Cloud server with Monitoring Box

Last update: July 03 2026

Monitoring Box — a monitoring software suite that contains:

• Grafana — an open-source platform for data visualization and monitoring;
• VictoriaMetrics — high-performance monitoring system and time-series database optimized for handling large volumes of data.

You can create a cloud server from a pre-built Monitoring Box image. In Russia, the application runs on a cloud server with a configured SelectOS 1 64-bit operating system. In other countries — Ubuntu 22.04.

Before creating a cloud server with an application, read the software license agreements included in the image.

Minimum resource requirements

vCPU count	1
RAM	2 GB
Boot volume	20 GB

Create a cloud server with Monitoring Box

For Monitoring Box to work, the cloud server must be accessible from the internet. To do this, when creating the server, you need to create a private subnet and attach a public floating IP address. To configure Monitoring Box, you must specify user data — custom operating system configuration parameters — when creating the server.

After the server with Monitoring Box is created, a free TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt® will be automatically issued for the domain you specify. To issue the certificate, you need to add an A record for the domain and specify the server's public floating IP address as the record value. You can add the domain to Selectel DNS Hosting (actual).

1. Create a public floating IP address.

2. Add an A record for the domain.

3. Create a cloud server with Monitoring Box.

1. Create a public floating IP address

Create a public floating IP address so that the cloud server with Monitoring Box is accessible from the internet.

Use the Create a public floating IP address section of the Public Floating IP addresses.

2. Add an A record for the domain

Add a resource record to access Monitoring Box by domain.

Specify:

• resource record type in the group — A;
• the record value is the public floating IP address you created in step 1.

3. Create a server with Monitoring Box

1. In the Control panel, on the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

2. Click Create server.

3. Fill in the blocks:

   • Name and placement;
   • Source;
   • Configuration;
   • Disks;
   • Internet;
   • Private network;
   • Security;
   • Access;
   • Additional settings.

4. Check the cloud server price.

5. Click Create.

Name and location

1. Enter the server name. It will be set as the hostname in the operating system.

2. Choose a location where the server will be created. The available server configurations and resource costs depend on the location. You cannot change the location after the server is created.

Source

1. Откройте вкладку Приложения.

2. Select Cloud Monitoring Box.

3. Optional: if you need a different current or archived application version, select the required version in the Version field.

Configuration

Select a configuration from 1 vCPU, RAM starting from 2 GB and a boot disk size starting from 20 GB. For all lines, except Shared and Dedicated, two types of server configurations are available:

• fixed configurations — configurations of lines with different specifications where the resource ratio is fixed;
• custom configurations — configurations where you can specify any resource ratio.

Different processors are used in configurations depending on the line and pool segment. You can customize the selected configuration. After the server is created, you will be able to change the configuration.

Fixed configuration

1. Open the tab with the line.

2. Click Fixed.

3. Optional: you can customize the configuration if you are creating a server in a multi-zone pool segment ru-6 or pool segments ru-3b, ru-7a, and ru-7b:

   3.1. Разверните блок with описанием настроек конфигурации.

   3.2. Optional: выберите производителя процессора. Выбор производителя доступен не во всех пулах.

   3.3. Optional: if you want to avoid pinning physical processor cores to a cloud server's vCPUs, uncheck the Dedicated Cores checkbox. For more information, see the Dedicated Cores guide.

   3.4. Optional: если для сервера with выделенными ядрами вы хотите выключить Hyper-Threading, снимите чекбокс Hyper-Threading (SMT).

   3.5. Optional: if you are creating a server with dedicated cores and want to host a multiprocessor server on a single NUMA node, select the Mandatory placement on a single NUMA node checkbox. You can place a server with 4 vCPUs or more on one NUMA node. If the cloud server resources cannot be placed on one node, it will not be created. For more information, see the Placement on a single NUMA node subsection of the Dedicated Cores guide.

