Glossary Home
Paperspace Deployments
Continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) encompass several automated processes commonly performed in software development, such as building, testing, and deploying a software application. CI/CD reduces human intervention during the maintenance processes of software applications.
A container is a single running instance of a service, worker, or static site resource that you have shipped on App Platform, and is in essence a live, runtime instance of an image (the artifact produced by the build process).
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, a threat actor renders information systems, devices, or other network resources inaccessible by overwhelming the target with malicious traffic. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of DoS attack where the overloading traffic originates from multiple attacking machines, amplifying the severity of the attack.
An endpoint is a specific URL or network address that a client device or application uses to interact with a server or service. Most internet connected apps and websites communicate with endpoints to retrieve information, process user interactions, and perform other processes. For example, when you open a weather app on your phone, the weather app requests for the latest forecast information from a server endpoint.
An environment variable is a in-memory key/value pair that developers use to store configuration details about their app.
Ephemeral files are temporary files used for program execution and tasks.
An epoch is a single iteration through a dataset when training a machine learning model.
Gradient deployment allows machine learning models as a model as a service where the model is placed in a special container where the model performs the same way every time it is used.
A Gradient model is a scalable trained machine learning or deep learning model.
Gradient volume is a special storage for storing datasets, models, and project files. It allows users to keep track of data changes over time as well as saves backups of the data.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a specialized processor meant to accelerate graphics rendering or processing complex mathematical calculations such as during machine learning training.
A handshake is the authentication process between two networked devices to ensure that both devices are who they claim to be.
A health check is a scheduled HTTP or TCP request that you can configure to run on a repeating basis to ensure that a service is healthy.
A hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one host computer.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
A key, or bucket key, is a unique data key for objects in a bucket.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
A network is a collection interconnected servers or computers that communicate and share resources amongst each other.
A notebook is a virtual environment where code is sequentially written and executed.
An Operating System Template or Machine is a disk image of a pre-designed or pre-configured version of a machine.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A runtime environment is an execution environment for deploying and running applications. Runtime environments contain the necessary applications, dependencies, and operating system to run an application. For example, when you create an app on App Platform, App Platform inspects the code and app resources, and then selects the appropriate runtime environment, such as Node, to run the app in.
S3-Compatible Object Storage, or S3 is a storage solution that uses the S3 API.
Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of software tools and programs designed for a specific service or system.
Symmetric ciphers use the same key for encrypting and decrypting data.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a security method where the user uses two different authentication methods to verify their identity.
In machine learning, a workflow is a set of processes working towards a certain objective.
View all Paperspace Deployments glossary content.
Paperspace Machines
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a symmetric encryption algorithm.
Bare metal is a physical server in Paperspace that is dedicated exclusively to a single user without any virtualization layer.
Continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) encompass several automated processes commonly performed in software development, such as building, testing, and deploying a software application. CI/CD reduces human intervention during the maintenance processes of software applications.
A client library is a collection of code that helps to interact with a particular API.
Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) is an API created by NVIDIA for parallel computing.
A Core Machine in Paperspace is a Linux or Window-based virtual machine (VM). The Core Machine runs on top of virtualized hardware.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, a threat actor renders information systems, devices, or other network resources inaccessible by overwhelming the target with malicious traffic. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of DoS attack where the overloading traffic originates from multiple attacking machines, amplifying the severity of the attack.
An endpoint is a specific URL or network address that a client device or application uses to interact with a server or service. Most internet connected apps and websites communicate with endpoints to retrieve information, process user interactions, and perform other processes. For example, when you open a weather app on your phone, the weather app requests for the latest forecast information from a server endpoint.
An environment variable is a in-memory key/value pair that developers use to store configuration details about their app.
Ephemeral files are temporary files used for program execution and tasks.
An epoch is a single iteration through a dataset when training a machine learning model.
A gateway is a server or router that provides access to networks from other networks or the public internet.
A Gradient model is a scalable trained machine learning or deep learning model.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a specialized processor meant to accelerate graphics rendering or processing complex mathematical calculations such as during machine learning training.
A handshake is the authentication process between two networked devices to ensure that both devices are who they claim to be.
A hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one host computer.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
A key, or bucket key, is a unique data key for objects in a bucket.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
A network is a collection interconnected servers or computers that communicate and share resources amongst each other.
Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system protocol that allows a user access to files within a computer over a network.
An Operating System Template or Machine is a disk image of a pre-designed or pre-configured version of a machine.
An operating system, or OS, is a system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, such as Windows, macOS, or Linux.
Peering is when two Internet networks connect via Internet Service Providers (ISP) and exchange traffic directly without having to pay for a third party to carry the traffic.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft that is used to provide users the ability to connect to another computer through a graphical interface remotely over a network.
A runtime environment is an execution environment for deploying and running applications. Runtime environments contain the necessary applications, dependencies, and operating system to run an application. For example, when you create an app on App Platform, App Platform inspects the code and app resources, and then selects the appropriate runtime environment, such as Node, to run the app in.
S3-Compatible Object Storage, or S3 is a storage solution that uses the S3 API.
A solid-state drive, or SSD, is a persistent data storage device. SSDs use flash memory, which significantly improves latency and I/O performance over older, electromechanical hard disk drives (HDDs).
SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) is a method to secure remote logins and communications from one computer to another which provides strong authentication and protects communication through strong encryption.
Symmetric ciphers use the same key for encrypting and decrypting data.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a security method where the user uses two different authentication methods to verify their identity.
A virtual central processing unit, virtual processor, or vCPU is a physical CPU assigned to a virtual machine (VM).
A virtual machine, or VM, is a self-contained virtualization of an operating system.
Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a program that shares desktops remotely using the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB). VNC allows a remote user to control another computer through RFB protocol.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are used create a private and secure connection to the public Internet.
View all Paperspace Machines glossary content.
Paperspace Notebooks
Continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) encompass several automated processes commonly performed in software development, such as building, testing, and deploying a software application. CI/CD reduces human intervention during the maintenance processes of software applications.
Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) is an API created by NVIDIA for parallel computing.
A container is a single running instance of a service, worker, or static site resource that you have shipped on App Platform, and is in essence a live, runtime instance of an image (the artifact produced by the build process).
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, a threat actor renders information systems, devices, or other network resources inaccessible by overwhelming the target with malicious traffic. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of DoS attack where the overloading traffic originates from multiple attacking machines, amplifying the severity of the attack.
An endpoint is a specific URL or network address that a client device or application uses to interact with a server or service. Most internet connected apps and websites communicate with endpoints to retrieve information, process user interactions, and perform other processes. For example, when you open a weather app on your phone, the weather app requests for the latest forecast information from a server endpoint.
An environment variable is a in-memory key/value pair that developers use to store configuration details about their app.
Ephemeral files are temporary files used for program execution and tasks.
An epoch is a single iteration through a dataset when training a machine learning model.
Gradient deployment allows machine learning models as a model as a service where the model is placed in a special container where the model performs the same way every time it is used.
A Gradient model is a scalable trained machine learning or deep learning model.
Gradient volume is a special storage for storing datasets, models, and project files. It allows users to keep track of data changes over time as well as saves backups of the data.
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a specialized processor meant to accelerate graphics rendering or processing complex mathematical calculations such as during machine learning training.
A handshake is the authentication process between two networked devices to ensure that both devices are who they claim to be.
A health check is a scheduled HTTP or TCP request that you can configure to run on a repeating basis to ensure that a service is healthy.
A hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one host computer.
A kernel is an intermediary component of an operating system that manages resources between the computer hardware and software.
A key, or bucket key, is a unique data key for objects in a bucket.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
A network is a collection interconnected servers or computers that communicate and share resources amongst each other.
Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system protocol that allows a user access to files within a computer over a network.
A notebook is a virtual environment where code is sequentially written and executed.
An Operating System Template or Machine is a disk image of a pre-designed or pre-configured version of a machine.
Persistent storage is a data storage within a device that retains the data even when the device is offline.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A runtime environment is an execution environment for deploying and running applications. Runtime environments contain the necessary applications, dependencies, and operating system to run an application. For example, when you create an app on App Platform, App Platform inspects the code and app resources, and then selects the appropriate runtime environment, such as Node, to run the app in.
S3-Compatible Object Storage, or S3 is a storage solution that uses the S3 API.
Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of software tools and programs designed for a specific service or system.
SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) is a method to secure remote logins and communications from one computer to another which provides strong authentication and protects communication through strong encryption.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
Symmetric ciphers use the same key for encrypting and decrypting data.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol focused on privacy and data security for communication across the internet.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a security method where the user uses two different authentication methods to verify their identity.
A virtual central processing unit, virtual processor, or vCPU is a physical CPU assigned to a virtual machine (VM).
A virtual machine, or VM, is a self-contained virtualization of an operating system.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are used create a private and secure connection to the public Internet.
In machine learning, a workflow is a set of processes working towards a certain objective.
View all Paperspace Notebooks glossary content.
Paperspace Workflows
An Action is a self-contained, composable set of code building blocks that can perform specific actions within a machine learning project. Actions can receive parameters (e.
A Job is a self-contained part of a workflow spec that is similar to an Argo step. Jobs can define inputs, outputs, and their own environment variables.
A Workflow is a named or unnamed entity that belongs to a team and project. Named workflows can be re-run with a default workflow spec, or be passed a new spec every time.
Workflow Run: the implementation of a workflow The most basic run requires a workflowId and clusterId - most also include a workflow spec, and the inputs to be passed into the workflow The workflow run contains everything needed for the workflow to actually be executed, that is, what (workflowId), where (clusterId), how (workflowSpec), with (inputs, etc.
A Workflow Spec is a YAML list of jobs that is converted into an Argo template and run on the Gradient distributed runtime engine.
View all Paperspace Workflows glossary content.
Uptime
An alert interval is the period of time that average usage must exceed a threshold before triggering an alert.
Alerting within a computer monitoring system is the ability to send notifications when certain metrics fall outside of expected ranges.
A health check is a scheduled HTTP or TCP request that you can configure to run on a repeating basis to ensure that a service is healthy.
In computing, monitoring is the process of gathering and visualizing data to improve awareness of system health and minimize response time when usage is outside of expected levels.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
In alerting, a threshold is a value that defines the boundary between normal and abnormal usage.
A trend indicates a general tendency in a data set over time. Trends are useful for recognizing changes and for predicting future behavior.
View all Uptime glossary content.
App Platform
A personal access token (PAT) lets a user authenticate to a service in order to access or act on protected resources. PATs can be an alterative to a password, often in automation and other programmatic use cases.
Access-Control-Allow-Origin is an HTTP response header stating whether the application or source requesting access is allowed to access the response content. This header is part of the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) policy.
The application specification, or app spec, is a YAML manifest that declaratively states everything about your App Platform app, including each resource and all of your app’s environment variables and configuration variables.
The build command is the command-line statement that compiles your app resource at build time.
A certificate authority (CA) issues and manages digital certificates used in public key infrastructures (PKI). CAs verify the authenticity of entities or identities requesting certificates. CA ensures data encryption, secure online transactions across networks, and protects users’ privacy and security.
Continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment (CI/CD) encompass several automated processes commonly performed in software development, such as building, testing, and deploying a software application. CI/CD reduces human intervention during the maintenance processes of software applications.
CNAME records, or Canonical Name records, map an alias name to a canonical domain name.
Connection pooling is a cache of database connections used for future requests to the database as required.
A connection string is a string of characters that provides necessary information and parameters to establish a connection between a software application and the database. Connection strings are considered sensitive information and we recommend handling them securely, such as by avoiding hardcoding the string into the application’s code or configuration files.
A container is a single running instance of a service, worker, or static site resource that you have shipped on App Platform, and is in essence a live, runtime instance of an image (the artifact produced by the build process).
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
Databases come in two forms in App Platform: dev databases, which are not intended for production use, and managed databases, which are instances of a DigitalOcean managed database that you have created outside of App Platform and would like to use in production.
A Dockerfile is a text file that contains instructions and details required to build a Docker image, such as the environment and configuration parameters.
doctl (pronounced “dock-tul”, and short for “DigitalOcean Control”) is the official command-line interface for the DigitalOcean API.
An edge server or edge node is a network server located at the edge of a network, close to the end-user devices. An edge server processes data, analytics, and computations near the data source, resulting in reduced latency and faster response times.
An endpoint is a specific URL or network address that a client device or application uses to interact with a server or service. Most internet connected apps and websites communicate with endpoints to retrieve information, process user interactions, and perform other processes. For example, when you open a weather app on your phone, the weather app requests for the latest forecast information from a server endpoint.
