Getting Started

last updated: 2025-02-13

Getting Started Guide for DownToZero Cloud

Welcome to DownToZero Cloud! This guide will walk you through the steps to get started with our cloud services. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, this guide covers the essential steps to begin leveraging the power of DownToZero Cloud.

1. Introduction

DownToZero Cloud offers a powerful and scalable cloud infrastructure to help you run, manage, and deploy containerized applications securely and efficiently. Our pay-per-watt pricing model allows you to control your costs by monitoring power consumption. This guide will help you set up and manage your applications using DownToZero Cloud.

2. Prerequisites

Before you get started, make sure you have the following:

  • A DownToZero Cloud account (sign up at https://DownToZero.cloud/).
  • Basic understanding of Docker and containers.
  • Familiarity with cloud environments and deploying applications.
  • (Optional) An SSH key pair for secure access to your instances.

3. Step 1: Create an Account

To begin using DownToZero Cloud, you first need to create an account:

  1. Go to DownToZero Cloud.
  2. Click on the “Sign Up” button.
  3. Fill in your details and verify your email.
  4. Once registered, you can log in to your DownToZero Cloud Dashboard.

4. Step 2: (Optional) Set Up a Container Registry

You can store and manage your container images in the DownToZero Cloud Container Registry:

  1. Enable the “container registry” in the DTZ dashboard.

    • this create a unique domain and endpoint for uploading container images

  2. Navigate to the container repository by clicking on the enabled button, as soon as the registry was provisioned.

  3. The Dashboard of the container registry shows you your endpoint and the amount of images already stored. Use the following command to tag and push your image:

    docker tag <your-image> {context_id}.cr.dtz.dev/<image-name>:<tag>
docker push {context_id}.cr.dtz.dev/<image-name>:<tag>

5. Step 3: Deploying Your First Application

Deploy your first containerized application on DownToZero Cloud:

  1. Enable the “containers service” in the DTZ dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the containers section by clicking on the enabled button, as soon as the service was provisioned.
  3. The Dashboard gives you an overview of the existing domains, services as well as jobs.
  4. Navigar to the “services” page and click on the “create service” button.
  5. To fully configure a service, you need to provide the following information:
    • container image, (e.g. {context_id}.cr.dtz.dev/my-image:latest or just nginx)
    • the pull secret needs to be provided if a private registry is used, public registries as well as the DTZ registry do not need credentials
  6. Click on “Create Service” to initiate the deployment.
  7. You can check the URL from the service Overview page and verify that the deployment was successful.

Monitoring Your Application

Once deployed, you can also capture the logs from the service and see them through the observability service.

  1. Enable the “observability service” in the DTZ dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the observability section by clicking on the enabled button, as soon as the service was provisioned.
  3. the logs are presented in the Logs section of the page.

6. Additional Resources

For more advanced features, explore our Documentation or check out our API reference for automating deployments and management tasks.

With this guide, you’re ready to start using DownToZero Cloud! Should you encounter any issues or have questions, please reach out to our support team at contact@downtozero.cloud.