4. Select a configuration.

5. If both local and network volumes are available in the selected configuration, select the disk to be used as the boot disk:

   • local disk — check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox. A server with a local disk can only be created from images or applications;
   • сетевой диск — не отмечайте чекбокс Локальный SSD NVMe диск.

   The amount of RAM allocated to the server may be less than specified in the configuration — the operating system kernel reserves a portion of RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. You can check the allocated volume on the server by using the command sudo dmesg | grep Memory.

Custom configuration

1. Open the tab with the line.

2. Click Custom.

3. Optional: you can customize the configuration if you are creating a server in a multi-zone pool segment ru-6 or pool segments ru-3b, ru-7a, and ru-7b:

   3.1. Разверните блок with описанием настроек конфигурации.

   3.2. Optional: выберите производителя процессора. Выбор производителя доступен не во всех пулах.

   3.3. Optional: if you want to avoid pinning physical processor cores to a cloud server's vCPUs, uncheck the Dedicated Cores checkbox. For more information, see the Dedicated Cores guide.

   3.4. Optional: если для облачного сервера with выделенными ядрами вы хотите выключить Hyper-Threading, снимите чекбокс Hyper-Threading (SMT).

   3.5. Optional: if you are creating a cloud server with dedicated cores and want to host a multiprocessor server on a single NUMA node, select the Mandatory placement on a single NUMA node checkbox. You can place a cloud server with 4 vCPUs or more on one NUMA node. If the cloud server resources cannot be placed on one node, it will not be created. For more information, see the Placement on a single NUMA node subsection of the Dedicated Cores guide.

4. Specify the number of vCPUs.

5. Specify the RAM size.

6. If you need to add graphics processors to the server, click Add GPU, select the GPU type, and specify the number of GPUs. The selected line will change to the GPU line. If you selected an image without GPU optimization in the Source block and the Auto-select GPU image toggle is turned on, the selected image will automatically change to an image with GPU optimization.

7. If both local and network volumes are available in the selected configuration, select the disk to be used as the boot disk:

   • локальный диск — отметьте чекбокс Локальный SSD NVMe диск. Сервер with локальным диском можно создать только из образов and приложений;
   • сетевой диск — не отмечайте чекбокс Локальный SSD NVMe диск.

   The amount of RAM allocated to the server may be less than specified in the configuration — the operating system kernel reserves a portion of RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. You can check the allocated volume on the server by using the command sudo dmesg | grep Memory.

Volumes

1. If you did not check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox when setting up the configuration, the first specified network volume will be used as the server's boot disk. To configure it:

   1.1. Выберите тип сетевого загрузочного диска

   1.2. Укажите размер сетевого загрузочного диска in ГБ or ТБ. Учитывайте лимиты сетевых дисков on максимальный размер.

   1.3. If you selected the Universal v2 or SSD Fast v2 disk type, specify the total number of read and write operations in IOPS. After creating the disk, you can change the IOPS amount — decrease or increase it. The number of IOPS changes is unlimited.

2. Optional: add an additional server network volume :

   2.1. Нажмите Добавить.

   2.2. Выберите тип сетевого диска

   2.3. Specify the size of the network disk in GB or TB. Учитывайте лимиты сетевых дисков on максимальный размер.

   2.4. Если вы выбрали тип диска Универсальный v2 or SSD Быстрый v2, укажите общее количество операций чтения and записи in IOPS. После создания диска вы можете изменить количество IOPS — уменьшить or увеличить. Количество изменений IOPS не ограничено.

   After the server is created, you will be able to attach new additional volumes.

Internet

Configure public access to the server.

The cloud server will be added to a private subnet connected to a cloud router that has 1:1 NAT and internet access. Access to and from the internet will be provided through the cloud router. The server will be accessible from the internet via a public floating IP address.

1. В поле Подключение из интернета выберите тип доступа Публичный плавающий IP-адрес.

2. Select the public floating IP address that you created in step 1.

Private network

The cloud server can be added to an existing or new private subnet.

Existing private subnet

1. В поле Подсеть выберите приватную подсеть.

