Getting Started

This section gets you from a brand-new account to DNS and DHCP serving live traffic on your own network.

The short version

1. Sign up and sign in — create your tenant and log in to the console.
2. Key concepts — understand tenants, sites, agents, zones, scopes, and subnets before you build.
3. Startup Wizard — create your first site, network, DHCP scope, and DNS zone from a single guided screen.
4. Deploy your first agent — install the agent so it actually answers DNS queries and hands out DHCP leases.

What you'll need

• A web browser and your Subnetly login.
• A host on the network you want to manage:
  • Linux (any modern distribution with Docker available, or the installer will add it), or
  • Windows Server with the DNS Server and/or DHCP Server roles, or
  • somewhere to run a container or VM appliance.
• Outbound HTTPS (TCP 443) from that host to the Subnetly control plane. No inbound ports need to be opened.

A typical first session

Most administrators follow this path:

1. Log in and let the dashboard load.
2. Open the Startup Wizard and describe the network you're setting up (purpose, size, addressing). The wizard creates the site, subnet, DHCP scope, and DNS zone for you.
3. Go to Agents and deploy an agent to the host on that network.
4. Assign the new DHCP scope and DNS zone to that agent (the wizard can do this for you if the agent already exists).
5. Verify the agent shows connected and the services report healthy.
6. Point a test client at the new DHCP scope / DNS zone before cutting over from any existing server.

When you're ready for the details, start with Key concepts.