Quick Guide

Registration

Access to bwCloud-OS requires an active account from a bwIDM-participating institution.
Your account must include a valid bwCloud entitlement, assigned by your home institution. This is usually automatic. If missing, contact your institution’s IT support. The bwCloud-OS team cannot assign entitlements.
Log in once to the Dashboard to activate your profile. Setup is automated via bwIDM.
After login, select your home region as described here to begin using bwCloud-OS.

Instances can be created via the Dashboard wizard, select: name → image → flavor → network → SSH key → launch.
Existing instances can be resized to larger flavors. Always back up important data beforehand, as the VM will reboot during the process.
To access your bwCloud-OS virtual machines, you must register an SSH key pair and assign it when creating instances.

Each bwCloud-OS instance automatically receives a public IP address, valid for its entire lifetime (until deletion).
Instances are also assigned a persistent FQDN based on their UUID and region.
Domain hosting is not provided, but you can point your own domain to the instance’s FQDN using a CNAME record.

By default, VMs in bwCloud-OS are only accessible via SSH (port 22); all other ports are initially closed for security reasons.
Additional ports (e.g. HTTPS/443) can be opened via Security Groups in the Dashboard — changes take effect immediately without a reboot.
Some ports are centrally filtered in certain regions and cannot be opened manually; details are listed in the port overview.
SSL certificates are not provided by bwCloud-OS, but can be obtained via services like Let’s Encrypt.
If you suspect a security incident, stop the affected VMs and open a support ticket immediately.

If you need more storage, create and attach additional volumes — root disks cannot be enlarged. Using a larger root disk via special flavors is also not recommended in general.
All data is stored redundantly (e.g., 3× replication in Ceph), but no automatic backups are performed — you are responsible for your own data protection.
Back up your data regularly using snapshots or by downloading volumes/images via the OpenStack client as explained here.

Each bwCloud-OS project has predefined quotas for vCPU, RAM, storage, and networks. Quota increases can be requested via the bwSupportPortal
Group projects allow shared access to resources. Members can manage instances collaboratively. Quotas can be assigned in multiple regions. Every group project requires a named owner as the primary contact.
Instances cannot be moved between projects directly. Use snapshots and volume transfer as described here.

Experienced users can create Application Credentials (tokens) to enable CLI or programmatic access.
Automation tools like Ansible or Terraform can be used to streamline instance deployment and configuration.