Frequently Asked Questions for Google Cloud Platform

How to connect to the server through SSH?

You can either connect through a browser or with an SSH client.

Connecting through a browser

If you are using the Bitnami Launchpad, follow these steps:

Browse to the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform and sign in if required using your Bitnami account.
Select the "Virtual Machines" menu item.
Select your cloud server from the resulting list.
Click the "Launch SSH Console" button. This will automatically transfer the necessary keys and connect you to your machine console in a new browser window.

NOTE: This is only supported in certain browsers, for more information, look at the Google documentation.

You can also connect to your server using the Google Cloud Platform console. Follow these steps:

Browse to the Google Cloud Platform console and sign in if required using your Google account.
Find and select your project in the project list.
Click the "Hamburger" button on the left side of the top navigation bar:
Select the "Compute -> Compute Engine" menu item.
Locate your server instance and select the SSH button.

This will automatically transfer the necessary keys and connect you to your machine console in a new browser window.

Connecting with an SSH client

The first step is to ensure that you have the SSH key for your server.

The Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform automatically injects an auto-generated public SSH key for the bitnami user and allows the user to download the private SSH key.
The Google Cloud Launcher requires the user to manually add a public SSH key using the server administration page. It then uses the user@hostname comment at the end of the public SSH key to decide which user account on the server should be associated with the key.

Using the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform

If you are using the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform, follow these steps:

Browse to the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform and sign in if required using your Bitnami account.
Select the "Virtual Machines" menu item.
Select your cloud server from the resulting list.
Download the SSH key for your server in .ppk format. Note the server IP address on the same page.

Using the Google Cloud Launcher

If you are using the Google Cloud Launcher, follow these steps:

Prepare an SSH key pair for use.
Log in to the Google Cloud Console and select your project.
Navigate to the "Compute Engine -> VM Instances" page and select the server you wish to connect to.
Click the "Edit" link in the top control bar.
On the resulting page, copy and paste your public SSH key into the "SSH Keys" field.
Update the user@hostname comment at the end of the SSH key content to bitnami. This will associate the SSH key with the bitnami user account that is already present on the server. The "Username" next to the form field will update accordingly.
Add more keys as needed by clicking the "Add Item" button. Once done, save the changes by clicking the "Save" button.

You should now be able to connect to your server via SSH. Depending on your platform, follow the instructions below:

Windows

The easiest way to log in to your server is with PuTTY, a free SSH client for Windows and UNIX platforms.

Download the PuTTY ZIP archive from its website.
Extract the contents to a folder on your desktop.
Double-click the putty.exe file to bring up the PuTTY configuration window.
Enter the host name or public IP address of your server into the "Host Name (or IP address)" field, as well as into the "Saved Sessions" field.
Click "Save" to save the new session so you can reuse it later.
In the "Connection -> SSH -> Auth" section, select the private key file (.ppk) for the server.
In the "Connection -> Data" section, enter the username bitnami into the "Auto-login username" field.
Go back to the "Session" section and save your changes by clicking the "Save" button.
Click the "Open" button to open an SSH session to the server.
PuTTY will first ask you to confirm the server's host key and add it to the cache. Go ahead and click "Yes" to this request (learn more).

You should now be logged in to your server.

Linux and Mac OS X

Linux and Mac OS X come bundled with SSH clients by default.

Set the permissions for your private key file to 0600 using a command like the one below:
```
 $ chmod 600 KEYFILE
```
Open a new terminal.
Connect to the server using the following command:
```
  $ ssh -i KEYFILE [email protected]
```
Remember to replace KEYFILE in the previous commands with the path to your private key file (.pem), and 100.101.102.103 with the public IP address or hostname of your server.
Your SSH client might ask you to confirm the server's host key and add it to the cache before connecting. Accept this request by typing or selecting "Yes" (learn more).

You should now be logged in to your server.

What is the directory structure?

The installation process will create several sub-directories under the /opt/bitnami directory:

Servers and related tools: apache2/, mysql/, postgresql/, apache-tomcat/, etc.
Languages: php/, python/, ruby/, tcl/, etc.
Application files: apps/phpMyAdmin/, apps/drupal/, apps/joomla/, apps/redmine/, etc.
Common libraries: common/
Licenses of the components included in the stack: licenses/

Application files are stored in the /opt/bitnami/apps/APPNAME/htdocs directory. The configuration file for the Apache Web server is stored in the /opt/bitnami/apps/APPNAME/conf/ directory.

