Use an instance

This page describes what you can do with an instance that the Portal built.

Open it

Press the address on the row. The product opens in a new tab.

The address is a link only while the instance answers. It is plain text while the Portal builds the machine, and after the subscription ends.

The administrator password

The Portal makes one administrator password for each instance while it builds the machine. It hands that password over once, and it then erases it: from the screen, from the database, and from every backup taken afterwards. The Portal cannot read it back to you.

To read it:

1. Press Show administrator password on the row.

2. Copy the name and the password from the box.

3. Sign in to the product with them.

The button disappears after you read the password. If you lose it, ask for a new one.

To set a new password:

1. Press the actions button on the row.

2. Press New password.

3. Confirm the question. The old password stops working at once, and anyone who is signed in with it is signed out.

4. Copy the new password from the box. The Portal shows it once, as before.

On a shared machine the box gives your own login, and not an administrator name. The machine also carries other customers, so it has no administrator for you.

The actions menu

The button at the right of the row opens a menu. The menu heading says which instance you act on.

The menu offers only what the instance can do now:

Action	Offered when
Deploy again	The build failed.
Keep it	You cancelled the subscription, and it has not ended yet.
New password	The instance answers.
Update to latest	The instance answers, and it is on your own machine.
Restart	The instance answers, and it is on your own machine.
Cancel subscription	The subscription is not ending already.
Give up on this purchase	The purchase was never paid. It replaces Cancel subscription.
Destroy right now	The plan is paid, and the purchase was paid for.

The last two entries are red, and a line separates them from the rest. They destroy a machine. See End an instance.

Each entry puts a question on the screen first. Nothing happens until you answer it. Press outside the box, or press the other button, to leave things as they are.

Restart

Restart stops the machine and starts it again. Use it when the product does not answer, or after you change something that asks for a restart.

The instance is unreachable for about a minute. The data stays as it is.

Update to latest

Update to latest installs the current release of the product on your machine.

• The instance is offline for some minutes.

• Your data is kept.

• The row says Updating — it will be back in a few minutes, and it shows a moving bar.

The Portal runs one update at a time. The menu greys the entry out while an update runs.

A failed update leaves the machine as it was: the old release goes on running. The row then shows a red line with the reason. Write to support with that line. See Support.

Deploy again

A build that fails leaves a row in the state Setup failed, with the reason under the address. Deploy again starts the build a second time.

The subscription is untouched by this. You do not buy the plan again.

If the second build fails as well, write to support. Support can finish the work from your subscription.