Evoxt Archives - 益沃斯

Evoxt Loadbalancer Guide

Evoxt — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 18:14:19 +0000

Downtimes and server overloading are very costly. If your server's resources are getting overloaded due to receiving a lot of traffic and vertical scaling is not what you prefer, a load balancer is what you are searching for.

A load balancer is a reverse proxy that can distribute traffics across servers, acting as a single point of contact for your clients. When a client connects to your load balancer, the load balancer will forward them to other servers depending on your configuration. Hence, load balancing. By configuring a load-balanced setup, this can improve your website or application's availability and prevents server overloading which can destroy users' experience.

With Evoxt's Loadbalancer, you can choose to load balance on layer 4 (TCP and UDP), or you can configure the load balancer to load balance on layer 7 (HTTP and HTTPS).

Getting started with Evoxt's load balancer

To deploy a load balancer. Go to Deploy a Load Balancer

Deploying a load balancer is easy with Evoxt. Simply choose a region, enter a name or use the default hostname, and you can proceed with the load balancer deployment.

After payment, go to your load balancer's control panel. It will take around 10 – 15 minutes for our system to set up your load balancer.

When this is done, you will be presented with the load balancer dashboard.

Configuring your Load Balancer

Click on Configuration to configure your load balancer.

There are only several simple configurations needed to get your load balancer up and running.

Change Load Balancer Algorithm

Load balancer algorithm determines how the traffics are distributed across the backend nodes.

Round Robin – Round robin will randomly distribute traffic or load to all the backend nodes equally.
IPhash – IPhash algorithm will distribute traffic or load to the backend node based on client's IP address. If a client is passed to backend node 1, the client will not be passed to another backend node unless the client's IP address is changed, removed from the load Balancer node cluster, or when backend node 1 is down. This is useful for sessions or when client needs to login into your website.
Least Connections – Least connections algorithm will distribute traffic or load to the node that has the least connection.

Load Balancer Listening Port

This is the load balancer's listening port configuration. A listening port listens to the port for communications, acting like an endpoint for communication.

If you are setting up a load balancer for a website, you will most likely configure the load balancer to listen to the default HTTP port (Port 80) or the default HTTPS port (Port 443).

Selecting HTTP or HTTPS will make the load balancer operate on Layer 7 while selecting TDP or UDP will make the load balancer operate on Layer 4.

Note: HTTPS load balancing is disabled by default until a valid SSL certificate is added. To do that please go to the SSL tab.

Health Check

Enabling health check will set load balancer to monitor the status of the backend nodes, this is a passive health check. If the load balancer detects a backend node is down, it will stop distributing traffic or load to the specific backend node for 30 seconds and recheck the backend node's status once 30 seconds is over and repeat until the backend node is up again.

Node Configuration

This is where you configure the backend node that the load balancer sends traffic to.

Node IP Address – Node IP address is where you key in the backend node IP address. Please use Private IP for zero bandwidth consumption as we do not account for any bandwidth usage for all the traffics communicating through our private network.
Node Port – This will be the backend node's listening port or your backend node's application communication endpoint.
Node Weight – This is for how the percentage of traffic is distributed. The bigger the weight, the more traffic the node will receive.

For example
3 servers. Server 1, Server 2, and Server 3.
and the weighting is set to 3, 1, and 1 respectively.

On 10 requests,
Server 1 will receive 6 requests,
Server 2 will receive 2 requests,
and Server 3 will receive 2 requests.

Note: If a balanced distribution is required, use the same weight on all the backend nodes.

You can add up to 99 backend nodes with Evoxt's Load Balancer.

SSL

To enable HTTPS load balancing, you will need to add SSL certificates.

The certificates required are SSL Public Key and Private Key.

Here is an example of an SSL public key; notice that a public key starts with —-Public Key—–

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS PUBLIC KEY, THIS IS FOR DEMO PURPOSES ONLY.

—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–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—–END CERTIFICATE—–
—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–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—–END CERTIFICATE—–
—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE—–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—–END CERTIFICATE—–

Here is an example of an SSL private key; notice that a public key starts with —-Private Key—–

PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS PRIVATE KEY. THIS IS FOR DEMO PURPOSES ONLY.

