With the introduction of the Ordering API for VPS, we enable you to order VPS via the API. You can leverage this API to streamline and automate your ordering process, enhancing efficiency and reducing manual effort.

What is included in this release?

• The API supports ordering all available VPS products
• Only verified existing customers who do not need to do prepayment while placing an order via website can place orders via API. To get excluded from prepayment, please reach out to Leaseweb Sales. If you are a new customer, KYC needs to be done before an order via the API can be available.
• Orders are restricted to the sales organisation the API key belongs to
  • For example, with an API key belonging to the US entity, customers can see and order the VPS products available in our US Data Centers
• Available locations
  • Amsterdam (AMS-01)
  • Frankfurt am Main (FRA-01)
  • London (LON-01)
  • Montreal (MTL-02)
  • San Francisco (SFO-12)
  • Singapore (SIN-01)
  • Sydney (SYD-12)
  • Tokyo (TYO-11)
  • Washington DC (WDC-02)

First steps

1. Generate an API key
   • Go to https://secure.leaseweb.com > Administration > API Keys
   • For detailed instructions, refer to API Key Management
2. For all endpoints, you need to set the following header: X-LSW-Auth: {API_KEY}

Endpoints

There are 3 API endpoints available.

1. List all available VPS
2. Get more information on a particular VPS
3. Place the order

1. List endpoint

/products/vps

With this GET endpoint, you can get all the available VPS products for the provided location. The response of this endpoint shows the base price of a VPS. Applicable discounted prices can be queried using the second endpoint.

2. Get a single VPS and its price

/products/vps/{vpsid}

This GET endpoint provides more details about a particular VPS, such as its price, discounts, and all configuration options.

Please note that not all control panels are compatible with the different operating systems. Refer to the link below for compatibility details.

By default, if no operating system is specified in the GET request, Ubuntu 24.04 is chosen as the default, and the response returns the control panels compatible with that operating system. To see the list of compatible control panels with a different operating system, please specify the respective operating system in the request.

Below is an example request to query the details of VPS 3 in AMS-01 location with Ubuntu 22.04 operating system. The response to this request will include the list of compatible control panels with Ubuntu 22.04.

/v1/products/vps/VPS02_3?&location=AMS-01&operatingSystem=Ubuntu 22.04

3. Order a VPS

/products/vps/{vpsid}/order 

A chosen VPS can be ordered with this POST endpoint. To order multiple VPSes, you should send multiple requests.

While placing an order, several extras can be chosen.

• Disk can be upgraded. This upgrade disk is an extra disk that is added to the VPS.
• An operating system can be chosen. This is free of cost. If you don’t provide any parameter for this, by default it is Ubuntu 24.04
• A Control Panel can be added if required. As mentioned above, it needs to be compatible with the selected operating system.
• A Service Level Agreement can be selected.

API Documentation

The API documentation can be found at https://developer.leaseweb.com/docs/#tag/Ordering/operation/getVpsList1

Examples:

Querying all the available VPS products in the Amsterdam entity

curl --location 'https://api.leaseweb.com/ordering/v1/products/vps?location=AMS-01' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-LSW-Auth: auth'

Querying more details about Leaseweb VPS 3

curl --location 'https://api.leaseweb.com/ordering/v1/products/vps/VPS02_3?location=AMS-01' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-LSW-Auth: auth'

Ordering Leaseweb VPS 2 in location AMS-01 with Debian 13, a 50GB disk upgrade, Bronze SLA, 1 year billing cycle for a 3-year contract term

curl --location 'https://api.leaseweb.com/ordering/v1/products/vps/VPS02_2/order?location=AMS-01' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'X-LSW-Auth: auth' \
--data '{
"operatingSystem": "Debian 13",
"diskUpgrade": "50GB",
"location": "AMS-01",
"serviceLevelAgreement": "BRONZE",
"billingCycle": "1_YEAR",
"contractTerm": "3_YEARS"
}'

Additional Documentation

You can find more information about the VPS product specifications below.

This article explains how to migrate your existing redirects from the Old Redirect Platform to the New Redirect Platform.

