Questions and answers about Compute Cloud

General questions

What is cloud computing used for?

Yandex.Cloud provides scalable computing capacity: you can quickly create and start VMs when necessary and stop them if the load drops. The usage of cloud resources reduces your IT infrastructure costs because you pay only for the resources you use.

It's easier to manage a cloud infrastructure so you can focus on your business challenges instead of server maintenance.

What can I do with Yandex.Cloud VMs?

• Use only those computing resources which are necessary to meet your needs. If you need expensive powerful systems, you don't have to buy them. You can create a VM in Yandex.Cloud and use it whenever necessary.

• Quickly scale processing capacity to meet your needs. You can start additional VMs during peak times and stop them when the load is low.

• Use your VMs to deploy applications that must be always available. You don't need to worry about guaranteeing server uptime: Yandex.Cloud will keep it running smoothly. Focus on creating applications that work.

• Configure backups to make it easier to restore your data in the event of loss.

• Create and distribute VM disk images. You can use images to quickly deploy your software on other VMs.

• Automate VM management using the API and scripts in the command line interface.

For more information about Yandex.Cloud VMs, see Virtual machines.

How do Yandex.Cloud VMs differ from regular hosting?

Traditional hosting offers you resources on lease with pre-agreed performance for a fixed time. Yandex.Cloud VMs let you use cloud resources like your personal data center. At the same time, you receive all the advantages of the resilient infrastructure of Yandex's data centers.

You can scale your cloud infrastructure as your performance requirements change. This way you can control how many resources you are using at any given time and how much you pay for them.

You also get full control over the status of your VMs. You can start and stop VMs when you need to. You can set up your VM software configuration and change it as necessary. Disk images and snapshots let you easily transfer data between your VMs.

How do I get started with Yandex.Cloud VMs?

You can create your first VM using one of the methods described in Getting started with Compute Cloud.

How do I get access to a VM?

You can connect to a VM from another VM in the same cloud network. Use the VM's internal IP address or FQDN to do this.

If a public IP address was assigned to the VM when it was created, you can use it to connect to the VM from the internet.

You can find out the IP addresses, FQDN and other information in the management console (go to the Network section on the virtual machine's page).

For more information, see Network on a VM.

To connect to Linux VMs, use SSH. Connect to Windows VMs over RDP.

How quickly can I change the performance of my information systems?

You can change the performance of your information system in one of the following ways:

• Create VMs in advance with the appropriate characteristics and pre-installed software. During peak times, you will just need to start these VMs to increase the performance of the information system. When the load drops, you can stop some of the VMs so that you will not have to pay for consuming extra resources.
• If you frequently need new VMs with the same configuration, you can create a boot disk image and use it when creating VMs.

What operating systems are supported by Yandex.Cloud VMs?

Linux and Windows operating systems are supported.

Public boot disk images that have been tested in Yandex.Cloud are available for popular distributions of these systems.

Does the service meet the requirements under Federal Law No. 152-FZ On personal data?

Yes, you can read the full security audit conclusion.

How do I contact technical support?

You can contact technical support in the management console under Support.

Can I get logs of my operations with services?

Yes, you can request log records about your resources from Yandex.Cloud services. For more information, see Data requests.

Virtual machines

Technical parameters

What VM configuration (memory, vCPU) can I use?

When creating a VM, you select its vCPU performance level. This determines the required number and performance of cores (vCPUs). You can choose the computing resources that are appropriate for the expected load.

Read more in vCPU performance levels.

How can I change the amount of RAM and the number of cores allocated to a VM?

Read more in Changing VM computing resources.

Operations on VMs

Can I copy or clone an existing VM?

Yes, you can take snapshots of disks attached to a VM and use them when creating a new VM.

Can I move my VM to a different availability zone?

You cannot directly change the availability zone the VM lives in. However, you can create a copy of the VM in the availability zone you need.

Can I move my VM to a different folder?

You cannot directly change the folder the VM belongs to. However, you can create a copy of the VM in the appropriate folder.

If I accidentally delete my VM, can I restore it?

No, you can't. Deleting a VM is an operation that cannot be undone.

To avoid losing your data in case of accidental deletion, you can configure disk backup using snapshots, or specify that the disks should not be automatically deleted when deleting the VM.

If I lose a private key file from a Linux VM, how else can I log in to it?

If you configured the serial console, you can use it to connect to the VM.

You can also access your data the following way:

1. Create a snapshot of the boot disk.
2. Create a VM from a public image.
3. Attach the disk restored from the snapshot to the VM.

You can then export your data or restore access to the VM.

To restore access:

1. Change the SSH key in the /home/<username>/.ssh/authorized_keys file.
2. Make a snapshot of the attached disk.
3. Create a VM with the disk from the snapshot.

Disks snapshots

How much disk space can I use for a VM?

For disk limitations, see Quotas and limits.

Can I resize a disk?

Yes, you can change the disk size via the Yandex.Cloud API.

What happens to my data when a VM is deleted?

When you select a disk to attach to a VM, you can specify whether the disk should be deleted along with the VM. You can choose this option when creating a VM, updating it, or attaching a new disk to it.

If previously created disks are attached to the VM, they will be detached when the VM is deleted. The disk data is preserved and this disk can be attached to another VM in the future.

If you want a disk to be deleted with a VM, specify this during one of the following operations: when creating the VM, updating it, or attaching the disk to it. Such disks will be deleted when you delete the VM.

Do I need to stop a VM to create disk snapshots? Do I have to wait until disk snapshots are created before I start a VM?

You don't have to stop the VM. However, keep in mind that a snapshot contains only the data written to disk when creating the snapshot. You need to take care of the data integrity yourself. For information about how to create disk snapshots, see Creating a disk snapshot.

A snapshot is created asynchronously. You can resume writing data to disk immediately after running the create snapshot command, without waiting for the snapshot creation to be completed.