—–BEGIN PRIVATE KEY—–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—–END PRIVATE KEY—–

To get your SSL certificate, you can either purchase an SSL certificate from issuing authority (paid) or generate them with Let's Encrypt (Free)

Enable HTTP to HTTPS redirection

By switching this on, Evoxt's Load balancer will automatically accept HTTP traffic (port 80) and automatically redirect it to HTTPS (port 443)

And that's it for all the configurations.

More info about the backup node

Evoxt's Load Balancer works by setting up two load balancer nodes. The main node and the backup node, the backup node exist to ensure that your load balancer will get the highest possible uptime. The load balancer IP address will connect to the main node by default, and the backup node will only be used when the main node is down. When the main node is down, the main node's IP address will be assigned to the backup node. This is done automatically without needing any of your manual intervention. The status of the backup node can be monitored on your Load Balancer dashboard. In cases where you notice that the backup node is down, please contact us to check on this for you.

Some Extra Notes

IP Transparency

If IP transparency is required, you will have to configure the load balance to run on layer 7. The client IP address will only be passed on layer 7 (HTTP or HTTPS).

The connecting client's IP will be passed in the X-Forwarded For Header.

Nginx Guide to configure server to read X-Forwarded For header
Apache Guide to configure server to read X-Forwarded For header

WordPress WP-ADMIN or WP-LOGIN through Evoxt's Load Balancer

Logging into WordPress's WP-Admin can be troublesome through a Load Balancer. There are multiple reasons for this:

Reason 1: Mismatch salt keys in WordPress server.
Mismatch salt will cause login issues when connecting to a different backend node.

To solve this, double check all the backend nodes has a matching salt key set configured.

Reason 2: Force HTTPS on, usually the load balancer will be connecting to your backend nodes through an HTTP connection ( port 80 ). WordPress might get an issue detecting the SSL status.
is_ssl()

To solve this, add this line to your wp-config.php

$_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

Pointing a domain to a Load Balancer

To point a domain to the load balancer, set your domain's A record to the load balancer IP.

What Load Balancer region to choose

For the best performance and bandwidth savings, please choose the same load balancer region as all your other VMs. When they are in the same region as the backend nodes, add the backend node's private IP to connect through Evoxt's private network. All traffic that goes through the private network will not be accounted for in bandwidth calculation.

HTTPS/ SSL

If you are hosting a website, there are multiple ways to set up HTTPS on your website through your load balancer.

Easier method (CloudFlare)
Use Cloudflare, follow this guide.
Set the A record to your Loadbalancer's IP address. Then enable SSL on Cloudflare which will allow Cloudflare to proxy the traffic on your domain to your load balancer. This will also enable DDoS protection for your website through Cloudflare. If IP transparency is needed, please follow this guide from Cloudflare.

Harder method (Let's Encrypt)
If Cloudflare is not your thing, install Certbot on your server to generate a Let's Encrypt free SSL certificate.

Use the following codes below to install Certbot on your server, we are using AlmaLinux on this demo. Use the specific package installer on your distro.

dnf install epel-release -y
dnf install snapd
systemctl enable snapd –now
ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap
sudo snap install core; sudo snap refresh core
sudo snap install –classic certbot
sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

Source: https://eff-certbot.readthedocs.io/en/stable/using.html#manual

After installing Certbot, use this command to generate a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate.

certbot certonly –manual –preferred-challenges dns

[root@TEST /]# certbot certonly –manual –preferred-challenges dns
Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
Please enter the domain name(s) you would like on your certificate (comma and/or
space separated) (Enter 'c' to cancel): test.evoxt.com
Requesting a certificate for test.evoxt.com- – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Please deploy a DNS TXT record under the name:

_acme-challenge.test.evoxt.com.

with the following value:

OvPXx9eTzmA1uSRTSSIIM57RhnR8yUZ1BFnjmVDG4hg

Before continuing, verify the TXT record has been deployed. Depending on the DNS
provider, this may take some time, from a few seconds to multiple minutes. You can
check if it has finished deploying with aid of online tools, such as the Google
Admin Toolbox: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#TXT/_acme-challenge.test.evoxt.com.
Look for one or more bolded line(s) below the line ';ANSWER'. It should show the
value(s) you've just added.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Press Enter to Continue

Successfully received certificate.
Certificate is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/test.evoxt.com/fullchain.pem
Key is saved at: /etc/letsencrypt/live/test.evoxt.com/privkey.pem
This certificate expires on 2022-12-06.
These files will be updated when the certificate renews.

