Deploy a Single Ubuntu Server with Quick Start in InMotion Central

Introduction

Sometimes you just need one clean Linux server: a place to install your own software, test a script, or run a small service. Building one by hand means creating a virtual machine, attaching it to a network, adding a firewall, and assigning a public IP address.

The Single Server Quick Start template in InMotion Central does all of that in one step. It launches one Ubuntu 24.04 LTS server on your private network, gives it a public IP address, and opens SSH only to the IP addresses you choose. Nothing else is installed, so the server is yours to set up.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to deploy a single server, connect to it, and confirm it was set up correctly.

Steps to Deploy the Single Server Template

1. Open Quick Start in Your Cloud Project

1. Log in to InMotion Central and select Projects from the left navigation bar.
2. Open your cloud project and click Quick Start in the project sidebar.
3. Locate the Single Server template card and click Deploy.

2. Configure Your Deployment Settings

In the Deploy Single Server dialog, review or customize the settings:

Basic

• Stack name: Enter a name for this deployment (for example, single-server). Use letters, numbers, dots, underscores, or hyphens.
• Server name: Enter a hostname for the new server (defaults to server-1).
• Image: Choose Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
• Flavor: Choose the server size (vCPU, RAM, and NVMe storage) that fits your workload.

Networking

• Public network: Keep External selected. This is the network your public IP address comes from.
• If your project already has a private network, select it from the Private network dropdown.
• If your project does not have a private network yet, InMotion Central offers to create a Private Network + Router deployment first, using the prefilled subnet (192.168.10.0/24) and DNS servers (1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8).

SSH

• SSH key: Select an existing SSH key, click Generate New Key, or click Paste Public Key. You need a key to sign in to the server.
• SSH whitelist: Confirm the comma-separated IP addresses or CIDR ranges allowed on port 22 (prefilled with your current public IP address). Leave this field empty if you want port 22 closed.

3. Launch and Monitor Your Deployment

1. Click Deploy (or Create Network And Deploy if you are creating a private network at the same time).
2. Scroll down to My Deployments at the bottom of the Quick Start page to track progress.
3. Wait a minute or two while the server boots. When setup finishes, the Status column for single-server changes to CREATE_COMPLETE.

4. Copy Your Server's Public IP Address

1. Next to your single-server deployment under My Deployments, click Outputs.
2. Copy the floating_ip value. This is your server's public floating IP address.

How to Know the Installation Was Successful

Once your deployment status reaches CREATE_COMPLETE, sign in to the server to confirm it is running:

If you attached an SSH key and whitelisted your IP address during setup, connect to the server as the ubuntu user:

1$ ssh ubuntu@<floating_ip>
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If the connection opens and you see an ubuntu@server-1 prompt, the server booted, the public IP address works, and the firewall lets your IP address through on port 22.

What Was Automatically Set Up

Running these checks on our test deployment confirmed how the server was configured:

Check the Ubuntu version installed

1$ lsb_release -ds
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Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS

Check the kernel version

1$ uname -r
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6.8.0-90-generic

Check the server's private IP address

1$ ip -4 -br addr show ens3
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ens3             UP             192.168.10.22/24 metric 100

The server has an address on your private network (192.168.10.0/24). Other servers on the same network can reach it at this address.

Check the size of the main disk

1$ df -h /
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Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1        24G  1.7G   22G   8% /

The disk size depends on the flavor you chose. Our test used gen2.nano, which has 25 GB of NVMe storage.

The firewall allows only SSH (port 22) from your whitelist and ping. If you install a web server or another service, open its port before you expect traffic to reach it.