Overview

We have introduced a new redirect platform with improved capabilities and HTTPS support. Since this migration is not automated, customers must manually recreate their redirects in the new platform.

What changed?

Migration steps

Migrate Redirects from the old portal to the new portal

1. Log in to Customer Portal
2. Click on “Redirects” from the left menu

3. Click on the “Old redirects page” button in the top right of the page. This will navigate to the old redirects page.

4. In the old redirect page, note down the following values of the redirect that you want to migrate:
   • Domain
   • Redirect Target
   • Type
5. Click the “Go to new redirects” button in the top right of the page. This will take you back to the new redirects page

6. Click the “Create New Redirect” button in the top right

7. Follow the steps from here: Adding a new redirect

Update DNS configuration

Your next step depends on where your DNS is managed.

DNS managed by Leaseweb

If your domain uses Leaseweb nameservers, then:

1. Go to the hosting overview page
2. Search for the domain name
3. Click on Manage DNS
4. Update or create an A record to point to the new redirect platform IP address

DNS managed by an external provider

If your DNS is managed externally, then log in to your DNS provider. And update or create an A record to point to the new redirect platform IP address.

Secure your redirect (HTTPS)

To make your redirect more secure, you can enable HTTPS using the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.

In the new redirect platform, this can be done from the Secure page. For step-by-step instructions, please refer to this guide.

Possible downtime/break scenarios

Migration is generally smooth, but issues may occur in the following cases:

• DNS not updated: Redirect will continue pointing to the old platform. The new redirect will not work.
• Incorrect IP Address: Redirect may fail. The domain may not resolve properly.
• Delay in DNS Propagation: Temporary inconsistent behavior, some users may see the old redirect, others may see the new.
• HTTPS Not Enabled: Redirect may fail for HTTPS requests. The browser may show security warnings.
• Old Platform Dependency: If you delete the old redirect before the DNS update completes, this may stop the redirect from working as expected.

To avoid these issues, always follow the best practices:

• Create the redirect in the new platform first
• Update the DNS
• Verify the redirect is working
• Only then, remove the old redirect

Leaseweb offers a variety of uplink capacity and bandwidth options, ranging from 100Mbps to multiple 100Gbps ports.

Uplink types are split in 2 categories: equipment in shared racks (with a shared Top-of-Rack switch) and racks (Dedicated and Colocation). See more details below:

This article focuses on providing a brief overview of the advanced features and how to enable them as part of your backup plans, such as:

1. How to modify a pre-existing protection plan
2. How to configure this protection plan to enable Advanced features
3. What features are not included as part of the standard protection plan

Modify a pre-existing protection plan

To benefit from the advanced features of Acronis, you first need to create or edit a protection plan. The examples below explain the plan settings from the perspective of a pre-existing protection plan.

The following instructions should lead you to the protection plan settings :

1. In the Management / Protection Plans menu
   
2. Select a Protection plan, and click Edit
   
3. Expand the Backup Section by using the light-blue arrow on the side.
   
4. You will now see advanced options available for this protection plan
   
   

Customize Advanced Options

Here is an overview of the different options that are available under a protection plan, and where to find more information about these features. Feel free to enable one or more of these features according to your needs.

Allows Continuous Data Protection (CDP)​

To enable Continuous Data Protection (CDP)​, simply turn on the toggle for “Continuous Data Protection (CDP)​”:

Antivirus & Antimalware protection

To enable Antivirus & Antimalware protection, turn on the associated Toggle and customize the appropriate options.

Data protection map

To enable Data protection map, turn on the associated Toggle and customize the appropriate options.

Backup of applications

For backup application such as 

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Microsoft Active Directory
• Oracle Database
• cPanel

The following instructions should guide you on how to enable it for the protection plan :

1. Click “Disabled” beside the “Application backup” category
   
2. Select and customize the application you want to backup as part of this Management plan
   
   

For further information about advanced application backup, please visit the following

One-click recovery

Features not available as part of Standard Protection

While a lot of new features were made available as part of Acronis Standard protection, the following features are only available by purchasing a specific package, that will involve additional costs.

