Stallion Guide

This is a guide on how to use the Stallion Control Panel and the useful features that it provides.

Stallion is a control panel for managing your KVM Slices and storage slabs that was completely created by Frantech. It is not based off any existing software (such as SolusVM or Virutalizor).

Stallion lets you manage your KVM Slices and storage slabs very easily.

You can access Stallion here: manage.buyvm.net

Once your VPS has been provisioned you will need to access the Stallion.

Once you are there you will need to click “Password Reset” and type the email you used to register when registering on the billing site.

After you clicked the password reset button you should get a email asking for a password reset, if you didn't get it check your spam. Click the password reset link, type a new password and then you will be able to login with your email and password.

Once you have logged into Stallion click on your VPS which should be on the first page of the Stallion when you log in.

Click on the “Reinstall” tab

You will then be able to choose whatever operating system you would like to install from our templates.

Select the template, type in a password for the root (for linux) or Administrator (for windows server) user and in seconds your VPS will automatically be installed!

If you installed a Linux distro, use a SSH client like Putty or MobaXterm and login with your IP address, SSH port (default port should be port 22), put the username as “root” and put the password you created on the Stallion.

If you installed Windows, you need to use a RDP Client (Windows provides a RDP Client by default called “Remote Desktop Connection”). Login with the IP address and click “connect”, after which you will then need to put the username as “Administrator” and the password you created on the Stallion.

After that your operating system will be ready to be used!

Go to the “Storage Volumes” section on the Stallion and attach it to your KVM Slice.

After your slab is attached to your KVM slice, please read this guide on how to setup your storage slab on both Linux and Windows.

1. Go to Stallion, select the server in question and click “Networking”;
2. Activate the DDoS Protected IP and turn off the non-protected IP if needed;
3. Click on the dropdown where it says “Main IP Address”, select your protected IP and click “Save Changes”. Setting this makes this IP be handed out over DHCP;
4. Reboot your VPS or restart its' networking;
5. Run curl ipinfo.io and see if your DDOS Protected IP shows up. If you're using Windows Server 2016, running curl ipinfo.io in Command Prompt should work. If you're using Windows 2012 you may need to open a internet browser and go to ipinfo.io and see if your DDOS Protected IP shows up.

1. Go to the “Networking” section within Stallion;
2. Click on where it says “not set” on the reverse DNS area on your IP and enter your desired reverse DNS, or click on the gear and click “Edit Reverse DNS”;

We provide a firewall for DDoS Protected IPs read here for more information.

To access it:

1. Go to the “Networking” section within Stallion;
2. Click on the gear where your “DDoS Protected IP” is;
3. Click on “Configure DDOS Protection”.

If you would like to block all ports and keep ones you need open then do the following:

1. Click “Add Rule”;
2. Select the protocol to “ALL (All Protocols)”;
3. Select the action to “DENY”;
4. Add a description if you like and click “Okay”;
5. Then open any ports you need (for example SSH);
6. To do this click “Add Rule”;
7. Select the Protocol as “TCP”;
8. Leave the source port as “0”;
9. In destination port put your SSH port (ex: 22);
10. Add a description if you like and click “Okay”.

Note: Firewall rules can take up to 5 minutes to apply.

We provide application filters that are created by Path.net. For more information on these filters please read the DDoS Protection section.

To access it:

1. Go to the networking section on the Stallion;
2. Click on the gear where your “DDoS Protected IP” is;
3. Click on “Configure DDOS Protection”;
4. Click on “Application Filters”;
5. Add Application Filter.
6. Select the Application filter you want to use.

Stallion has a very basic API at the moment that lets you start, shutdown and reboot the VPS and some other basic features.

You can read the guide on how to use it here: Client API

To activate your AnyCast IP you must have a VPS in all of our locations (Las Vegas, New York, Miami and Luxembourg). Read the Anycast page for more information.

1. To activate AnyCast click on the “Networking” tab on the Stallion
2. Click “Assign Anycast IP Address”. (will be given option to set up to 5 anycast IPs, only one is needed)
3. On each applicable VM, go to Networking tab, ensure Anycast IP is “on`, hit “Save Changes”
4. On each applicable VM, bind regular IP to eth0, Anycast to eth0:0 with only Address and Netmask fields

Sample /etc/network/interfaces from lv-test.buyvm.net, which uses Anycast:

root # cat /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo
      iface lo inet loopback
      
      auto eth0
      allow-hotplug eth0
      iface eth0 inet static
      address         209.141.56.135                                                                                                     
      network         209.141.56.0                                                                                                       
      gateway         209.141.56.1                                                                                                       
      broadcast       209.141.56.255                                                                                                     
      netmask         255.255.255.0                                                                                                      
   
                                                                                                                                            
      auto eth0:v6
      allow-hotplug eth0:v6
      iface eth0:v6 inet6 static
      address         2605:6400:0020:0078::1
      gateway         2605:6400:0020::1
      netmask         48
      
      
      auto eth0:anycast
      allow-hotplug eth0:anycast
      iface eth0:anycast inet static
      address         198.251.86.22
      netmask         255.255.255.0
      

* Standard naming practice is eth0, eth0:0, eth0:1, etc. I use eth0:v6/eth0:anycast simply to identify bindings easier.

We offer BGP Sessions for free. You need to create a ticket to have your Autonomous System Number (ASN) approved in order to use BGP Sessions.

[still work in progress]

BuyVM offers automatic scheduled backups starting at $0.50/mo. Backups are done every midnight (GMT -7).

Backups are good incase your VPS has a issue, Hardware issue, disk failures or a incident at the datacenter.

Backups are soon to be stored at a off-site location in Dallas.

To access backups go to the Stallion, click on your VPS and go to the “Backups & Snapshots” tab.

If you want to restore from a scheduled backup click on the “Restore” button.

We also have a “snapshot” option which includes 5 free snapshots to roll back in case something goes wrong when installing or testing software.

Snapshots are a way to “roll back” your VM when testing or installing software and something goes wrong.

We provide 5 free snapshots. Please note that this is not like backups, if you want an automated backup system then please read: How do I backup my VPS?

If you're going to install or update anything it's best to take a snapshot in case something goes wrong and you lose your data.

To create a snapshot

1. Go to the Stallion
2. Go to your VM
3. Click “Backups & Snapshots”
4. Click “Create Snapshot”.

After that a snapshot will be created and show up on the list and you can roll back to it whenever you want.

If an OS you want isn't on the Templates section you are able to upload your own ISO's.

To do this:

1. Go to Stallion
2. Go to your VM
3. Click on the “CD-ROM” section
4. Click “Upload ISO”
5. Put the direct link of ISO you want to upload (ex: example.com/debian-10.iso/)
6. Click Upload.
7. Once the ISO is uploaded it will show up on the “Uploaded ISO's” list
8. Click on “Mount ISO” on the ISO you want to mount to your VM.
9. Now go to the “Settings” tab and head over to “KVM Settings”.
10. Click on “Boot Order” and click on ”(1) CDROM (2) Hard disk“ and click “Save Changes”
11. Power off and power on your VM.
12. Since you will not have SSH or RDP access, you will need to access the VM using the VNC Option. You can either choose the “Web Based Console” or use your own VNC client by clicking “Direct VNC connection” and copying the details.
13. After you installed the operating system from the ISO image head over to “CD-ROM” and click “Eject CD-ROM”.
14. Head over to Settings tab, go to the KVM settings and change the boot order from ”(1) CDROM (2) Hard disk“ back to ”(1) Hard Disk (2) CDROM“ so your VM doesn't attempt to boot to the CDROM.