OVHcloud Associate cheat sheet

Bare Metal Cloud (BMC) delivers dedicated servers via an automated API/portal; VPS instances are virtual machines carved from shared physical hosts with guaranteed vCores and RAM.

OVHcloud server ranges: Advance (entry), Scale (balanced), High Grade (performance), and Rise (cost-optimised refurbished hardware) - each with distinct SLA and support tiers.

VPS ranges historically: Value, Essential, Comfort, Elite - ordered by vCore count, RAM, and included storage; all include unmetered guaranteed bandwidth.

Bare Metal servers include IPMI/KVM out-of-band access, custom partitioning via rescue mode, and OS installation from templates or custom images.

Rescue mode boots a temporary Linux environment over the network; use it to repair partitions, reset root passwords, or inspect disks without reinstalling.

A server's reverse DNS (PTR) is set per IPv4/IPv6 in the control panel or API; misconfigured PTR commonly breaks outbound mail delivery.

Bandwidth on Bare Metal is typically unmetered at a guaranteed rate (e.g. 500 Mbps–10 Gbps) with burst; VPS bandwidth is shared and may be capped.

OVHcloud SLA credits apply when availability falls below the contractual threshold; SLA claims are filed via the support ticket system within the stated window.

Hardware replacement on Bare Metal is covered by the infrastructure guarantee; disk failures do not entitle data recovery - backups remain the customer's responsibility.

Object Storage is S3-compatible (and Swift-compatible on Public Cloud), with buckets, access keys, and per-container or per-bucket ACL/policy control.

Block Storage volumes attach to Public Cloud instances; they can be snapshots (point-in-time) or backups (full copies), and are region-scoped.

OVHcloud Backup (formerly Backup Storage) provides NFS/CIFS-accessible backup space with quota and retention managed by the customer's backup software.

NAS-HA offers NFS and CIFS shares with HA pair nodes; performance tiers (e.g. 150/500/1000+ IOPS) determine throughput and price.

Cold storage / archive tiers trade retrieval latency for lower per-GB cost; retrieval may be billed separately from storage.

Object Storage lifecycle rules can transition or expire objects automatically; versioning protects against overwrites and deletions.

Snapshot vs backup distinction: a snapshot is incremental and tied to the source volume's lifecycle; a backup is an independent full copy.

Encryption at rest is available for block volumes and object storage; server-side encryption keys are managed by the customer or the platform depending on the option.

Retention and immutability (object lock) support compliance use cases; verify region availability before designing a DR plan.

Public Cloud private networks use VLANs/SDN; instances in the same private network communicate without public IP exposure.

Floating IPs can be reassigned between instances in the same region, enabling failover without DNS changes.

Security Groups are stateful virtual firewalls applied per instance/port; default rules may allow all egress and deny ingress - always verify.

OVHcloud Anti-DDoS (VAC) is always-on for public IPs; the mitigation threshold and scrubbing are managed by OVHcloud, with per-IP alerts in the panel.

Additional IP blocks (failover IPs) can be routed to a server or used with vRack for multi-server designs; they are ordered per region.

vRack is a private L2 network connecting OVHcloud services across data centres; it requires the service to be attached to the vRack in the same region.

Load Balancer (Public Cloud) offers HTTP/TCP listeners, health checks, and sticky sessions; it can front instances in multiple availability zones.

DNS zones support A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, and DNSSEC signing; TTL and zone propagation affect failover speed.

Firewall Network (FW) on Bare Metal filters at the network edge before traffic reaches the host; it is distinct from host-based iptables.

Public Cloud is organised by project, region, and availability zone; resources are billed per hour or per month with no long-term commitment.

Instance flavours are named by family (general purpose, compute-optimised, memory-optimised, GPU) plus size; resize requires a stop/start.

Object Storage, Block Storage, and instances are region-scoped; cross-region replication must be designed explicitly.

Managed services include Managed Kubernetes, Managed Databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis), and Managed Rancher.

The OpenStack CLI and API are supported for automation; OVHcloud-specific extensions cover billing and project management.

Horizon (OpenStack dashboard) is available alongside the OVHcloud control panel for advanced operations.

Instances can be created from public images, custom images, or snapshots; user-data/cloud-init is supported for bootstrapping.

Billing alerts and budgets can be configured per project; unused resources still incur charges unless stopped or deleted.

Quotas per project limit vCPU, RAM, volumes, and floating IPs; quota increases are requested via support.

Hosted Private Cloud (HPC) delivers dedicated VMware SDDC hosts (ESXi, vCenter, NSX, vSAN) managed by OVHcloud.

VMware on OVHcloud is offered in packs (e.g. 2-host minimum) with per-host monthly billing and options for additional hosts.

vSphere access is via a dedicated vCenter; OVHcloud retains the underlying host and network management.

vSAN provides hyper-converged storage across hosts; storage policy (FTT, RAID) determines resilience.

NSX handles logical networking, edge gateways, and firewall rules within the private cloud.

Datastores can be local, vSAN, or NFS-backed; the choice affects performance, capacity, and cost.

Backup options include Veeam-based backup (Veeam Managed Backup) and third-party agents; replication between data centres supports DR.

Migration tools (e.g. vMotion, cold migration) and OVHcloud-assisted migration services help move workloads in.

HPC is distinct from Public Cloud: it is single-tenant, VMware-based, and licensed per host rather than per resource-hour.

OVHcloud accounts support multi-factor authentication (TOTP, security key); MFA can be enforced per account or per user group.

IAM (Identity and Access Management) on OVHcloud allows fine-grained policies scoped to resources, with identities for users, groups, and service accounts.

API access uses application keys (AK/SK) with per-key permissions and optional IP restrictions; rotate keys regularly.

The OVHcloud API console and ovh-cli allow scripted operations; the same API underpins the control panel.

Audit logs record account and resource events; retention and export options depend on the service.

Security best practices: least-privilege IAM policies, MFA everywhere, restricted API keys, and network segmentation via vRack/security groups.

Support levels (Standard, Business, Enterprise) determine response times and available channels; SLA claims follow the support contract.

Billing is consolidated at the account level with per-service invoices; sub-accounts and contacts can be separated for finance versus technical roles.

Incident response: use the status page and support tickets; for security incidents, follow the OVHcloud abuse/security contact process.