2. Optional: in поле IP-адрес измените IP-адрес по умолчанию.

3. В поле Роутер выберите существующий роутер or создайте новый.

   If the router is not connected to the internet, it will be automatically connected after the server is created.

New private subnet

1. In the Subnet field, select New private subnet.

2. В поле Сеть выберите существующую сеть or создайте новую.

3. Optional: change the subnet CIDR.

4. Optional: in поле IP-адрес измените IP-адрес по умолчанию.

5. В поле Роутер выберите существующий роутер or создайте новый.

   If the router is not connected to the internet, it will be automatically connected after the server is created.

Security

Выберите группы безопасности для фильтрации трафика on портах сервера. Без групп безопасности трафик будет запрещен. Если блок отсутствует, in сети сервера выключена фильтрация трафика (port security). С выключенной фильтрацией трафика весь трафик будет разрешен.

Access

1. Place an SSH key for the project on the server for secure connection:

   1.1. Если SSH-ключ для проекта не добавлен in облачную платформу, нажмите Добавить SSH-ключ, введите имя ключа, вставьте публичный ключ in формате OpenSSH and нажмите Добавить.

   1.2. If an SSH key for the project has been added to the cloud platform, select an existing key in the SSH-key field. The SSH key is available only in the pool where it is placed.

2. Optional: in поле Пароль для root:

   2.1. Скопируйте пароль пользователя root — пользователя with неограниченными правами on все действия над системой.

   2.2. Сохраните пароль in безопасном месте and не передавайте in открытом виде.

Additional settings

1. Optional: if you are planning to create multiple servers and want to increase infrastructure fault tolerance, add the server to a placement group:

   1.1. Чтобы создать новую группу, in поле Группа размещения нажмите Создать.

   1.2. Выберите Новая группа and введите имя группы.

   1.3. Выберите политику размещения on разных хостах:

   • preferred — soft-anti-affinity. The system will try to place servers on different hosts. If there is no suitable host available when creating the server, it will be created on the same host;
   • required — anti-affinity. Servers in the group must be placed on different hosts. If there is no suitable host available when creating the server, the server will not be created.

   1.4. Если группа создана, in поле Группа размещения выберите группу размещения.

2. Optional: чтобы добавить дополнительную информацию or фильтровать серверы in списке, добавьте теги сервера. Автоматически добавляются теги операционной системы and конфигурации. Чтобы добавить новый тег, in поле Теги введите тег.

3. Чтобы добавить скрипт, который выполнится with помощью агента cloud-init при первом запуске операционной системы, in блоке Автоматизация in поле User data:

   • откройте вкладку Текст and вставьте скрипт текстом;
   • or откройте вкладку Файл and загрузите файл со скриптом.

#cloud-config
 
write_files:
- path: "/opt/gomplate/values/user-values.yml"
  permissions: "0644"
  content: |
    domain: "<example.com>"
    adminEmail: "<root@example.com>"
    adminUser: "<administrator_name>"
    adminPassword: "<administrator_password>"
    adminIP: "<ip_address>"
    retentionPeriod: "<days_number>"
    alertmanager: "<enable_alert>"
    telegramBotToken: "<telegram_bot_token>"
    telegramChatId: "<telegram_chat_id>"

Specify:

• <example.com> — the domain to access Grafana, which you added in step 2;
• <root@example.com> — administrator email address;
• optional: <administrator_name> — Grafana administrator name. If this parameter is not set, the default value is admin;
• <administrator_password> — Grafana administrator password;
• optional: <ip_address> — the IP address for which Grafana will be accessible. If this parameter is not set, the platform will be accessible from all IP addresses.
• optional: <days_number> — number of days to store metrics. If this parameter is not set, the default value is 30;
• optional: <enable_alert> — enable alerts (alerts). Possible values: true — alerts are enabled, false or the parameter is not specified — alerts are disabled. If you set the value to true, specify:
  • <telegram_bot_token> — Telegram bot token;
  • <telegram_chat_id> — ID of the Telegram chat to which the Telegram bot will send alerts.