Server Provisioning

Log in to your dashboard and click 'Deploy Server' (or the + button). Choose your server type (Cloud Compute, Optimized Compute, or Cloud GPU), select a region, pick an OS image, choose a plan, and click Deploy. Your server will be ready within 60 seconds.

LightYear Cloud operates in 16 global regions across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific — including Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, London, Frankfurt, New York, Los Angeles, and more. Choose the region closest to your users for the best latency.

We offer the latest LTS versions of Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, Fedora, and FreeBSD. We also offer marketplace apps (LAMP, LEMP, WordPress, Docker, Plesk) that come pre-configured and ready to use.

Most servers are fully provisioned and accessible within 60 seconds of clicking Deploy. GPU instances may take up to 3 minutes due to additional driver setup. You will receive an email confirmation once your server is ready.

Regular Performance uses shared vCPUs on Intel hardware — ideal for dev/test and low-traffic sites. High Performance uses dedicated AMD/Intel vCPUs with NVMe SSD — best for production apps. High Frequency uses high-clock AMD EPYC CPUs — best for latency-sensitive workloads like game servers and real-time APIs.

You can upgrade a server to a larger plan at any time from the server detail page (Actions → Resize). Downgrades are not supported for live servers — you would need to create a snapshot, deploy a new smaller server, and restore from the snapshot.

Every server includes: free DDoS protection, a dedicated IPv4 address, outbound bandwidth (varies by plan), automated weekly backups (optional add-on), and 24/7 monitoring. There are no hidden fees for these included features.

Your server's IP address, username (root), and initial password are shown in the server detail page immediately after deployment. Connect using: ssh root@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS. We strongly recommend adding an SSH key and disabling password authentication for security.

Go to Dashboard → Access Control → SSH Keys and click 'Add SSH Key'. Paste your public key (usually found at ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub or ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub). You can then select this key when deploying new servers — it will be injected automatically.

Yes. Every server has a browser-based VNC console accessible from the server detail page under the Console tab. This is useful if you have locked yourself out of SSH or need to access the server during boot.

Snapshots are manual point-in-time copies of your server that you create on demand. Backups are automated weekly copies managed by LightYear Cloud (available as an add-on). Snapshots are stored indefinitely until deleted; backups are retained for 4 weeks.

Go to your server detail page and click the Snapshots tab. Click 'Take Snapshot', give it a name, and confirm. The server will remain online during the snapshot process. Snapshots typically complete within 5–15 minutes depending on disk size.

Yes. In the Snapshots tab, find the snapshot you want to restore from and click the restore icon. This will overwrite the current server state with the snapshot. All data written after the snapshot was taken will be lost.

Go to the server detail page and click Actions → Destroy Server. You will be asked to type the server name to confirm. Once destroyed, the server and all its data are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered — ensure you have a snapshot or backup first.

No. Billing stops immediately when a server is destroyed. You will be charged for the hours the server was active up to the moment of destruction, which will appear on your next monthly invoice.

Servers cannot be paused in the traditional sense — a stopped server still incurs storage charges. If you want to avoid charges entirely, take a snapshot, destroy the server, and redeploy from the snapshot when needed.