NEXT STEPS:
– This certificate will not be renewed automatically. Autorenewal of –manual certificates requires the use of an authentication hook script (–manual-auth-hook) but one was not provided. To renew this certificate, repeat this same certbot command before the certificate's expiry date.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:
* Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org/donate
* Donating to EFF: https://eff.org/donate-le
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Once this is done, copy the cert to the LoadBalancer SSL tab, and your server will run on HTTPS.

TCP Passthrough
Set the load balancer to listen on port 443 TCP with the backend node on HTTPS 443. The load balancer will not process any information and passes the encrypted data directly to the client. With this setup, you will only need to configure the SSL on your backend nodes. Your backend server will handle all the data encryption.

The downside with this is that IP transparency will not work because no data will be processed on the load balancer.

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Evoxt IP Management Tool Guide

Evoxt — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 22:49:24 +0000

Evoxt's IP Management tool provides you with more control of your servers and easier management of your servers. With the ability to reassign IP, remove IP, add extra floating IP and swap IPv4 addresses between servers. With these IP management tools, you can easily switch between development and live servers, minimize downtime with Evoxt's Floating IP address, and more!

Evoxt's IP Management tools mainly focus on IPv4 at this moment. This will be Assign IPv4 Tools and Swap IPv4 Tools

Accessing Assign IP tool

To access the Assign IP tool, go to the VM control panel.

Then click on the IP Management on the top bar, as shown in the image below.

You are now at the Assign IP tool.

Assign IPv4 Guide

Here is a screenshot that helps you with understanding the Assign IPv4 tool. Each option and thing to note in the screenshot is labeled with numbers.
Please note that you can only assign IP from the same region, if you wish to move server to another region, please open a support ticket.

1, 2 & 3 – These are the currently assigned and active IP addresses in the server.
4s – Set as Primary button. Use this button to set the specific IP address as the primary IP address
5 – "Primary" indicates that this IP address is the primary IP address. All servers must have a primary IP address.
6 – "Main Server IP (Sticky)" indicates that this IP address is the IP address that comes with this server. Sticky IP cannot be removed. Please use the Swap IP feature if you need to move this to another server.
7s – Remove button. Use this button to remove the specific IP address from the server.
8 – This dropdown box list all the extra IP address that can be assigned to this server. Use this dropdown box to select an IP address and the assign button below to assign the IP address selected.
9 – Assign button. Use this button to assign the selected IP address on the dropdown box as one of the IP addresses.
10 – Assign as Primary IP button. Use this button to assign the selected IP on the dropdown box as the primary IP address of this server.

After performing any action, our system will perform a reboot on the server. Please make sure all temporary files that need to be kept are saved before performing any IP assignment action

Accessing Swap IP tool

To access the Assign IP tools, go to the VM control panel.

Then click on the IP Management on the top bar, as shown in the image below.

You are now on the Assign IP tool.

Then from the sidebar, click on Swap IPv4 to access the Swap IP tool.

Swap IP Guide and More information

Swap IP tool will swap all the public IPv4 from one server to another server.

To use this tool, select a server on the second dropdown box to swap with and click on the swap IP address to perform the swap.

Please note that you can only swap IP between servers from the same region. If you wish to move a server to another region, please open a support ticket.

After performing IP swapping, our system will perform a reboot on the server. Please make sure all temporary files that need to be kept are saved before performing any IP swap

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Evoxt Layer 3 Firewall Guide

Evoxt — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 19:59:40 +0000

Layer 3 firewall is included with all servers offered by Evoxt. This will act as a defense line before inbound traffic reaches your servers. Layer 3 firewall performs slightly differently than a host-based firewall (the firewall in your server). Please spend some time understanding them.

Enabling the Firewall

Go to your VM control panel to manage the layer 3 firewall.

Then click on the Firewall on the top bar, as shown in the image below.

Introduction to the Firewall

Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall is separated into 2 groups, IPv4 firewall, and IPv6 Firewall.
IPv4 Firewall manages all IPv4 inbound traffic, while the IPv6 firewall manages all IPv6 inbound traffic. Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall defaults to blocking all protocol and ports when enabled. All rules added are to allow the ports or protocol through the firewall.

