Managing instances

An instance is your map portal: a Lizmap site under your name, with its QGIS server, its PostgreSQL/PostGIS database and its file space. You create it in a minute; we install it, monitor it and keep it up to date.

1. Open Instances and click Deploy an instance. As long as you have no instance, the page offers Launch my instance.
2. Give it a name: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens. It becomes the address of your portal, shown under the field: https://your-name.lizpack.com.
3. Leave Versions (optional) closed to get the versions marked Recommended, or pick a QGIS Server and a Lizmap Web Client version there. Both lists only offer versions that work together.
4. Click Deploy.

Allow about four minutes. The progress window shows the current step. You do not have to wait for it: Continue in the background closes it, a banner on the Instances page follows the deployment and an email tells you when it is done. Once the instance is ready, View my instance opens its page.

When the deployment is refused

We check your subscription before creating anything. If your plan has reached its number of instances, the Maximum number of instances reached window opens, with Upgrade to change plan. If your usage already exceeds your plan's limits, the deployment waits until you have freed some space: see the quotas.

Each card on the Instances page carries a badge that tells where the instance stands. The filter next to the search shows only the instances in a given status.

During an action, the badge names it: Starting…, Stopping… or Deleting…. It returns to its normal status as soon as the action is over.

Everyday actions are done from the instance's card, on the Instances page. Manage opens its page; the three-dot menu offers the rest.

On the instance's page, a single button shows depending on the state: Start all when the instance is stopped, Stop all when it is running. To restart an instance in one go, use the Restart button of the My instances list on the dashboard. These actions run without asking for confirmation, and an email informs you.

Deleting an instance

Delete asks for your account password, then Delete permanently. The instance, its QGIS projects, its files and its database are erased, and its name can never be used again. The progress lasts about a minute; your quotas are recalculated at the end.

Manage opens the instance's page. At the top, its name, address and buttons; below, tabs: Overview, Components, Modules, Backups, Files, which opens the file manager, and Settings, which sets the instance's protection, emails, address and maintenance. Each tab has its own address: you can share it or come back to it with the browser's back button. Overview gives three counters, the number of Projects, the space taken by your files (Storage) and by your Database, the figures we compare with your plan's limits; then the number of Active components and the Lizmap and QGIS Server versions.

The header buttons: Update when a newer version exists, then Start all or Stop all depending on the instance's state. Files open from the Files tab. Under the counters of the Overview tab, the Links block gives the address of the portal and its administration, then, for each project published in Lizmap, the address of the map and those of the WMS, WFS and WMTS services, to copy into QGIS or another client. A project appears there as soon as its folder is a Lizmap repository and it has its Lizmap configuration (.qgs.cfg); the list updates with the instance's readings, about every five minutes.

One card per service

The Components tab gives one card per service of the instance, with its version and status: Active, Inactive or Degraded. Click a card to expand it.

Passwords are hidden: the eye shows them, the icon next to it copies them. A service Inactive or Degraded while the instance is started is worth reporting to us: the fault is on our side.

Modules

The Modules tab adds features to your Lizmap portal. Activate installs a module in less than a minute, without interrupting the portal; Deactivate removes it. The instance must be started.

The Settings tab of the page gathers what you set yourself on an instance. Settings are reserved for the owner and for team members allowed to deploy and delete instances.

Protection

Lizmap emails

Your Lizmap portal sends emails: forgotten password, account creation, forms. Choose LizPack server (default): emails are sent from our server, nothing to set. Or My server: enter your email provider's sending server (SMTP server, port, security, account and password, sender address and name). Then click Save and apply. Lizmap restarts for a few seconds to take the setting. Disconnect removes it.

The password is never shown again: leave the field empty to keep the saved one.

Maintenance

Both operations ask for confirmation, only start on a running instance, and not twice within ten minutes. The tab shows the operation in progress, then the result of the last one, among those you or your team started; our support's interventions are not listed.

In the Settings tab of the page, the Instance address section shows the address your instance answers at and lets you replace it with a domain of your own, for example carto.mairie.bj instead of agoe.lizpack.com. The change is paid, once per change; going back to the original address is free. It is reserved for the owner and for team members allowed to deploy and delete instances, and the instance must be running. The section only appears when the option is offered.

Preparing the domain

Propagation can take from a few minutes to a few hours. The values to enter are copied in one click from the tab.

Check, pay, apply

Enter the domain under New address, then click Check: nothing is paid until the domain points to your instance. Once the domain is checked, the tab shows the price; choose Bank card or Mobile Money, then Pay and apply. The change takes a few minutes and the tab updates by itself. If applying fails, your payment is kept: Retry starts it again without paying twice.

Former addresses and projects

After a change, the former address redirects to the new one for a limited time, shown under Redirected former addresses; Stop redirect ends it sooner. QGIS projects that still refer to the former address are listed under Projects to update: they keep working while the redirect lasts, update them before it ends. Return to the original address restores the lizpack.com address for free.

The Update button, next to the instance's name on its page, becomes active as soon as a newer version of QGIS Server or Lizmap Web Client is available.

1. Click Update. The window recalls the current versions.
2. Choose the new version of each component, or keep the current one. The advised version is marked Recommended.
3. Click Start the update.

The update takes about two minutes. Your projects, files and database are not touched: only the software changes. The updated services restart, so the portal is briefly unavailable. If something fails, the instance returns to its previous versions on its own. An email gives you the result.

The update is included in the Pro and Enterprise plans. On the other plans it costs 10 USD per updated component, paid in the same window by card, by Mobile Money or with a Update key.

Your plan sets three limits: the space of your files, the size of your databases and the number of instances. We measure your usage after each deployment or file upload, and check it again regularly.

If your files or databases exceed the limit, the web services of your instances stop (portal, QGIS Server, cache) and their badge turns to Quota exceeded. The database stays reachable, and so do Files: enough to free some space. Until then, deploying, starting and updating are blocked.

If you have more instances than your plan allows, only the most recent extra ones are stopped, completely, database included. The others keep running. Deleting an instance always remains possible.

As soon as your usage is back under the limits, everything restarts on its own, within a few minutes. To lift the block right away, change plan from Subscriptions.