This article describes how to perform the initial setup of your ProVPS account upon first receiving your login credentials. If you requested a cPanel install with your order, ProVPS technicians will have already done this step for you.

• Log into the VPS manager with the logins where sent to you via email after you placed your order:
  https://manager.provps.com

• Go to the VPS Wizard and deploy the CentOS 5 Linux distribution (recommended for cPanel installations) or a distribution of your choosing. The name of the VPS profile is for your reference only and does not have any implications on the VPS itself. The default options for disk space usage and swap space are fine for general installations but can be customized to suit your preferences. The root password is what you will use to log into root SSH as well as the WHM.
• Once done tweaking the settings, click the Create button. You will be taken to a Job Queue page that will show the progress of your VPS deployment. Once the final job in the queue is marked as Completed, the deploy is done.

If you opt to not install cPanel, or are using a different control panel, your VPS is online and ready for you to use/administer. Please see some of the tips below on how to optimally configure your VPS.

Our VPSes come configured in a very minimalist fashion out of the box. The idea here is to give the end-user (you) the most opportunity for customization. We do however have some best-practice suggestions for your VPS node. Firstly, we recommend you ensure your resolvers are properly setup as per the NDC Host DNS Resolvers article.

In order to facilitate the identification of your IP range with your website and vice versa (which helps significantly with mail deliverability), please see our article on rDNS Setup.

Additionally, so that your VPS is accessible via SSH after it's initial boot, IP addresses are assigned from the host via DHCP. Although the lease time is infinite for your IP, meaning it will always belong to you, in the off chance that your VPS cannot communicate with the host DHCP server you may lose IP connectivity. As such, we recommend that IP address assignment be changed to static after the initial boot. Instructions for doing so can be found in the following: DHCP vs Statically-assigned IPs.

Once your VPS is deployed, you can follow our general cPanel installation guide:

cPanel Installation Guide

This guide details how to get your VPS ready for cPanel to be installed, how to perform the install, as well as a guide to the Initial Setup Wizard.

If you have any questions or would like for us to deploy your VPS and/or cPanel for you, please email support@ndchost.com with your server details and we will be happy to take care of this process.