An environment variable is a in-memory key/value pair that developers use to store configuration details about their app.
Ephemeral files are temporary files used for program execution and tasks.
Failover is a high availability (HA) mechanism that monitors servers for failures and reroutes traffic or operations to a redundant server when the primary server fails.
A gVisor container runtime sandbox is an environment of processes to run containers. Each sandbox has its own isolated instance of Sentry and Gofer.
A hash is a fixed-sized string created by applying a hash function to data. A hash can be used in many different applications for various purposes but are often used to encrypt SSH keys or create unique numerical values that can act as identifiers for data resources.
For example, hashes are used to reference code changes, called commits, in GitHub and other code repository services. DigitalOcean’s Container Registry also uses hashes to create digests for each version of an image stored in a registry. An example hash created with the SHA algorithm looks like this: 3479436528b6961f29e22576d76787b6e5262761
A health check is a scheduled HTTP or TCP request that you can configure to run on a repeating basis to ensure that a service is healthy.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
The HTTP route for a service is the publicly-accessible directory path that maps to the root of your service.
The Insights Dashboard in App Platform helps you monitor the resource usage for your app.
In App Platform, a job is a type of resource that is running server-side code written in a supported programming language, such as Python, Ruby, Go, Node.js, or PHP, and is not internet-accessible.
A load balancer distributes traffic across a backend pool of servers to improve the stability and responsiveness of an application.
Log forwarding is the process of transmitting log data from various sources towards a centralized log management system. DigitalOcean offers log forwarding for App Platform, Kubernetes, and Functions.
Logs are captures of the standard output stream that you can inspect for information about activity related to your app.
A monorepo is a software development approach that organizes multiple projects or components into a single repository.
A name server is a Domain Name System (DNS) server that serves DNS records for a domain. DNS records are often used to specify server IP addresses for domains.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a type of cloud service that offers deployment platforms to build, deploy, and scale applications on a subscription basis.
Push-to-deploy support enables you to automatically deploy site live once code is pushed to the GitHub repository using GitHub Actions.
A region is a physical location in the world where DigitalOcean has a datacenter.
Relational database is a type of database that organizes data in tables with predefined relationships. These tables consist of rows (records) and columns (attributes).
A resource in App Platform is any deployable, billable, runtime software element in your app.
REST is an approach to building APIs with a set of architectural constraints that make them faster, simpler, and more standardized. RESTful APIs follow the principles built around unique URL and URI resources. RESTful APIs enable caching, scalability, and stateless communication with all of the necessary information in each request.
A runtime environment is an execution environment for deploying and running applications. Runtime environments contain the necessary applications, dependencies, and operating system to run an application. For example, when you create an app on App Platform, App Platform inspects the code and app resources, and then selects the appropriate runtime environment, such as Node, to run the app in.
Scaling is the process of adding more capacity to a resource in your app.
In App Platform, a service is a type of resource that is accessible via public or internal ports, and running server-side code written in a supported programming language, such as Python, Ruby, Go, Node.js, or PHP.
A standby node is a node that is set aside idling on hot standby.
Stateful systems or applications maintain and rely on state or data associated with previous interactions or events.
In App Platform, a static site is a type of resource that only consists of a build process that produces static assets.
syslog is a standardized protocol and message logging system that collects, transmits, and stores log messages from computer systems and network devices.
An open source tool, captainslog is a syslog protocol tool.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol focused on privacy and data security for communication across the internet.
Top-Level Domain (TLD) is the highest level within the hierarchical domain name system (DNS) structure, such as the .com portion of example.com. DigitalOcean supports most publicly recognized TLDs when adding a domain to your account.
Warning App Platform does not support wildcard DNS records for any of the top-level domains (TLDs) listed on this DigiCert reference page.
FQDN has four components where one of the components is TLD.
TXT records, or text records, define text information about sources outside of a domain. Common use cases for TXT records include creating email security records (DKIM and SPF records) and providing additional information about a domain.
Uniform Resource Identifier (
URI) is a string of characters that identify and provide a means to access a resource on the Internet.
Wildcard records are DNS records that direct requests for non-existent subdomains to a specified resource or IP address.
