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Web Gateway - Digital Ocean

Overview​

This guide demonstrates how to deploy a Zero-OS (ZOS) gateway node inside a DigitalOcean virtual machine. While this setup isn't ideal for running general workloads, it's suitable for creating gateway nodes to expose services running on bare metal Zero-OS nodes.

Prerequisites​

  • Digital Ocean account
  • SSH key pair
  • Domain name for gateway configuration
  • Minimum 4GB RAM droplet size
  • Additional block storage volume (100GB recommended)

Step 1: Prepare Custom Image​

  1. Log into DigitalOcean dashboard
  2. Navigate to Create > Droplets
  3. Select Region and Datacenter
  4. Make sure you have a volume
  5. Click "Custom Image" (for THCP)
  6. Click "Upload Image"
  7. Select "Import via URL" and use the Ubuntu Cloud image URL:
https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img
  1. Set distribution type as "Ubuntu"
  2. Choose same region as before for step above 10 . Click "Upload Image"

Then we go back to create the droplet now thatqw can select our custom image.

Step 2: Create Droplet​

  1. Click "Create Droplet"
  2. Select your region
  3. Under "Choose an image", select "Custom Images"
  4. Select your uploaded Ubuntu image
  5. Choose droplet size:
    • Regular SSD (not Premium)
    • Minimum 4GB RAM
  6. Add block storage:
    • 100GB volume
    • Select "Manually Format & Mount"
  7. Add/select your SSH key
  8. Create droplet

Step 3: Prepare the server​

  1. SSH into your droplet:
ssh root@<droplet-ip>
  1. Wipe the volume on the server (e.g. with sda)
wipefs -af /dev/sda

Step 4: Generate Boot Script​

  1. Visit https://bootstrap.grid.tf
  2. Enter Expert Mode
  3. Configure:
    • Farm ID: Your farm ID
    • Network: mainnet
    • Extra kernel arguments: version=v3light
    • Kernel: zos-v3light-generic
    • Format: IPXE Boot Script
  4. Generate IPXE boot script
  5. Copy the generated URL and preprend https://bootstrap.grid.tf

Step 5: Set IPXE loader​

  1. Download Zero-OS bootstrap:
cd /boot
wget <bootstrap-url> -O zos.iso
  1. Extract the iPXE loader:
mount -o loop zos.iso /mnt
cp /mnt/ipxe.lkrn /boot

Step 6: Configure GRUB​

  1. Edit the custom GRUB configuration:
vim /etc/grub.d/40_custom
  1. Add the following entry:
menuentry 'ZeroOS' --id zos {
    root=(hd0,16)
    linux16 /ipxe.lkrn
}
  1. Configure GRUB settings file:
vim /etc/default/grub.d/50-cloudimg-settings.cfg
  1. Set the following parameters:
GRUB_TIMEOUT=30
  1. Configure GRUB default file:
vim /etc/default/grub
  1. Set the following parameters:
GRUB_DEFAULT=zos
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
  1. Update GRUB:
update-grub

Step 7: Configure Public Network​

  • On Digital Ocean droplet page, click "Access" in the left sidebar and then "Launch Recovery Console"
  • Select Zos to see the Z-OS screen
  • On this page, you can see the gateway IP address:
net0/ip
net0/dns
net0/gateway

To see the node public IPV4 address and web gateway address, go to the Digital Ocean droplet page and click on the sidebar item "Network".

Next Step​

Then you can follow the steps in the manual to properly set your public configuration and DNS.