Settings

The Settings page holds the settings for the whole cluster. They are copied to the other nodes when you save. Each node's own settings, such as its name, heartbeat paths and smart plug, are on the Nodes page.

The page has seven tabs: Cluster (Replication, Failover, Tiebreaker addresses), Backups (Backup storage, Schedule, Offsite backups), New VMs, Notifications, Updates, License and Password.

The Cluster and New VMs tabs and the Schedule on the Backups tab share one Save settings button, which saves all three at once. A dot on a tab marks unsaved changes there. Backup storage, Offsite backups, Notifications, Updates, License and Admin password each have their own button.

Replication

Copy every (seconds): how often each protected VM is copied to the node holding its copy. If a node fails, you lose at most this much recent data. Minimum 15 seconds; 60, the default, is a good choice for mini PCs. See Replication.

Failover

Take over after (seconds): how long a node must be unreachable before its VMs start elsewhere. Minimum 31 seconds, the time a node cut off from the others needs to stop its VMs; 35 is the default. Shorter is faster but more likely to react to a brief network blip. See Failover.

Tiebreaker addresses

Two-node clusters only. When the nodes lose sight of each other, a node keeps running VMs only if it can reach one of these addresses. Leave the list empty to use your router (the default gateway). With three or more nodes a majority decides instead, and this section is hidden.

Backups

Backup storage is where the nightly backups go: None, a USB drive plugged into one node, an NFS share or SMB share (staxmax mounts these itself and shows, per node, whether it is mounted), or a Folder you mount yourself on every node. It has its own Save backup storage button. Schedule sets Back up at (02:00 by default, each node's local time; offsite copies are made at the same hour) and Keep per VM (7 by default). Backups are turned on per VM. See Backups. With backup storage set, the page also lists the backups in it, with Restore.

Offsite backups

Where the VMs with backups on are also copied, encrypted with a passphrase: S3 storage (Backblaze B2, Wasabi, ...: Endpoint, Bucket, Folder in the bucket, Access key ID, Secret key, Region) or an SFTP server (Server, Port, User, Folder on the server, the cluster's Public key to add to the server, an optional Password), then Passphrase, Copy every (days) (7 by default) and Keep per VM (4 by default). It has its own Save offsite settings button, Test connection and speed, and Turn off. With it set up, the page also lists the offsite backups, with Restore. See Offsite backups.

New VMs

Defaults filled in when you create a VM from a cloud image, so you only enter them once. You can still change them per VM.

• User
• SSH public keys, one per line
• Packages to install, separated by commas or spaces, like htop, curl, qemu-guest-agent

Passwords are never stored here: give one per VM, or rely on the SSH key.

Notifications

The mail server and Telnyx account used to send alarms. See Alarms and notifications.

Updates

The staxmax version on each node, new releases, automatic updates and installing from a file. See Updates.

License

The cluster's license key and each node's license. Up to 3 nodes are free. See License.

Admin password

One password signs in to every node.

1. Enter the Current password.
2. Enter the New password (at least 8 characters) and New password again.
3. Click Change password.

The change reaches every node (a node that is offline picks it up when it is back) and signs out every other browser.

If you've lost the password, reset it from a shell on a node. See Command line.