In App Platform, a worker is a type of resource that is running server-side code written in a supported programming language, such as Python, Ruby, Go, Node.js, or PHP, and is not internet-accessible.
View all App Platform glossary content.
Backups
A crash-consistent backup is a disk image that stores the state of a disk exactly as it was at a single point in time.
Disk images are software copies of physical disks. Disk images save the data of a physical disk, like a hard drive, to one or more files.
View all Backups glossary content.
Container Registry
A load balancer distributes traffic across a backend pool of servers to improve the stability and responsiveness of an application.
A manifest file, or manifest, is a file containing metadata for a group of files that are part of a set unit.
A manifest list is a document that describes a container’s contents, loading sequences, points of origin, and points of destination.
A namespace is a collection of resources containing one or more functions hosted on the DigitalOcean Functions service.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
View all Container Registry glossary content.
Custom Images
Disk images are software copies of physical disks. Disk images save the data of a physical disk, like a hard drive, to one or more files.
An ISO image, or ISO file, is an exact copy of an optical disk, in a single file.
qcow2 is a disk image file format.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
A virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a system of desktop virtualization that hosts desktop environments on a centralized server.
A virtual machine disk (VMDK) file is a virtual file format (
.vmdk) for containers of virtual hard disk drives.View all Custom Images glossary content.
DNS
A records, or address records, map a domain name to an IPv4 address.
AAAA records, or quad A records, map a domain name to an IPv6 address.
CAA records, or Certification Authority Authorization records, or provide additional confirmation for certification authorities (CAs) to validate or issue SSL certificates for a domain.
Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation, or CIDR notation, is a method of representing an IP address network range.
CNAME records, or Canonical Name records, map an alias name to a canonical domain name.
Domain Name System management, or DNS management, is the act of managing DNS records for a particular domain or set of domains. For example, you can add an A record to a domain like
example.com that points the domain to a Droplet’s IP address. This means that whenever a user types in example.com into their browser, the browser connects to Droplet’s IP and returns any websites that might be hosted there.
A DNS query is a request for information from a DNS server.
DNS records, or Domain Name System records, associate domain names map with IP addresses and other information. Common types of DNS records include A records, AAAA records, MX records, and NS records.
A DNS server, also known as a DNS resolver, is a server that contains a database of public DNS records and their associated hostnames.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
MX records, or Mail Exchange records, define the mail servers responsible for accepting email on behalf of a domain.
NS records, or name server records, define which authoritative name servers contain the DNS records for a domain.
PTR records, or pointer records (also known as reverse DNS or rDNS records), map an IP address to a domain name. PTR records are used for reverse DNS lookups.
SRV records, or service records, define the location (host and port) of specific services on a server. Some services, like SIP and XMPP/Jabber, require SRV records.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol focused on privacy and data security for communication across the internet.
TXT records, or text records, define text information about sources outside of a domain. Common use cases for TXT records include creating email security records (DKIM and SPF records) and providing additional information about a domain.
Wildcard records are DNS records that direct requests for non-existent subdomains to a specified resource or IP address.
View all DNS glossary content.
Droplets
A container distribution is a Linux-based operating system optimized for handling containerized applications.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, a threat actor renders information systems, devices, or other network resources inaccessible by overwhelming the target with malicious traffic. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of DoS attack where the overloading traffic originates from multiple attacking machines, amplifying the severity of the attack.
An endpoint is a specific URL or network address that a client device or application uses to interact with a server or service. Most internet connected apps and websites communicate with endpoints to retrieve information, process user interactions, and perform other processes. For example, when you open a weather app on your phone, the weather app requests for the latest forecast information from a server endpoint.
A hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor (VMM) that allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one host computer.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
Linux is group of open-source operating systems (OS) based on the Linux kernel.
Mounting makes the data on a storage device, like block storage, available to the file system on a computer. Users on the computer can then read and write to mounted storage devices.
Multicast internet protocol (IP) routing, or multicast traffic, is a protocol for distributing data to multiple recipients.
A non-volatile memory express, or NVMe for short, is an optimized and scalable storage protocol that connects a host system to its memory subsystems.
An operating system, or OS, is a system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, such as Windows, macOS, or Linux.