To get started with managing the firewall and firewall rules, click on Enable Firewall on the Firewall tab.

By default, there will be 5 firewall rules automatically added. This will be:

TCP 32768 – 65535 (This rule handles the connection with private port, is a temporary communication hub used for Internet Protocol (IP) communications)
UDP 32768 – 65535 (This rule handles the connection with private port, is a temporary communication hub used for Internet Protocol (IP) communications)
TCP 0 – 65535 with the IP range 10.0.0.0/8 (This rule allow all inbound TCP traffic from servers that are located in the private network, all server that exists in the same region hosted at Evoxt)
UDP 0 – 65535 with the IP range 10.0.0.0/8 (This rule allow all inbound UDP traffic from servers that are located in the private network, all server that exists in the same region hosted at Evoxt)
ICMP with the IP range 10.0.0.0/8 (This rule allow all inbound ICMP protocol or ping from servers that are located in the private network, all server that exists in the same region hosted at Evoxt)

We strongly recommend deleting the list's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rules if private networking is unnecessary. This ensures that the server is unreachable through Evoxt's private network to protect your server from any potential malicious server in the same network.

Suppose private networking is needed and the exact set of IP addresses that the server is communicating with is known. In that case, we recommend deleting the default rules and re-adding a more specific rule.

For example, two servers are under the same region in the same network. Their IP addresses are 10.0.1.1 and 10.0.1.2, server 1 and server 2 respectively.

On server 1, only allow the second server with the IP address 10.0.1.2/32 through the firewall.
On server 2, only allow the first server with the IP address 10.0.1.1/32 through the firewall.
With this configured, only these 2 servers can communicate, blocking any potential malicious connection attempts from servers in the same network.

Note: Do not forget about the IP address mask. In this case, this will be /32 for a single IP address.

Understanding the options

After enabling the layer 3 firewall, you will be greeted with this easy-to-use firewall panel.

Below states the meaning for each of the fields and buttons:

Protocol
Protocol to allow through the firewall. Most of the protocols that will be used are TCP and UDP.
Ports
Ports to allow through the firewall. If only need to allow a single port is required, leave the second box empty. If this is a range, key in the starting port range in the first box and the ending port range in the second box.
Source
The IP address that sends information to the server or the inbound IP address. Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall only handles inbound traffic; the source will be the incoming IP address.
Notes
Notes or Label for rules. Only alphabets, numbers, and spaces are allowed in this field.
Add
Click on this button to add a firewall rule.
Disable Firewall
Clear all firewall rules and disable the firewall.
Delete
Delete the specific firewall rule.

Common Firewall Rules Settings

Here are some screenshots of the most common firewall rules,

Allow RDP through the firewall. If your server runs on Windows, you will likely need to add this rule to remote control your server. Follow this screenshot to enable RDP through layer 3 firewall.

Allow SSH through the firewall. If your server is running on Linux based OS, you most likely will need to add this rule to remote control your server.

Allow HTTP port through the firewall. If you are running a web server or hosting a website, this is the default non-SSL port. You will most likely need this to set up a web server or website along with an HTTPS port rule.

Allow HTTPS port through the firewall. This is the default SSL port for running an HTTPS web server. You will likely need this to set up an HTTPS web server or website.

Allow connections to the database. This is the database default connection port.

Allow incoming ping requests to your server. Enable this if you want your ping request to reach your server. This is very useful for doing uptime monitoring.

However, this can potentially be dangerous. Hackers can use this protocol to check if your server is online by pinging your server's IP address and attempting to gain unauthorized access to your server. Besides that, by enabling ICMP protocol, your server will also be susceptible to some types of DDoS attacks.

Hence, if you want your server to be pingable, we strongly suggest setting a stricter IP source rule to protect your server.

IPv6 Layer 3 Firewall

IPv6's layer 3 firewall acts the same as IPv4, but it regulates inbound connection for IPv6 protocol. The control for the IPv6 firewall is the same as the IPv4 firewall, but the initial rules that will be added when the firewall is first enabled will be slightly different.