Please contact Leaseweb’s sales team to verify availability if you need one of the following features:

Our Managed Kubernetes platform supports the Gateway API – a modern and flexible way to manage ingress and traffic routing in Kubernetes.

You can either use Cilium as your Gateway API provider out of the box or install any other compatible implementation you prefer.
The platform does not require you to use a specific Gateway API provider. You have full control over which implementation you use.

What Is Gateway API?

Gateway API is a native Kubernetes API that standardises how traffic enters and moves through a cluster. It is meant to be the long-term replacement for the traditional Ingress API.
Compared to Ingress, Gateway API provides:

• A role-oriented model (cluster operators, platform admins, application owners)
• Clear separation between infrastructure (Gateways) and routing rules (Routes)
• First-class support for advanced use cases such as:
  • Multiple listeners (HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, TLS)
  • Cross-namespace routing
  • Fine-grained traffic policies
• A provider-agnostic contract, allowing multiple implementations to coexist

Thanks to these improvements, more teams are choosing the Gateway API as their preferred way of managing traffic in Kubernetes.

Responsibilities and Operational Model

Cluster Administrator Responsibilities

Gateway API uses Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) that work with all implementations.
The cluster administrator is responsible for:

• Installing the Gateway API CRDs
• Upgrading the Gateway API CRDs when required
• Ensuring CRD versions are compatible with the chosen provider

Managing the CRD lifecycle is kept separate from installing providers. This helps prevent unexpected changes across your cluster.

Using Cilium as a Gateway API Provider

If you decide to use Cilium as your Gateway API provider, follow these steps:

1. Prerequisites required in the Cilium configuration are already considered by us.
2. The following Gateway API CRDs must be installed. Please follow the instructions for installing the gateway CRDs according to Cilium’s Gateway API documentation.
   • Make sure the version of the Gateway API CRDs you chose to install is compatible with the installed Cilium version in your cluster.
3. After installing the Gateway API CRDs, you need to restart the Cilium Components using the following commands:

kubectl -n kube-system rollout restart deployment/cilium-operator 
kubectl -n kube-system rollout restart ds/cilium

Since you are managing the Gateway APIs, it is important to consider these items:

1. Once in a while, we will update Cilium and will announce it to our customers.
   • Do not forget to update CRDs after Cilium Upgrades if it is required.
2. Configure Cilium Gateway resources according to your traffic requirements.

For detailed installation steps, configuration options, and supported Gateway API features, see the official Cilium documentation.

Using Other Gateway API Providers

If you choose another Gateway API provider, you need to follow their documentation accordingly. Check the provider’s documentation for details on supported features, limitations, and how to upgrade. not modify or restrict third-party Gateway API providers.

Summary

• Gateway API is the modern, extensible successor to Ingress. Our platform supports the Gateway API in a provider-agnostic manner.
• Customers remain free to choose and operate alternative implementations.
• Cilium is fully managed and supported as a Gateway API provider.
• Cluster administrators manage Gateway API CRDs.This approach gives you flexibility, follows standards, and ensures long-term compatibility with Kubernetes.          

Bare metal servers deliver raw performance and give full control. Every workload, application, and service running on a Dedicated Server depends directly on the health of its physical components. That makes hardware monitoring not just useful but essential.

Native hardware monitoring via IPMI

For bare metal servers, Leaseweb provides hardware monitoring:

The hardware health metrics are collected directly from the server’s management interface – without having to install an agent on the operating system and thereby ensuring that we do not interfere with the customer environment.

This includes data from sensors such as temperature, power, fan, and other system health indicators. Each server exposes different metrics depending on the brand and the model.

Key Characteristics

How to enable hardware monitoring on your server

Our monitoring system collects all the metrics via the server’s IPMI interface. For this purpose, we create a dedicated read-only IPMI user called “lswhwmon” on each server.

This user is exclusively used to collect hardware metrics for monitoring.

How to manage hardware monitoring:

1. To create the required user an IPMI reset is needed
   • The user then gets created automatically
2. To disable hardware monitoring, delete the user
   • The details of this user can be found in the remote management portal of the server and under the Credentials page of the server in the Customer Portal:

3. See the collected metrics in the Customer Portal under Usage -> Hardware Monitoring
   • The metrics are refreshed every 5 minutes:

What Are Labels for Kubernetes Node Pools?