An overlay network is a network where all the nodes correspond to nodes in an underlying network and are connected through logical or virtual links.
Packet loss is the situation when one or more packets (small pieces of data) do not make it to the targeted destination.
PTR records, or pointer records (also known as reverse DNS or rDNS records), map an IP address to a domain name. PTR records are used for reverse DNS lookups.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A solid-state drive, or SSD, is a persistent data storage device. SSDs use flash memory, which significantly improves latency and I/O performance over older, electromechanical hard disk drives (HDDs).
SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) is a method to secure remote logins and communications from one computer to another which provides strong authentication and protects communication through strong encryption.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
User Datagram Protocol, or UDP, is an established low-latency connection communication protocol between applications.
A virtual central processing unit, virtual processor, or vCPU is a physical CPU assigned to a virtual machine (VM).
A virtual machine, or VM, is a self-contained virtualization of an operating system.
View all Droplets glossary content.
Firewalls
Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation, or CIDR notation, is a method of representing an IP address network range.
A protocol is a set of rules a client and server adhere to when exchanging data through the internet.
SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) is a method to secure remote logins and communications from one computer to another which provides strong authentication and protects communication through strong encryption.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
User Datagram Protocol, or UDP, is an established low-latency connection communication protocol between applications.
View all Firewalls glossary content.
Functions
The application specification, or app spec, is a YAML manifest that declaratively states everything about your App Platform app, including each resource and all of your app’s environment variables and configuration variables.
An environment variable is a in-memory key/value pair that developers use to store configuration details about their app.
Function as a Service (FaaS) is a type of cloud service that allows you to develop, run, and manage reusable functions without needing to build and maintain a backend infrastructure.
A function is a reusable block of code that you can deploy to the DigitalOcean Functions service and then access via a URL. For example, you can write a traditional Node.js function that returns a list of products from a database and then deploy that function to the Functions service.
Logs are captures of the standard output stream that you can inspect for information about activity related to your app.
A namespace is a collection of resources containing one or more functions hosted on the DigitalOcean Functions service.
A package is a collection of functions. Packages let you organize functions within a project.
A runtime environment is an execution environment for deploying and running applications. Runtime environments contain the necessary applications, dependencies, and operating system to run an application. For example, when you create an app on App Platform, App Platform inspects the code and app resources, and then selects the appropriate runtime environment, such as Node, to run the app in.
View all Functions glossary content.
IPv6
A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), or Absolute Domain Name, is a complete domain name that identifies a host or server.
PTR records, or pointer records (also known as reverse DNS or rDNS records), map an IP address to a domain name. PTR records are used for reverse DNS lookups.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a messaging protocol which controls how email transmissions are performed between computers in Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks.
SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) is a method to secure remote logins and communications from one computer to another which provides strong authentication and protects communication through strong encryption.
A subnet mask splits an IP address, such as
255.255.255.0, into its host and network addresses. The bits (digits) in a subnet mask indicate the number of bits allotted to the network’s address and the number of bits available for host addresses in the network.View all IPv6 glossary content.
Kubernetes
Cluster networking is highly-coupled container-to-container, pod-to-pod, pod-to-service, or external-to-service communication.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
An environment variable is a in-memory key/value pair that developers use to store configuration details about their app.
Feature gates are key-value pairs that describe upstream Kubernetes features.
A hash is a fixed-sized string created by applying a hash function to data. A hash can be used in many different applications for various purposes but are often used to encrypt SSH keys or create unique numerical values that can act as identifiers for data resources.
For example, hashes are used to reference code changes, called commits, in GitHub and other code repository services. DigitalOcean’s Container Registry also uses hashes to create digests for each version of an image stored in a registry. An example hash created with the SHA algorithm looks like this: 3479436528b6961f29e22576d76787b6e5262761
A health check is a scheduled HTTP or TCP request that you can configure to run on a repeating basis to ensure that a service is healthy.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
High-availability control plane is a control plane that has multiple replicas of each control plane component.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
Keep-Alive, or keepalive, is a signal sent from one device to another in order to maintain the connection between the two devices.
A load balancer distributes traffic across a backend pool of servers to improve the stability and responsiveness of an application.
Logs are captures of the standard output stream that you can inspect for information about activity related to your app.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
A namespace is a collection of resources containing one or more functions hosted on the DigitalOcean Functions service.
