Platform - Getting Started on the Linode Platform

Our goal at Linode is to make cloud computing simple, accessible, and affordable. To this end, the Linode platform offers a variety of user-friendly cloud solutions, all of which have clear and predictable pricing and can be managed using an intuitive browser-based interface (the Cloud Manager), the command line (the Linode CLI), or programmatically through an API (the Linode API). This guide covers signing up for a Linode account, accessing the Cloud Manager, creating your first services, and understanding how billing works.

1. Sign Up for an Account
2. Navigate the Cloud Manager
3. Create Your First Compute Instance
4. Create Additional Services
5. Understand Billing
6. Explore Linode Guides

Sign Up for an Account

First, you need to create a Linode account to start using our services. If you already have a Linode account, you can skip to the next section.

1. Open a web browser and navigate to login.linode.com/signup. If you are not already logged in to an account, the Create an Account form is displayed.

2. Enter your email address, a unique username, and a strong password. Alternatively, you can sign up using your existing Google or GitHub account. When using another provider, you are prompted for a username in a separate step.

   Password requirements and recommendations

   Account passwords must be a minimum of 11 characters in length and be sufficiently complex. Each password is individually analyzed by an algorithmic tool to determine it’s strength. When creating a password, follow the recommendations listed below:

   • Password should be at least 11 characters in length (though longer passwords are considered stronger).
   • Avoid using simple passwords based on dictionary words.
   • Use a mixture of unpredictable uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
   • Avoid repeating characters (aaa), sequences (abcd), and keyboard patterns (qwerty).

3. A confirmation email is sent to your email address shortly after. Click the link in that email to confirm your email address.

4. In the Security section of the signup process, input your phone number. Linode uses phone numbers as a measure to verify identity and prevent fraud. Once a phone number is provided, a verification code is sent to that number as an SMS text message. Enter this code into the signup form.

   Note

   This phone number provides our team with a secure method of verifying your identity as the owner of the newly created Linode user account. We will only ever use this phone number to verify your identity by sending a verification code as an SMS message. See Phone Verification for more details.

5. Within the Billing section, select your payment method and enter your billing address details. Linode accepts credit/debit cards and PayPal on sign up. See the Billing and Payments guide to learn more about each of these methods. You must also accept the Master Services Agreement.

6. Most accounts are activated instantly and you can start adding services right away. A small number of accounts may require manual review prior to activation.

Once your account has been created, consider enabling 2FA to prevent unauthorized access. Anyone that has access to your account may be able to delete your services, add new ones, and reset the root password on your Compute Instances to gain access to them. See Cloud Manager Security Controls for instructions on enabling 2FA. If you are logging in with a third party provider, consider adding 2FA through that provider.

Navigate the Cloud Manager

Linode’s Cloud Manager is the primary gateway to our platform. It enables you to manage your account, view your bills, add services, and much more. Here are some of the main sections you might want to look through:

• Linodes: View a list of your Compute Instances. Clicking on one takes you to its details page, where you can power it on or off, reboot it, resize it, access the console, change its configuration, attach Block Storage volumes, and lots more.

• Account: View your account, billing information, payment methods, and previous invoices. You can also add additional users to your account.

• Help & Support: Search through our guides, find answers on the Community Site, or open a ticket to reach our 24/7 award-winning Support Team.

For a full overview of the Cloud Manager and its core features, see the Overview of the Cloud Manager guide.

Create Your First Compute Instance

Compute Instances (also frequently called Linodes) are virtual machines that can be used for nearly any purpose. Many of our customers use them to host websites and applications, and they can also be used for development workloads, game servers, big data processing, machine learning, scientific processing, and much more. They come in a few different types, including: Dedicated CPU, Shared CPU, Premium, High Memory, and GPU.

Each plan type is tailored for certain workloads. See the guides below to learn more about creating a Compute Instance, configuring and securing it after deployment, and selecting a data center for your plan.

• Creating a Compute Instance
• Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance
• How to Choose a Data Center

Create Additional Services

In addition to Compute Instances, Linode offers many other services that empower you to get the most out of cloud computing. Take a look through the list below to determine if any of them might be useful to you.

Compute

• LKE (Linode Kubernetes Engine): Managed Kubernetes clusters that simplify container orchestration.

Databases

• Managed Databases: Reliable, performant, highly available, and fully managed database clusters to support production database workloads.

  Managed Database Availability

  As part of our ongoing commitment to innovation and better serving our customers, we have made the strategic decision to pause the sale of our Managed Database offering for all customers who do not have an active database deployed. We recognize the need for a product that offers higher performance and the capacity to handle more complex workloads.

  If you have an existing database already deployed, you will continue to be able to deploy, provision, and manage the service exactly as you do today, and we’ll fully support your Managed Database workloads until our next-generation database solution is available. For future news and announcements related to Managed Databases, please sign up using the form on our product page.

Storage

• Block Storage: Scalable, high-speed, fault-tolerant, and portable (detachable) storage volumes used to add additional storage to a Compute Instance.
• Object Storage: S3-compatible object storage service that can be used independently of a Compute Instance.
• Backups: Fully managed automatic daily, weekly, and biweekly backups of your Linode Compute Instances.
• Images: Create preconfigured disk images (or upload image files) that can be rapidly deployed to new or existing Compute Instances.

Networking

• NodeBalancers: Managed cloud-based load balancing service used with Compute Instances to enable high availability and horizontal scaling.
• Cloud Firewalls: A free cloud-based firewall service that can be used to secure any Compute Instance.
• DNS Manager: A free comprehensive domain and DNS management service for Linode customers.
• VLANs: Private L2 networks to secure traffic between Compute Instances.

Understand Billing

Linode services are billed to your primary payment method at the end of each month (or when your accrued charges reach your billing limit). This means you can continuously add, modify, and remove services throughout the month. After the month is over, you receive an invoice for the hourly usage of each service up to the monthly cap. In effect, billing is post-paid and pro-rated. See the below resources for more billing information and detailed hourly and monthly pricing. Note that plans and prices may vary by region.

• Billing and Payments
• Managing Billing in the Cloud Manager
• Linode Price List

Keep in mind that charges will accrue for any active service, even if it is powered off or otherwise not in use. This includes Compute Instances that have been powered off as well as any service you might have added to the account but are not using.

Explore Linode Guides

Linode offers extensive documentation. This not only includes guides for our core products and services, but general guides on Linux, the command-line, networking, security, version control, databases, and much more. Learn how to deploy a WordPress One-Click App, run a VPN, install a file storage platform, or even host a website using Object Storage. Whatever cloud computing use cases you have in mind, you can likely do it on Linode and our guides are a great place to start.

• Linode Docs