In Kubernetes, labels are key–value pairs that you can attach to cluster resources to describe and categorise them. When applied to node pools, labels offer a straightforward and adaptable method for categorising groups of nodes based on their characteristics or intended purpose. These labels are propagated to the individual worker nodes, allowing workloads and cluster components to make scheduling or operational decisions based on them.

Label Prefix

All labels defined on a node pool are automatically prefixed by the platform to avoid conflicts with system and Kubernetes-reserved labels.

Prefix applied to all node pool labels:

label.leseweb.io/

For example, a label defined as:

environment:production

Will appear on worker nodes as:

label.leaseweb.io/environment=production

The prefix is applied automatically and cannot be changed.

Setting Labels

You can assign labels to a node pool when creating or updating it.

1. To set labels, navigate to your cluster -> go to the Node Pools tab
2. Click Edit on the node pool you want to label
3. In the Labels section, enter your key–value pairs
4. Click Update -> Confirm to apply the changes.

To view the labels for a node pool, you can expand the node pool details.

Updating or Deleting Labels

You can modify or remove labels at any time using the node pool Edit option

1. Go to the Node Pools tab -> select Edit for the desired node pool
2. In the Labels section, add new labels, modify existing ones, or remove labels as needed
3. Click Update -> Confirm to apply the changes.

Viewing Labels on a Node Using kubectl

You can view the labels applied to a specific worker node using kubectl.

Run the following command, replacing <node-name> with the name of the worker node:

kubectl get node <node-name> -o yaml

The command returns the full node definition. Labels applied through the node pool are visible under the metadata.labels section.

Example

metadata:
  labels:
    kubernetes.io/arch: amd64
    kubernetes.io/os: linux
    label.leaseweb.io/environment: staging
    label.leaseweb.io/labels: "true"
    node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ""

In this example:

• label.leaseweb.io/environment: staging was defined on the node pool
• The label is automatically prefixed and propagated to the worker node
• All node pool labels appear alongside standard Kubernetes labels

Labels Lifecycle

Labels defined on a node pool follow a consistent lifecycle.

• New worker nodes (for example, through autoscaling) automatically receive the labels
• When a label is updated on the node pool, the change is propagated to all corresponding worker nodes
• When a label is removed from the node pool, it is automatically removed from the worker nodes
• Manual modification of node pool labels directly on individual nodes is not supported, as labels are reconciled from the node pool configuration
• When a label is removed from the node pool, it is automatically cleaned from the worker nodes

To start using Leaseweb Managed Kubernetes, you first need to order and then provision your cluster.

New to Leaseweb?

If you are a new customer, you can start the ordering process directly from the Leaseweb website. Navigate to the Products tab and select Kubernetes, or you can click here.

To complete your order, you will need to create a Leaseweb account. Once your account is created and verified, you will gain access to the Leaseweb Customer Portal, where your cluster will be delivered and you can begin provisioning it.

Already a Leaseweb Customer?

If you are an existing customer, you can order a Kubernetes cluster directly from the Customer Portal:

1. Log in to the Customer Portal.
2. Navigate to the Kubernetes section.
3. Click Order Cluster and follow the prompts to configure your new cluster.
   

This article walks you through restoring your RDP access to your Windows server. This issue is commonly encountered when you attempt to connect to a server with RDP over the internet, and you receive the following message:

Why does this happen?

The internet is home to many malicious entities and automated bots that scan public networks for available servers. Once they find a server, they usually inundate it with numerous login attempts, trying to access services with easily guessable passwords.

The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a frequently targeted service that operates on port 3389 for both TCP and UDP. To protect against unauthorised access and bot attacks, Windows automatically blocks all login attempts after a certain number of failed login attempts.

If you find yourself unable to log in to your server using RDP, you may use out-of-band remote management tools such as iLO, iDRAC, or IPMI to access your Windows Server to make the necessary changes.