When IPv6 Firewall is enabled, 3 firewall rules are automatically added. This will be:

TCP 32768 – 65535 (Which handles the connection with private port, is a temporary communication hub used for Internet Protocol (IP) communications)
UDP 32768 – 65535 (Which handles the connection with private port, is a temporary communication hub used for Internet Protocol (IP) communications)
ICMPv6 on the IPv6 block of the server's IPv6 address is in. This is needed to ensure IPv6 is functioning properly. IPv6 requires ICMP to function properly. Hence this specific rule is added. We strongly recommend not disabling this rule.

Unlike the IPv4 firewall, there is no private IPv6 network with Evoxt, so no Private network rules are required.

Difference between Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall and Host-based Firewall (Windows/ Linux Firewall)

On a host-based firewall, firewall software or similar programs might need to be installed on the server for the firewall to function. In contrast, Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall does not require any software installed.
Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall operates on the network layer, which means malicious traffic can be blocked before it reaches the server. In contrast, a host-based firewall will start processing the packet when the packet reaches the server, leading to potential security flaws. Besides that, because a layer 3 firewall does not exist in the system, a lot of traffic and processing power can be saved during a DDoS attack when the malicious packets are dropped before reaching the server.
Layer 3 firewall will provide a stronger defense than a host-based firewall because this operates on the network layer, separated from the server, which is not susceptible to tampering or backdoors.
Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall is easy to understand and set up. In Linux operating system, setting up a firewall usually requires some comfort in CLI skills, while Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall only takes a few clicks to get a firewall set up.
Layer 3 firewall is not "intelligent" compared to a host-based firewall because a layer 3 firewall operates on the network layer and will not understand information on the application layer. This means that firewall blocking, such as based on the application type or only allowing established connections, cannot be set. With layer 3 Firewall, a rule can only be set by using a protocol, port, or IP address only.

As you can see, there are upsides and downsides with both firewalls. To fully protect your server, we strongly recommend setting up both firewalls for maximum protection.

Common DDoS attacks that can be mitigated with Evoxt's Layer 3 Firewall

UDP Flood – Only allow the UDP ports in use through the Firewall. If access is not public, consider allowing only a specific IP address through the UDP port that is in use.
ICMP (Ping) Flood – Block ICMP Protocol to block all ping requests. This can be done by enabling the firewall, which defaults to blocking all protocol and ports.
Ping of Death – Block ICMP Protocol to block all ping requests. This can be done by enabling the firewall, which defaults to blocking all protocol and ports.

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How to use Evoxt's VNC

Evoxt — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 10:43:22 +0000

VNC is a remote control program that helps users to control another device over a network. One upside of VNC is that it works across multiple operating systems.

With Evoxt's VNC, the VNC server is located on the host node. This means that it can connect to a VM even when the VM's network connectivity is down or when the VM is stuck in a boot loop or grub, users can still connect through VNC to be able to perform troubleshooting. Also, with Evoxt's VNC, if your client device does not have a proprietary remote desktop protocol such as RDP/SSH client installed, you can still perform a quick remote control through VNC.

If your VM is facing the issues below, with Evoxt's VNC, this usually can be fixed:

The network adapter is disabled accidentally.
VM is stuck in a boot loop or Grub
The primary IP address is accidentally changed with a proxy or a VPN
Enabled firewall but forgot to add in RDP/SSH's firewall rule

Accessing Evoxt's VNC

To access Evoxt's VNC,

Login to your Evoxt account.

On your account's dashboard, click on the VM that you want to remote control.

On the VM control panel page, click on VNC

On the VNC page, click Connect VNC.

You have now established a VNC connection to your server.

Login to a Windows Server

To login to your Windows server, click on the left tab and click on the expand button to input Control + Alt + Del to the login screen.

Click on Show Extra Keys

Then click on Send Ctrl-Alt-Del

On the login screen, type in your password, and you will be logged in.

Login to a Linux based Server

Upon successful connection, your will be prompted to key in your username and password. Once these are keyed in, you will be logged in.

Note: Using a VNC will be slower than the proprietary remote desktop protocol such as RDP/SSH because it requires connecting to another node and then to your VM, and it is not as optimized. If not needed, it is better to connect directly through RDP or SSH to get the best remote control experience.

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Why choose Evoxt?