What is a Bitnami image?

A Bitnami image includes everything you need to run your Bitnami-packaged application of choice. The installation and configuration of all of the software included in the stack is completely automated, making it easy for everyone, including those who are not very technical, to get them up and running.

All Bitnami images are completely self-contained and run independently of the rest of the software or libraries installed on your system. This means that you don't have to worry about installing any other software on your system to make the new application work. They also won't interfere with any software already installed on the system, so everything will continue to work normally.

How to start or stop the servers?

Each Bitnami stack includes a control script that lets you easily stop, start and restart servers. The script is located at /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh. Call it without any service name arguments to start all services:

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh start

Or use it to restart a single service, such as Apache only, by passing the service name as argument:

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart apache

Use this script to stop all services:

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh stop

Restart the services by running the script without any arguments:

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart

Obtain a list of available services and operations by running the script without any arguments:

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh

How to find application credentials?

Servers deployed using the Google Cloud Launcher

Your default credentials become available once you create a cloud server. To find them, follow these steps:

Browse to the Google Cloud Platform console and sign in if required using your Google account.
Click the "Hamburger" Button on the left side of the top navigation bar:
Select the "Deployment manager" menu item.
Select your cloud server from the resulting list.
In the right panel, the username and password are specified in the "Admin User" and "Admin Password (Temporary)" fields respectively.
To access your database, the database password is the value next to "Admin Password (Temporary)" as well.

NOTE: You should change the passwords after your first login.

Servers deployed using the Bitnami Launchpad

Your default credentials become available once you create a cloud server. To find them, follow these steps:

Browse to the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform and sign in if required using your Bitnami account.
Select the "Virtual Machines" menu item.
Select your cloud server from the resulting list.
The "Application Info" section in the left panel contains the credentials for your instance. The password is hidden by default but will be displayed in plain text when the "Show" button, adjacent to the password input, is clicked.

How to block a suspicious IP address?

If you have detected an IP address that is collapsing your server or just making suspicious requests, block it using iptables. To do this, run the following command:

$ sudo su
$ iptables -A INPUT -s 1.2.3.4 -j DROP

Remember to replace 1.2.3.4 with the IP address you want to block.

IMPORTANT: Use with caution. If you don't specify an IP address, you will block yourself.

This will block all requests from that IP address. To have your iptables rules active even after rebooting the server, follow these steps:

Execute these commands:

 $ sudo su
 $ iptables-save > /opt/bitnami/iptables-rules
 $ crontab -e

Edit the above file with your favourite editor and include this line at the end of the file:
```
 @reboot /sbin/iptables-restore < /opt/bitnami/iptables-rules
```
Save the file and exit.

Now, on every boot, the system will load and apply the iptables rules.

To delete a rule, run the following command:

$ sudo su
$ iptables -D INPUT -s 1.2.3.4 -j DROP

This will delete the rule. Remember to replace 1.2.3.4 with a valid IP address.

Rerun the iptables-save command shown previously to make the new rules active even after rebooting the server.

How to open the server ports for remote access?

By default, Google cloud servers have some or all of their ports closed to secure them against external attacks. In some cases, ports needed for specific applications to operate properly are also left open by default.

If you need to access your server remotely, you must first open the necessary port(s) using the Google Console.

NOTE: For servers launched through the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform, select the cloud server you wish to modify in the Bitnami Launchpad and click the "Manage in the Google Console" button to access the Google management console.

