Launch a VM from the console

This is the click-through version of the Quickstart. If you prefer pasting commands, the Quickstart’s CLI and Terraform tabs do the same five steps faster — come back here if you want the visual reference, or if you’re showing Atlas to someone over screenshare.

The end state is the same: a public-IP-reachable Ubuntu VM serving an nginx welcome page.

1. Log in

Sign in at https://sky.runatlas.is with your username, password, and Domain path (e.g. /demo).

You land on the dashboard. The left sidebar groups everything by section — Compute, Storage, Network, Images.

2. (Optional) Create a Guest Network

If your account already has a Guest Network, skip to step 3. Otherwise:

1. Network → Guest networks.
2. Click + Add network in the top-right.
3. Name it default, pick the default network offering, zone is1.

3. Upload your SSH public key

So you can SSH into the VM.

1. Compute → SSH Key Pairs.
2. Click Create a SSH Key Pair.
3. Paste your ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub. Name it mykey.

4. Launch the VM

1. Click the green Create button (top right), then Instance.

2. The New Instance form is a four-step wizard. The right rail shows a live preview (“Your Instance”) of what you’re about to launch.

   Step 1 — Account. Pre-filled with your domain and account. Leave it.

   Step 2 — Zone. Pick is1 (the only one).

   

   Step 3 — Image. Type Template, OS Ubuntu, pick Ubuntu 24.04 LTS from the list.

   

   Step 4 — Compute Offering. Pick Atlas.a4 for a 1 vCPU / 4 GiB box (the smallest). For real workloads, Atlas.a5 (2 / 8) or Atlas.a6 (4 / 16).

   

   Below Compute Offering you’ll see Network, SSH key pair, and an optional Name field.

3. Set Name to hello-atlas.

4. Click Launch Instance (bottom right of the live-preview panel).

The VM appears in the Instances list within ~30 seconds.

5. Give it a public IP and forward port 80

1. Network → Public IP addresses → + Acquire new IP.

   

2. Click the new IP. In the Firewall tab, allow TCP 80 from 0.0.0.0/0.

3. In the Port Forwarding tab, add a rule: public 80 → VM hello-atlas port 80.

6. SSH in and start nginx

SSH using the public IP and the SSH key you uploaded:

ssh ubuntu@<public-ip>
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y nginx
exit

From your laptop:

curl http://<public-ip>

You should see the nginx welcome HTML.

Done

You launched a VM, attached SSH access, gave it a public IP, opened a port, and reached it from the public internet. Same flow you’d use for any longer-lived workload.

Next steps:

• Snapshot the VM so you can roll back.
• Replace the flat Guest Network with a VPC for multi-tier architectures.
• Try the Quickstart again in cmk or Terraform — same five steps in a few seconds instead of a few clicks.

Common failures

• VM stuck in Starting → Troubleshooting: VM stuck pending
• SSH times out → Troubleshooting: Can’t SSH to VM
• Curl can’t reach the IP → check the firewall rule allows TCP 80 and the port-forward maps the public IP to your VM.