Evoxt — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 11:34:06 +0000

If you are still hesitating whether to choose Evoxt. This will be the post to convince you to get on Evoxt right now.

Here are 20 reasons why Evoxt is better than our competitions:

Faster CPU

All Evoxt virtual machines come with CPUs that have frequencies that are at least 3.5 GHz and above, and Evoxt will continue raising this standard in the future as hardware gets more advanced.

Most providers hide the fact that they use a low CPU clock speed and charge you based on the number of cores, as that is the more obvious marketing strategy and cost-saving tactic.

In virtual machines, where every core matters, getting a higher clock speed is more beneficial.

Evoxt offers CPU cores with a higher clock speed, but we match the prices of providers that offer a lower clock speed. This is the more costly road ahead for Evoxt, but we believe in the long term and believe that is the best way to win our customer's hearts.

You will get the best bang out for your bucks with Evoxt.

Read more : https://evoxt.com/cpu-clock-speed-vs-number-of-cpu-cores/

Data Safety

Your data is safe with Evoxt.

All Evoxt's servers include free weekly backup. We believe backups are necessary hence we do not charge for weekly backups.

Evoxt's backup management panel is also very intuitive and easy to use. You can easily view your current backups and restore them during an emergency.

Learn more : https://evoxt.com/weekly-offsite-backup/

One-click Applications

Want to try out several apps but are too lazy to manually install or don't know how to?

Evoxt offers One-click applications that you can deploy with a single click.

Best of all, it is free!

Here is a list of applications you can deploy with our One-click installation : https://evoxt.com/applications/

Firewalls

Evoxt offers layer 3 firewalls that you can easily manage in your virtual machine control panel.

This is not a mere firewall that other provider offers. With a layer 3 firewall, you can block packets before it even reaches your server.

This can save you a lot of resources, especially when you are under a heavy DDoS attack.

To read more about Evoxt's firewall features, click here : https://evoxt.com/firewall/

Quick deployments

In need of a server on short notice?

It usually takes less than 2.5 minutes for Evoxt to get a server deployed.

The server will be up and running before you can even finish your coffee.

Isolated

All our servers will be virtualized using KVM technology to ensure that the resources and data will be isolated for maximum security. There is no way another server can access and tamper with your server unless you authorize the access.

Click here to learn more about KVM : https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/virtualization/what-is-KVM

Enterprise grade hardware

Our servers come with enterprise-grade SSD that has high performance and reliability.

Want your website to load faster? Your database query is starting to take time?

Try hosting your website in Evoxt and feel the difference.

Clean IP ranges

We take extra measures to ensure that all our IPs will be clean.

By default, port 25 is blocked, so spammers usually stay out from Evoxt.

Our abuse team are also actively monitoring all reports that we receive and actively taking actions against bad users in this space that ruins our reputation with Evoxt's IP address.

With all the measures in place, you can be assured to receive a clean IP that is not blocked and reachable to and from most networks when you deploy a server with Evoxt.

Future ready

Deploying your infrastructure with Evoxt means you are going future proof.

Evoxt is a rapidly growing and expanding company. We are actively implementing and developing new technologies.

With Evoxt, you will never stay behind on technologies. Things will get easier and easier for you as more technology is implemented.

We Listen from you

Believe it or not, we highly value your feedback.

We are always collecting your feedback from multiple places on our platform.

We are actively trying to accommodate your feedback and complaints to make Evoxt your perfect hosting partner.

Please do not hesitate to let us know when you are unhappy with our services. We will definitely change your 7 letter word "Unhappy" into 5 letter word "Happy"!

All issues with Evoxt will get solved and there will be no unhappy customers with Evoxt.

If you have any feedback/ complaints, please send an email to feedback@evoxt.com

Uptime

We understand the criticality of your requirements because we are in the same position.

Downtime with Evoxt is not tolerated and we will do our best to ensure your server gets 100% uptime at all times.

We are very transparent with our server's uptime, which can be viewed on https://status.evoxt.com

Evoxt always attempts to achieve 100% uptime with our servers.

Privacy

We value your privacy and we do not collect more than we require.

Evoxt is a privacy-focused company because we believe every human needs privacy and should value privacy.

To create an account on Evoxt. We only require a name, your email and your password. We do not collect your address and credit card info to sign you up on Evoxt.