Follow the steps below:

Log in to the Google Cloud Console using the Google Account associated with your project.
Select the "Compute -> Networking" menu and then select the network used by your cloud server (usually "default").
Select the "Firewall rules" sub-menu.
On the resulting page, create a new firewall rule for your network by clicking the "Create firewall rule" button.
Enter details for the new firewall rule using the guidelines below:
- Name: Use a human-readable name that makes it easy to identify the rule
- Description: Enter a description for the firewall rule (optional)
- Source filter: Select the "IP ranges" option
- Source IP ranges: Use 0.0.0.0/0 to allow access from anywhere, or specify an IP address range
- Allowed protocols or ports: Enter the port numbers prefixed by either tcp: or udp:. Use commas to separate multiple port numbers and semi-colons between protocol blocks. For example: tcp:80, 443; udp:8001
The image below sets up a firewall rule for Apache Cassandra on TCP ports 9042 and 7000 as an example.
Click "Create" to save the firewall rule. The new firewall rule will come into effect immediately.

How to close the server ports and deny remote access?

To close a server port and deny remote access on that port, follow these steps:

Log in to the Google Cloud Console using the Google Account associated with your project.
In the left side menu, navigate to the "Networking" section and then select the network used by your cloud server (usually "default").
Select the "Firewall rules" sub-menu.
Find the firewall rule(s) for the port(s) you wish to close. Select each rule and click the "Delete" button at the top of the page. The change will come into effect immediately.

How to upload files to the server with SFTP?

NOTE: Bitnami applications can be found in /opt/bitnami/apps.

If you are using the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform, obtain your server SSH key by following these steps:
- Browse to the Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform dashboard and sign in if required using your Bitnami account.
- Select the "Virtual Machines" menu item.
- Select your cloud server from the resulting list.
- Download the SSH key for your server in PPK or PEM format. Note the server IP address on the same page.

If you are using the Google Cloud Launcher, you will need to generate and add your SSH key manually using these instructions.
Generate SSH key pair by executing the following commands:

NOTE: Replace USERNAME in the commands below with your Google Cloud platform username.

	$ sudo su USERNAME
	$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/my-ssh-key -C USERNAME

Enter the passphrase twice. The SSH key pair will be generated and saved in /home/USERNAME/.ssh/my-ssh-key and /home/USERNAME/.ssh/my-ssh-key.pub.

Although you can use any SFTP/SCP client to transfer files to your server, this guide documents FileZilla (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), WinSCP (Windows) and Cyberduck (Mac OS X).

Using an SSH Key

Once you have your server's SSH key, choose your preferred application and follow the steps below to connect to the server using SFTP.

FileZilla

IMPORTANT: To use FileZilla, your server private key should be in PPK format.

Follow these steps:

Download and install FileZilla.
Launch FileZilla and use the "Edit -> Settings" command to bring up FileZilla's configuration settings.
Within the "Connection -> SFTP" section, use the "Add keyfile" command to select the private key file for the server. FileZilla will use this private key to log in to the server.
Use the "File -> Site Manager -> New Site" command to bring up the FileZilla Site Manager, where you can set up a connection to your server.
Enter your server host name and specify bitnami as the user name.
Select "SFTP" as the protocol and "Ask for password" as the logon type.
Use the "Connect" button to connect to the server and begin an SFTP session. You might need to accept the server key, by clicking "Yes" or "OK" to proceed.

You should now be logged into the /home/bitnami directory on the server. You can now transfer files by dragging and dropping them from the local server window to the remote server window.

If you have problems accessing your server, get extra information by use the "Edit -> Settings -> Debug" menu to activate FileZilla's debug log.

WinSCP

IMPORTANT: To use WinSCP, your server private key should be in PPK format.

Follow these steps:

Download and install WinSCP.
Launch WinSCP and in the "Session" panel, select "SFTP" as the file protocol.
Enter your server host name and specify bitnami as the user name.
Click the "Advanced…" button and within the "SSH -> Authentication -> Authentication parameters" section, select the private key file for the server. WinSCP will use this private key to log in to the server.
From the "Session" panel, use the "Login" button to connect to the server and begin an SCP session.

You should now be logged into the /home/bitnami directory on the server. You can now transfer files by dragging and dropping them from the local server window to the remote server window.

If you need to upload files to a location where the bitnami user doesn't have write permissions, you have two options:

Once you have configured WinSCP as described above, click the "Advanced…" button and within the "Environment -> Shell" panel, select sudo su - as your shell. This will allow you to upload files using the administrator account.
Upload the files to the /home/bitnami directory as usual. Then, connect via SSH and move the files to the desired location with the sudo command, as shown below:
```
   $ sudo mv /home/bitnami/uploaded-file /path/to/desired/location/
```

Cyberduck

IMPORTANT: To use Cyberduck, your server private key should be in PEM format.

