Getting Started on the Linode Platform

Thank you for choosing Linode as your cloud hosting provider! This guide will help you sign up for an account and access Linode’s Cloud Manager, a browser-based control panel which allows you to manage your Linode virtual servers and services.

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. Click the Sign Up button at the top of this page.

   Note

   Sign up today and receive a $100 credit. This credit will be applied to any valid services used during your first 60 days.

2. Enter your email address, a unique username, and a strong password. Alternatively, you can sign up using your existing Google or GitHub account.

3. A confirmation email will be sent to your email address. Click the link to confirm your email and be taken to the next step.

4. Enter your billing and payment information. A valid credit or debit card must be used when creating an account, though additional payment methods (like Google Pay and PayPal) are available once the account is active.

Most accounts are activated instantly, but some require manual review prior to activation.

Note

Sending email: Newly created Linode accounts have restrictions on ports 25, 465, and 587 applied to Compute Instances, which prevent instances from sending email. If you’d like to send email on a Compute Instance, review the Running a Mail Server guide, then open a ticket with our Support team.

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, chat with our Support Bot, 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 web applications, but 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 Shared CPU, Dedicated CPU, High Memory, and GPU. Each of these are tailored for certain workloads. See the guides below to learn more about creating a Compute Instance, configuring it after deployment, and securing it.

• Creating a Compute Instance
• Setting Up and Securing a Compute Instance

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.
• Bare Metal (Coming soon): Dedicated single-tenant hardware for advanced workloads.

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 and, after the month is over, you receive an invoice for the hourly usage of each service up to the monthly cap. In affect, billing is post-paid and pro-rated. See the below resources for more billing information and detailed hourly and monthly pricing.

• 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