Getting Started with vCanopy

When you log in to your account for the first time you will see our onboarding videos popup that will give you a walkthrough on setting up your first servers. This can also be found here inside your settings:

https://my.gridpane.com/settings#/onboarding

We also have a thorough step by step walkthrough for getting started with our native API integrated providers (UpCloud, Vultr, DigitalOcean, Linode, and AWS Lightsail):

Provisioning Servers

If you would like to spin up a server from another provider, this is a straightforward process at any quality VPS provider. The above KB section details some of our more popular requests such as Google, AWS EC2, Hetzner, and OVH.

Creating your first website is super simple and allows for a lots of customizations as you go. This article will walk you through the process step by step:

Easily Deploy a vCanopy WordPress Site

And these articles will help you get started customizing your settings for even quicker deployments:

New WordPress Website Build Configuration Settings

Using Default WordPress Admin Settings to deploy vCanopy sites

New Website Checklists

Our KB article here will walk you through how to migrate a website over with zero downtime – we highly recommend giving this one a read and it will link to all of our main articles that focus on migration:

How to Migrate to vCanopy with Zero Downtime

You can access your websites directly without needing DNS records using a local redirect to access the page. This is a super handy tool for developing and migrating your websites and is probably the easiest way to go about things for your first migration. The KB article below will walk you through how to set this up:

How can I edit my local hosts file to redirect URLs

Many clients and our own team members will the local host file open inside a text editor window so they can just jump right into it whenever needed.

One potential pitfall to be aware of here with this method is that if HTTPS is being forced within the website, it will need an SSL certificate after you’ve migrated it in, but if that’s not the case you should be able to access it without any issues.

Migrations are usually smooth sailing, but should you find any issues (or want to see what some common issues are), we have these thoroughly documented here and most are quick and easy to fix up/avoid:

Diagnosing Migration Issues

If you’re new to managing your own DNS, don’t worry, this is really simple once you get the basics down, and it’s also an important part of taking control over your own hosting. These two articles will walk you through the basics:

Setting DNS Records

DNS Management and CNAMEs

We also have a direct integration with Cloudflare and DNS Made Easy that are well worth your consideration and Cloudflare is an absolutely free and fantastic service:

Using Cloudflare with vCanopy

Using DNS Made Easy (DNSME) with vCanopy

SSL certificates are just 1 click away! Depending on whether you are using our DNS API integrations with either DNS Made Easy or Cloudflare, you may need DNS records to be in place.

This KB section details everything related to getting started with SSL certificates:

Provisioning SSL Certificates

Let’s Encrypt needs to verify that your domain is a real website. If you are not using an DNS API method they require that your DNS records are live, and this article is for you:

Provisioning an SSL for a domain using Webroot Domain Verification

If you are using our DNSME or Cloudflare integration, this article is for you:

Provisioning an SSL for a domain using DNS API Domain verification

Staging websites are super easy to use with vCanopy – you can toggle them on and off as needed, and pushing from staging to live, or vice versa is just a few clicks in almost all cases. Learn all about staging websites and how they work with vCanopy here:

Using staging sites on vCanopy

To ensure that our support team can help you as fast and efficiently as possible, please take the time to check out this article on how to open a ticket and what to information to include:
How to Create a Support Ticket