Creating a Windows Server

One of the benefits of the cloud is fast and easy creation of new severs on demand. 

To create a Linux server:

First click on "Servers" in the menu to the left and then on "Create server (Figure 1)".

Figure 1. Servers - Create server

When creating a new server we will first of all have to name it and chose a zone to create the server in (Figure 2).

To reduce latency you should prefer a zone that is close to the location where the data is to be served to.

For example if you have a website with most visitors from Sweden you probably don't want to create a server in Buffalo (US).

Figure 2. Create new server

Once the location is selected, we have to decide which operating system to be used, Windows, in this case. For this example we will create a Windows 2016 Datacenter with Desktop experience.

Choose the Windows 2016 Datacenter with Desktop experience image in the list. If you have a snapshot or uploaded your own image you can select it by changing the "Select boot source" option, for simplicity we will chose a public image (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Boot Source

Next step is to choose the size of the server. A minimum size is 4 GB RAM and 1 core. This will work for a simple server without a heavy application. In this example, we intend to run a mysql database on the server so the basic information will be increased to a more appropriated value (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Basic Information - Server size

Since this example don't have an own network or security group, those options will remain as Default (Figure 5). We will, however, select the checkbox to Create an external IP, allowing us to ssh to the server once it's created. 

Figure 5. Network & Security groups

The last thing to be done is to choose an username and password to be able to login (Figure 6). You can choose to skip this step and wait until the setup of a password for the Administrator user. Otherwise, be sure to use a strong password with at least 8 signs with small and capital letters, numbers and special signs. 

Click on the "Create server" button.

Figure 6. Login Credentials

Once the server is created we have to login via VNC to set the password for Administrator. Click on the server and then on the "Connect" tab. Click on "VNC Console". If you get an error saying "Failed to connect to server (code: 1006)" don't worry about it, just click on "Open in new window" or refresh your brwoser, as the control panel might just not have gotten a confirmation that the server is up and running (Figure 7).

Figure 7. VCN Console

When you have a console you will see the window asking you to set a password for the Administrator user (Figure 8). Click on OK and chose a password containing at least one capital letter, one small letter and one number. When the password is set we are able to login to the server using Administrator as username and our newly set password. The server is natively open for rdp and you can connect using any client you want.

Figure 8 - Administrator password