There are 2 methods that you can use to resolve this issue:

Method 1: Temporarily disabling the Windows lockout rules

1. Click on the Start menu and search for Local Security Policy
   • To search, just start typing what you are searching for after clicking on the start menu
   • Click on it to open

2. Use the left side panel and navigate to: Security Settings -> Account Policies -> Account Lockout Policy
   • You will see a setting called Allow Administrator account lockout
   • Double-click on it to open

3. Here, you will have the option of enabling or disabling it
   • When it is enabled, the server can lock out the administrator account
   • When it is disabled, the server will not trigger this lockout policy, no matter how many failed attempts. Select Disabled and click Ok.

4. You will notice that the policy is displayed as Disabled – the Administrator account will not lock out any longer.

Method 2: Creating a secondary Administrative-level user

1. Click on the Start menu and then search for Computer Management
   • To search, just start typing what you are searching for after clicking on the start menu
   • Click on it to open

2. Use the left side panel and navigate to: Computer Management (Local) -> System Tools -> Local Users and Computers -> Users

3. Click on the Action button up at the top and then select New User from the drop-down menu

4. The new user form will open in a new window. Enter the required details:
   • Use a username that is not easy to guess. Avoid things like “admin”, “root” or anything guessable. For this example, we will use something generic like “owner”
   • Enter a strong password. Generally, the longer it is, the less likely it is to be guessed or brute forced. If you do not want the password to expire and always be the same password, you can uncheck the Password never expires box. Do not that this is not recommended for an account that is used frequently from many different systems.

5. Click Create once done
6. After the user has been created, we now need to give it administrator permissions. To do this, we need to add it to the “Administrators” user group. Right-click on the user that you just created ->click Properties

7. Go to the Members Of tab and click on Add 

8. Underneath Enter the object names to select, you will want to add Administrators. Click on the Check Names button on the right to see if the user group you entered matches

9. Once it successfully finds that user group, it will change the name accordingly. Click OK to close and OK once again to save your changes

You have now added a secondary administrator user to this Windows Server installation.

Locking down the RDP Port to only specific IP addresses

The ultimate solution to not getting locked out of your server is to lock down the RDP port using an allowlist. This can be accomplished with Windows Firewall. This makes it so that only the IP addresses on that allowlist are allowed to connect to the RDP port. All other IPs will not be able to connect. Follow the steps from this article to proceed.

Windows Server is a very popular choice for an Operating System when it comes to servers. It is popular because of how easy it is to use and how well it works with Windows Desktop computers.

One of the features often used on Windows Server is the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), which allows you to use a remote server just as if you were sitting in front of it with a keyboard, mouse and monitor.

While this service can indeed be very useful, it is very important to secure it from bad actors on the internet, such as hackers and the automated software bots they operate. By default, the RDP port 3389 is not secure, and anyone on the internet can attempt to connect to it.

To combat this, it is generally good practice to limit access to the RDP port on your server to only a limited set of IP addresses which you know you will be accessing this server. These IP addresses can be added to an allowlist in Windows Firewall, and it will only allow those IP addresses to connect to your server via RDP.

Follow the steps below to create this allowlist step by step.

1. Click on the Start menu and search for “firewall”
   • To search, you just start typing once you have the start menu open
   • The top result should be Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security. Click on that option

2. Once the new window opens, click on Inbound Rules on the left panel
3. Scroll down in the centre column and look for the rules named Remote Desktop – User Mode (TCP-in) and Remote Desktop – User Mode (UDP-in). These rules are already defined with a normal Windows install

3. Right-click on Remote Desktop – User Mode (TCP-in) -> select Properties

4. Click on the Scope tab at the top

5. Under the section Remote IP Address, select These IP addresses and then click to Add

6. Add the IP address that you want to add to the whitelist.
   • For this example, we will use 192.168.1.1 as the IP. Please add here the public IP address that you want to add to the whitelist
   • Click OK

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 if you want to add more than one IP to the whitelist. If done, click OK to continue

8. Repeat steps 3-7 for the second rule called Remote Desktop – User Mode (UDP-in)

Once you have done that, you will have successfully locked down your RDP port to only specific IP addresses.