Welcome to RunCloud – the best way to manage your cloud servers and web applications.

Whether you’re a developer, a web agency, or a business owner, RunCloud can help you simplify, automate, and optimize your web hosting operations.

Here is a quick tutorial to help you get started with RunCloud.

Step 1: Connect Your Server to RunCloud

Before you can use RunCloud, you need to connect it to a virtual or dedicated server that runs Ubuntu. This tutorial will cover only the necessary steps for launching your first server.

If you are looking for step-by-step instructions, we have written separate posts on connecting a server to RunCloud using various cloud platforms such as DigitialOcean, UpCloud, Vultr, and more, which dive deep into the topic and explain each step of the process.

RunCloud does not support virtual machines that use OpenVz virtualization technology. Before connecting a server to RunCloud, you must provision a fresh server that is accessible from the internet. When creating a server, make sure it meets the following requirements:

  • Uses Ubuntu Server (20.04/22.04 LTS) 64 bit operating system
  • More than 2GB of disk storage
  • At least 1 core processor
  • At least 512MB RAM
  • Public IPv4 Address (NAT VPS is not supported)

You can quickly deploy a server either by using RunCloud’s cloud integrations, or by manually creating a fresh server and opening the following ports in your firewall:

  • 80/TCP: For HTTP traffic
  • 443/TCP: For HTTPS traffic
  • 443/UDP: For HTTP/3 traffic (optional)
  • 34210/TCP: For communicating with RunCloud agent
  • 22/TCP: For establishing an SSH connection (you can close this port once the server is connected to RunCloud).

To connect your cloud server to RunCloud, you need to log in to your RunCloud dashboard and click on the “Connect a New Server” button.

On the next screen, select your cloud provider. If your cloud provider is not listed, select “Other“.

Next, you need to enter some basic information about your server, such as the name and IP address. In the name field, you can enter anything you like; in the IP address field, you need to enter the public IP address of your server (this is provided by your cloud company).

You also need to choose the server stack you want to use. If you’re not sure, just continue with the default Native NGINX selection. If you want to learn more on this topic, you can refer to our in-depth comparison of OpenLiteSpeed vs. NGINX vs. Apache.

After you have filled in the details, click on the “Continue” button.

On the next screen, you can enter the root password of your server – this will allow RunCloud to automatically log into your server to install the RunCloud agent.

Alternatively, you can switch to the “Manual Installation” tab and copy the script that RunCloud generates for you, and run it on your cloud server as root. You can use SSH or any other method to access your server’s terminal.

The script will install the RunCloud agent on your server and connect it to your RunCloud account. This may take a few minutes depending on your server speed and network connection.

Once the script finishes running, you will have successfully connected your cloud server to RunCloud. You can now manage your server from your RunCloud dashboard.

Step 2: Create A Web Application on RunCloud

A web application holds all the files and settings for your website. You can create multiple web applications on a single server, and host it on different domains or subdomains.

To learn more about web applications, read our posts on Understanding web applications, creating a web application on RunCloud, and how to install WordPress.

To create a web application on RunCloud, go to your RunCloud dashboard and click on a connected server. On the next screen, click on the “Deploy New Web App” button. You will see a screen like this:

On the top, you can click on different tabs and change the installation type. In this tutorial, we will create an empty web application – it is a basic application that configures all system settings such as the domain name and automated backups. However, it doesn’t install any CMS platform such as WordPress or Drupal.

Next, you can configure some basic information about your web application, such as the name, domain name, PHP version, and web application stack. You also need to choose the server where you want to create the web application.

Since we’re just creating an application for testing purposes, you can leave all settings to default and use a test domain name. Don’t worry – this can be changed later.

After you fill in the details, click on the “Create Web Application” button.

That’s it! You have successfully deployed your web project to RunCloud. You can now visit your domain name and see your web project live on the internet.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can create a support ticket or post your query on the RunCloud community.

Once your application has been deployed, you can learn how to perform automated backups, use Atomic Deployment to manage application updates or use RunCloud Developer API.