Follow these steps:

Select the "Open Connection" command and specify "SFTP" as the connection protocol.
In the connection details panel, under the "More Options" section, enable the "Use Public Key Authentication" option and specify the path to the private key file for the server.
Use the "Connect" button to connect to the server and begin an SFTP session.

You should now be logged into the /home/bitnami directory on the server. You can now transfer files by dragging and dropping them from the local server window to the remote server window.

How to configure a static IP address?

To configure a static IP address:

Log in to the Google Cloud Console using the Google Account associated with your project.
Select your project from the list of available projects.
Click the "Hamburger" button on the left side of the top navigation bar:
Select the "Compute -> Compute Engine -> VM Instances" menu item.
The resulting page displays a list of VM instances. Select the instance which you wish to configure.
In the "External IP" section, select "New static IP address"
Save your changes.

How to change the server type?

The Bitnami Launchpad for Google Cloud Platform only supports server re-sizing during the server build. Since the server is accessible via the Google Compute Engine console, you can get a resized version of the server from there afterwards if needed.

The procedure consists of creating a new server using the same disk as the server to be resized, and then deleting the old one following the steps below.

Log in to the Google Cloud Console using the Google Account associated with your project.
Select your project from the list of available projects.
Click the "Hamburger" button on the left side of the top navigation bar:
Select the "Compute -> Compute Engine -> VM Instances" menu item.
Select the instance you wish to resize.
Stop the instance by clicking the "Stop" button.
Once stopped, click the "Edit" button.
Change the instance type and click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.
Click the "Start" button and wait for the instance to start again.

The server should restart using the new type.

How to configure a custom domain?

To use a custom domain with a server started through the Bitnami Launchpad, follow these steps:

Configure a static IP address for your cloud server

Follow these instructions.

Configure the domain in your DNS provider

The next step is to update your domain's DNS settings, specifically by adding an A record that points to the static IP address of your cloud server.

This change can only be accomplished through your domain name provider; it cannot be made through the Bitnami Launchpad. You will therefore need to log in to your domain name provider's management console and make the necessary changes. Step-by-step instructions for some popular providers are listed below:

Remember that once you make the necessary changes, it can take up to 48 hours for the change to propagate across other DNS servers. You can verify the new DNS record by using the Global DNS Propagation Checker and entering your domain name into the search field.

At the end of this step, entering your custom domain name into the browser address bar should take you to your Bitnami application on the cloud server, as shown below:

Update application configuration

For some applications, such as Prestashop, it is also necessary to perform additional configuration so that the application "knows" its domain and the domain name is correctly reflected in application URLs. This is easily accomplished with the command-line Bitnami Configuration tool, bnconfig, which will update the application configuration and database to use the new domain wherever needed.

To use this tool, follow these steps:

Log in to your server console (instructions).
Change to your application directory, usually located under /opt/bitnami/apps/APP-NAME.

Execute the following command:

 $ sudo ./bnconfig --machine_hostname DOMAIN-NAME

For example, to configure Prestashop to use the domain my-shop.com, use the commands below:

$ cd /opt/bitnami/apps/prestashop
$ sudo ./bnconfig --machine_hostname my-shop.com

Or, to configure your WordPress Multisite blog to use the primary domain my-blog.com, use the commands below:

$ cd /opt/bitnami/apps/wordpress
$ sudo ./bnconfig --machine_hostname my-blog.com

How to backup a server?

IMPORTANT: We strongly recommend creating a backup of your server prior to any major changes or upgrades.

To create a backup, you will use Google Cloud Platform's snapshot feature. This feature creates a new snapshot of the disk, which can later be used to restore the server to an earlier state. Follow the steps below:

Log in to the Google Cloud Console using the Google Account associated with your project.
Select your project from the list of available projects.
Click the "Hamburger" button on the left side of the top navigation bar:
Navigate to the "Compute -> Compute Engine -> Snapshots" sub-menu.
Select the "Create snapshot" button.
Create a new snapshot of your instance disk by entering a name and description and then pressing the "Create" button

Your new snapshot will be created and will appear in the list of snapshots.