Evoxt is very Cryptocurrency friendly, and we do not require any pieces of information from you when you pay with Cryptocurrency on Evoxt.

Evoxt also promises not to hand out any of your information unless the law requires us to.

Choose Evoxt to protect your privacy without losing any convenience.

VNC

VNC access is implemented on all Evoxt servers. This will allow you to communicate with your servers through our host machines even if you bring your server's network down or when you disable SSH / RDP access on your servers.

You can still control your server just like how you control your PC when you are physically there.

Customer support

How can we not mention this. Our customer support is top-notch, and we always receive compliments from our customers.

Evoxt offers regular email and ticket support just like other providers.

However, what sets us apart is that we understand ticketing and emailing can be troublesome. Hence we have a Discord contact and Telegram contact that customers can seek help there, quick and easily. As we believe that most of our customers are already using Discord and Telegram.

Customer satisfaction

We care a lot about customer satisfaction. We even have a money-back guarantee with our services. If the services you receive are not to your liking, file a refund request within 7 days, and we will get that processed for you.

Pricing

Evoxt's pricing is transparent, you pay what you get on Evoxt, no extras.

Take a look at our pricing page. https://evoxt.com/pricing/

There will be no hidden fees, no network fees, no CPU burst fees, no IO burst fees /etc.

Scalability

We understand that even the biggest corporations out there were once small companies.

If your project currently does not require high performance, you can start with the smallest plan and scale up when needed in a few clicks. This can be done without requiring recreation of servers and transfer of data.

IP address management

With Evoxt, you are not limited to just a single IP address on your server.

We allow up to 5 extra IP addresses on each server and we also provide an easy to use and intuitive interface to manage your IP addresses.

API

Evoxt also offers powerful and comprehensive APIs to manage your servers.

With our APIs, you can even automate your actions on Evoxt without even needing to login into Evoxt.

Our API is so comprehensive that we have multiple resellers that set up a reseller website with our API.

Take a look at our API documentation here: https://api.evoxt.com

We are passionate!

Hosting with a passionate host with a strong interest is very crucial. You wouldn't want to host or store your data with someone who is just in it for the money.

You will never know when they want to sell or liquidate their company just for the money due to the lack of interest.

When the company is sold, who knows what will be done to the company that got acquired.

Will your data be sold? How about the service? What if the company is disassembled? This will never happen with Evoxt.

We will end this here. There are so much more reasons to choose Evoxt that are not listed here. Step into Evoxt and discover them yourself. We guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

Deploy a server with Evoxt now!

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How to make automatic payments on Evoxt

Evoxt — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 18:20:48 +0000

Evoxt uses account credits to perform automatic payments.
To enable automatic payments, head to Evoxt dashboard and switch on automatic renewal

When Automatic renewal is turned on, Evoxt's billing system will automatically charge your Evoxt account credits when your services are near the due date.

Please take note that for this to function, you will need to have enough Evoxt account credits to renew your services automatically.

Top Up Account Credits
To top up your Evoxt account credits, go to Top Up to top up your Evoxt account credits.

Automatic Top Up
Evoxt currently supports 2 automatic top-up payment methods, both have a slightly different top-up mechanism.

If credit card automatic top-up is enabled, our system will attempt to charge your credit card when the balance is lower than the set threshold.

While for PayPal automatic top-up, the system will automatically charge your Paypal account depending on the amount and the billing frequency you choose.

Credit Card Automatic Top-up

To enable credit card automatic top-up, link your credit card on the manage credit cards page.

Click edit to change the automatic top-up amount and card to charge.

Once done, click save, and don't forget to turn on Automatic top-up.

PayPal Automatic Top-up

To enable PayPal automatic top-up, proceed to Evoxt's Top Up page.

Click edit to link your PayPal account and create a subscription.

Choose a top-up amount from $5 to $500 and choose a top-up frequency from a month to a year, then click the Subscribe button to create a PayPal subscription.

You will be redirected to PayPal.com with an agreement. Accept the agreement to proceed with the PayPal subscription. The subscription will start charging on the first day of the next month.

With this setup, your services will automatically renew without even needing you to log in to your Evoxt account.

Spend less time on billing; Spend your time on the right thing!

Contact us if you require any further assistance

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