How It Works
What NodeRings is for buyers, the marketplace, VM lifecycle, and billing
NodeRings is a marketplace and control plane for cloud compute. As a client (buyer), you search plans from multiple hosting providers, launch virtual machines in one dashboard, and pay through NodeRings billing: without managing hypervisors yourself.
Providers run their own Proxmox fleets behind a scoped agent. You never get hypervisor credentials. You order a plan; the provider's operator provisions NR-{uuid} on their infrastructure and NodeRings tracks the asset in your organization.
One org, many providers. A client organization can buy VMs from different marketplace sellers and manage them in a single fleet at /platform/virtual-machines. Ready to launch? Jump to Get started.
What you can do as a client
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Marketplace | Compare plans by location or provider; filter by price, billing type, and specs |
| Virtual machines | Create, start, stop, reboot, delete; metrics, console, backups, snapshots |
| Network | Firewall rulesets, address groups, attach rules to your VMs |
| Organization | Members, groups, roles, invites, service accounts |
| Billing | Payment methods, invoices, payments, subscriptions to provider plans |
| Support | Tickets to providers, provider reviews per VM, in-app chat |
Client vs provider organization
When you create an organization you choose a type. This is permanent.
| Type | You are… | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Client | A buyer consuming marketplace plans | Launch VMs, manage fleet, pay invoices |
| Provider | A host selling on the marketplace | Agents, nodes, plans, preflight: see Provider Guides |
Client orgs do not need domain verification or NodeRings seller review. Provider orgs do.
More detail: Organization.
Client bootstrap vs provider network
When you launch with a cloud-init profile, you override the provider's user-data (packages, users, files) while the provider still supplies network-data (static IP from IPAM) and vendor-data. NodeRings merges built-in variables at compile time so your profile can reference hostname and assigned IPs. See Cloud-init user data.
From search to running VM
Discover a plan
Search on the home page or open /platform/virtual-machines/create. Browse by location (region) or by provider (seller catalog).
Choose plan, OS, and auth
Pick a plan (fixed monthly or usage-based hourly), select an OS image, hostname, and how you will log in: SSH keys, password, or a saved cloud-init profile (custom #cloud-config that replaces provider user-data).
Pay and provision
NodeRings validates your payment method, creates the VM order, and the provider's operator clones a template on Proxmox. Your VM appears in the fleet when provisioning completes.
Operate the VM
Use the VM detail page for power actions, graphs, firewall binding, backups, snapshots, and VNC console. Open tickets or leave a provider review when you need support or want to share feedback.
Billing model
You pay providers for the compute you consume. That is separate from a provider's own platform subscription to NodeRings (you do not pay that as a client).
| Billing type | How you are charged |
|---|---|
| Subscription (fixed) | Flat fee at the start of each billing period for the plan |
| Usage-based | Metered hourly (or per-unit) consumption, typically with a monthly cap |
Addons (extra IPs, backups, snapshot storage) follow the plan's billing type. Invoices and payment history live under /billing. See Billing.
Dashboard and navigation
The client sidebar groups day-to-day work:
| Group | Items |
|---|---|
| Projects | Dashboard: fleet snapshot and billing shortcuts |
| Platform | Virtual Machines |
| Network | Firewall |
| Organization | Access Control, Billing, Settings |
| Orchestration | SSH Keys, Environment variables, Secrets, Cloud-init user data |
| Secondary | Chat, Tickets, Reviews |
See Dashboard for what the home page shows today.
Next
Continue with Get started for a step-by-step checklist from sign-up to your first VM.