A pod is the smallest deployable unit of computing that is created and managed by Kubernetes.
A proxy is a computer or software system that acts as a dedicated intermediary between an endpoint device and another server.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
Sticky session, or session persistence occurs when the load balancer creates a connection between a network and a user for a direction of the session.
Surge upgrades create duplicate, up to a maximum of 10, nodes during cluster upgrade.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
User Datagram Protocol, or UDP, is an established low-latency connection communication protocol between applications.
A worker node is a node that runs the application in a cluster and reports to a control plane.
View all Kubernetes glossary content.
Load Balancers
Autobahn|Testsuite is a fully-automated test suite that verifies client and server implementations of the WebSocket Protocol.
In load balancing, a backend pool is a group of resources, such as Droplets, whose traffic are managed by the load balancer.
Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation, or CIDR notation, is a method of representing an IP address network range.
A handshake is the authentication process between two networked devices to ensure that both devices are who they claim to be.
A health check is a scheduled HTTP or TCP request that you can configure to run on a repeating basis to ensure that a service is healthy.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
Keep-Alive, or keepalive, is a signal sent from one device to another in order to maintain the connection between the two devices.
A load balancer distributes traffic across a backend pool of servers to improve the stability and responsiveness of an application.
A proxy is a computer or software system that acts as a dedicated intermediary between an endpoint device and another server.
SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) is a method to secure remote logins and communications from one computer to another which provides strong authentication and protects communication through strong encryption.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
SSL passthrough is the process of passing SSL-encrypted traffic on to a backend server for decryption.
SSL termination is the process of decrypting traffic encrypted with SSL.
Sticky session, or session persistence occurs when the load balancer creates a connection between a network and a user for a direction of the session.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a security protocol focused on privacy and data security for communication across the internet.
User Datagram Protocol, or UDP, is an established low-latency connection communication protocol between applications.
View all Load Balancers glossary content.
Marketplace
1-Click Apps streamline the setup process for servers and Kubernetes clusters by automating tasks such as package installation, firewall rule configuration, load balancer provisioning, and software setup.
Add-Ons are software-as-a-service (SaaS) products provided by external vendors through the DigitalOcean Marketplace.
Hybrid clouds are cloud services that incorporate a private cloud infrastructure while being hosted by a public cloud service provider.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a type of cloud service that offers storage, computing, and networking resources on a subscription basis.
A Marketplace resource is an instance of an Add-On that you provision through the DigitalOcean Marketplace. A Marketplace resource typically maps one-to-one with an account on your SaaS service.
Multicloud refers to using multiple public cloud service providers to run an application.
On-demand self-service cloud resources are resources that are provisioned without human interaction.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a type of cloud service that offers deployment platforms to build, deploy, and scale applications on a subscription basis.
Public clouds are servers accessed over the internet with public cloud services offered and hosted by a cloud service provider, such as DigitalOcean’s Droplets.
Software as a service (SaaS) is a type of cloud service that offers software solutions as a product, hosted by the cloud service provider on a subscription basis.
Vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, is a situation where the cost of switching from one cloud vendor to another is too high, resulting in users staying with their original vendor.
The vendor portal is a vendor-only website within DigitalOcean Marketplace where vendors manage the SaaS Add-Ons they are offering. Through this platform, vendors can add new apps, make catalog updates, and monitor the performance of their SaaS Add-Ons.
View all Marketplace glossary content.
MongoDB
ACID compliance is a set of database characteristics consisting of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability that ensure that database transactions are completed efficiently.
An access control list, or ACL, is a list of user permissions that controls access to a system resource.
A connection string is a string of characters that provides necessary information and parameters to establish a connection between a software application and the database. Connection strings are considered sensitive information and we recommend handling them securely, such as by avoiding hardcoding the string into the application’s code or configuration files.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
Database as a Service, Managed Database Service, or DBaaS for short, is a cloud service that allows users to access a cloud database system without having a personal cloud data system on a subscription basis.
End-to-end encryption, or E2EE, is a system of communication that encrypts messages for everyone including the messaging service except the user receiving the message and the user that sent the message.