How to restore a backup of a server?

You can restore a server by initializing a new server from the corresponding snapshot. Follow these steps:

Log in to the Google Cloud Console using the Google Account associated with your project.
Select your project from the list of available projects.
Click the "Hamburger" button on the left side of the top navigation bar:
Navigate to the "Compute -> Compute Engine -> VM Instances" sub-menu.
Click the "Create instance" button.
Configure the new instance by entering a name, selecting the instance type and allowing HTTP and HTTPS connections.
In the "Boot disk" tab, click the "Change…" button.
In the resulting dialog, select the "Snapshots" tab and select the snapshot you wish to restore. Click the "Select" button once done.
Click the "Create" button to create a new server instance from the snapshot.

Your new server will now be created from the snapshot.

What is the Bitnami Vault?

The Bitnami Vault is a secure password storage area associated with your Bitnami account. It stores all your Launchpad passwords (needed to deploy or manage servers from the various Bitnami Launchpads).

To use it, log in to your Bitnami account once. Once logged in, you can gain access to one or more Launchpads simply by providing the corresponding Bitnami Vault password as needed.

How to configure your application to use a third-party SMTP service for outgoing email?

Google Cloud Platform doesn't allow SMTP traffic through default ports: 25, 465, 587. Check Google cloud documentation to learn how to use a VPN to bypass these restrictions or use a different port for sending emails from your application.

Bitnami applications can be configured to use a third-party SMTP service for outgoing email. Examples of such third-party SMTP services are SendGrid and Mandrill. Instructions for using both these are provided below.

SendGrid

SendGrid's SMTP service can be accessed using your SendGrid account credentials. These credentials can be obtained by logging in to the SendGrid website and visiting the "Account Details" page.

To configure your application to send email through SendGrid's SMTP service, use the settings below. Replace USERNAME with your SendGrid account username and PASSWORD with your SendGrid account password.

SMTP host: smtp.sendgrid.net
SMTP port: 2525
SMTP username: USERNAME
SMTP password: PASSWORD

Here's an example of configuring WordPress to use SendGrid:

More information is available in the SendGrid documentation.

Mandrill

Mandrill's SMTP service requires an API key for access. To obtain this key, log in to the Mandrill website, navigate to the "SMTP & API" section and create an API key. Note the SMTP server name, username and API key, as these serve as your credentials for accessing the Mandrill SMTP server.

To configure your application to send email through Mandrill's SMTP service, use the settings below. Replace USERNAME with your SMTP username and API-KEY with the generated API key.

SMTP host: smtp.mandrillapp.com
SMTP port: 2525
SMTP username: USERNAME
SMTP password: API-KEY

Here's an example of configuring WordPress to use Mandrill:

More information is available in the Mandrill documentation.

Similar steps can be followed for other third-party SMTP services as well. Consult your service provider's documentation to obtain details on authentication credentials and available ports.

Does Bitnami collect any data from deployed Bitnami stacks?

Yes. Bitnami cloud images and virtual machines include a small agent that starts on boot and collects a few pieces of information about the system. For users of Bitnami Virtual Machine Images, Cloud Templates, and Container Images we may also collect information from downloaded, pulled or deployed images or instances, such as the instance type, IP address and operating system version or the Bitnami account used to launch the image in order to improve our product offerings.

We encourage you to leave this tracking on, but if you would like to turn it off, you can comment out or delete the following line in the /etc/crontab file:

X * * * * bitnami cd /opt/bitnami/stats && ./agent.bin --run -D

(where X is a random number for each instance generated at the boot time)

Our complete privacy policy is available online. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at hello@bitnami.com.

What does the SSH warning 'REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED' mean?

This warning is normal when trying to connect to the same IP address but a different machine - for instance, when you assign the same static IP address to another server. You can fix the problem by removing the IP address that you are trying to connect to from your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file.

If you use PuTTY, the SSH key mismatch warning looks like the image below:

In this case, click "Yes" if you know the reason for the key mismatch (IP address reassigned to another server, machine replaced, and so on).