Send MMX to the returned address with your exact 16-character deposit_memo, at least the returned minimum, and wait for the confirmations it names. Funding your account says what MMX is and how a deposit is credited.

   No MMX yet? ghost account signup --github makes an account by signing in with GitHub, with a trial credit while trials are open and your GitHub account qualifies, and replaces steps 3 and 4. Without the credit, the account starts with a $0 balance until a deposit adds funds. Sign up with GitHub

4. Activating the account

   ghost account activate
   ghost account show

   Activation gives the account its alias, such as gh-k3m7p2qa, and credits your deposits; ghost account show then shows the account. If the newest payment has not been recorded yet, you can wait briefly and run ghost account activate again. A retry is safe. Activate the account

5. Saving your SSH public key

   ghost account ssh-keys add --label laptop --file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

   The command takes the public key, the .pub file. Every new instance gets the saved keys. SSH keys

6. Finding an offering and an image

   ghost catalog offerings --min-vcpu 2
   ghost catalog images

   The next step needs an offering’s ID, of2_ and 22 more characters, and an image’s slug, such as debian-13. The list shows each offering’s host mode (cloud_routed or home_gateway), size, monthly price and traffic price. Finding and renting an instance

7. Creating the instance

   ghost instance create --offering <OFFERING_ID> --image debian-13 --wait

   For a home_gateway offering, add a gateway tier, such as --gateway-tier shared_bandwidth. Before it creates anything, ghost prints the creation fee, the balance hold and the prices. The command ends with a line on stderr such as instance ID (HOSTNAME) is running at ADDRESS. Rent an instance

8. Connecting

   ssh root@ADDRESS

   Log in as root. The image’s usual default user, such as ubuntu or debian, is not set up. For an instance with a Shared IP, step 7 ends with the SSH command to use instead, such as ssh -p 1020 root@203.0.113.7. Connect with SSH

9. Logging in to the website

   ghost account login

   The returned login_url expires, so it is best opened soon. The website shows your instance under Instances. Log in to the website

Next steps

• Backing up the instance, hosted off the host or local on it.
• Choosing its network: Dedicated IP or Shared IP, gateways, ports and bandwidth.
• Managing it: power, console, reinstall and upgrade.
• When you no longer need it, deleting the instance stops the charges. A stopped instance is still billed.

What happens at a zero balance

When your balance reaches zero, Gigahost stops and deletes your instances and deletes your other backups, after making a final recovery backup where capacity is available. If your balance runs low says what happens and when.

Providing capacity

To host instances for others, see Becoming a provider.