I am back with the TonicsCloud update, I decided to take several months off the project as I got a job on contract. I am free now and I have resumed work on TonicsCloud.
I want to use this update to explain what TonicsCloud actually is.
What is TonicsCloud?
TonicsCloud is a project designed to simplify server management by providing users with their own VPS through VPS APIs and leveraging the flexibility of System container such as Incus.
Unlike traditional setups, TonicsCloud eliminates the need for SSH access by leveraging the power of Incus system container.
Think of Incus like a set of super safe boxes inside the server.
Each box can hold different programs like websites or databases. With Incus, users can control what's inside their box without needing to use SSH.
On a more technical term, you can have multiple containers in your VPS in an isolated way, a compromise on a container wouldn't affect other containers.
Things You Can Do in a Container
Here are an example of things you can do:
- Website Hosting
- Mail Server
- Database Server
- Application Hosting
- Development Environment
- Proxy Server
- and whatever you can do on a typical linux distro
There is no limit to what you can have in your containers.
How Does TonicsCloud Works?
There are two sides to TonicsCloud, the Admin Panel and the Customer Panel, let's unpack the both...
TonicsCloud Admin Panel
The Admin Panel is where you configure TonicsCloud, for example, the VPS API Key, the Deployment options, etc:
The below is the TonicsCloud settings page:
As you can see in the image above, you have several options you can configure, depending on the VPS you are using, you might have some VPS specific feature, as at April 13, 2024, Linode (Akamai) is the only supported VPS, more to come when I see momentum.
Each container has its own image which contains a basic operating system (for example, a Linux distribution) and some Incus-related information.
So, for example, a container can have a full lemp stack, or just an email server, or just only PHP and whatever a typical linux distro can have, the below is an example of image listing:
and here is an example of what the Lemp image contains:
You can have several version of images, and multiple image link mirrors, TonicsCloud would pick at random. The image would show whenever user want to deploy the container.
The image apps is vital, they are separated by comma and as long as TonicsCloud supports them, it would show as an option for user when a container is deployed, offcourse, it can be extended to support more apps.
If you have knowledge of PHP, you can easily extend it, documentation is coming for developers that would be interested to explore this area.
TonicsCloud Customer Panel
The customer panel is where customer would deploy instance and add containers to the instance.
Additionally, there is also a billing page where customers can pay.
Here is the workflow of the customer panel:
In the next update, I would be showing you some features that makes TonicsCloud interesting to use, see ya 😉