Failover is a high availability (HA) mechanism that monitors servers for failures and reroutes traffic or operations to a redundant server when the primary server fails.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
Hot standby is the act of listening for when a primary node fails in order for the standby node to take its place.
Logs are captures of the standard output stream that you can inspect for information about activity related to your app.
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) is an open source disk encryption specification for block storage devices.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
Point-in-time recovery, or PITR for short, ensures that automatic backups are made in order to restore or recover data made in a previous state of the server.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A read-only node is a replica of the cluster’s primary node.
A standby node is a node that is set aside idling on hot standby.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
View all MongoDB glossary content.
Monitoring
An alert interval is the period of time that average usage must exceed a threshold before triggering an alert.
Alerting within a computer monitoring system is the ability to send notifications when certain metrics fall outside of expected ranges.
A data point, or value, is a number and unit representing a single measurement.
A data set is a collection of related data points.
In computing, monitoring is the process of gathering and visualizing data to improve awareness of system health and minimize response time when usage is outside of expected levels.
Percentage units specify a value in relationship to the total available quantity, which is typically set at 100%. Percentages are useful for quantities with a known limit, like disk space.
Rate units specify a value in relation to another measure (most frequently time). Rate units usually tell you frequency of occurrence over a set time period so that you can compare magnitude. Rate units are useful when there is no unambiguous upper boundary that indicates total use or when it is more helpful to examine usage, like incoming bandwidth.
System usage monitoring is a type of monitoring that involves tracking system resources.
In alerting, a threshold is a value that defines the boundary between normal and abnormal usage.
Time series data is data collected at regular intervals and arranged chronologically to examine changes over time.
A trend indicates a general tendency in a data set over time. Trends are useful for recognizing changes and for predicting future behavior.
Units are standard ways of comparing values.
View all Monitoring glossary content.
MySQL
ACID compliance is a set of database characteristics consisting of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability that ensure that database transactions are completed efficiently.
An access control list, or ACL, is a list of user permissions that controls access to a system resource.
Connection status metric is a metric that measures the number of threads created, connected, and running in relation to a database’s connection limit.
A connection string is a string of characters that provides necessary information and parameters to establish a connection between a software application and the database. Connection strings are considered sensitive information and we recommend handling them securely, such as by avoiding hardcoding the string into the application’s code or configuration files.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
Database as a Service, Managed Database Service, or DBaaS for short, is a cloud service that allows users to access a cloud database system without having a personal cloud data system on a subscription basis.
In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, a threat actor renders information systems, devices, or other network resources inaccessible by overwhelming the target with malicious traffic. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of DoS attack where the overloading traffic originates from multiple attacking machines, amplifying the severity of the attack.
End-to-end encryption, or E2EE, is a system of communication that encrypts messages for everyone including the messaging service except the user receiving the message and the user that sent the message.
Failover is a high availability (HA) mechanism that monitors servers for failures and reroutes traffic or operations to a redundant server when the primary server fails.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
Hot standby is the act of listening for when a primary node fails in order for the standby node to take its place.
The index vs. sequential reads plot presents the proportion of reads that use an index over the total number of reads across all databases (schemas) on the main server.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
Logs are captures of the standard output stream that you can inspect for information about activity related to your app.
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) is an open source disk encryption specification for block storage devices.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
Operations throughput metric is a measurement of throughput of fetch, insert, update, and delete operations across all databases on the server.
Point-in-time recovery, or PITR for short, ensures that automatic backups are made in order to restore or recover data made in a previous state of the server.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A read-only node is a replica of the cluster’s primary node.
Scaling is the process of adding more capacity to a resource in your app.
SQL mode, or
sql_mode is a MySQL system variable meant to configure operational characteristics of the MySQL server.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
A standby node is a node that is set aside idling on hot standby.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
View all MySQL glossary content.
PostgreSQL
ACID compliance is a set of database characteristics consisting of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability that ensure that database transactions are completed efficiently.
An access control list, or ACL, is a list of user permissions that controls access to a system resource.
Cache hit ratio is a metric that measures the efficiency of key retrieval in a database.
Connection pooling is a cache of database connections used for future requests to the database as required.
A connection string is a string of characters that provides necessary information and parameters to establish a connection between a software application and the database. Connection strings are considered sensitive information and we recommend handling them securely, such as by avoiding hardcoding the string into the application’s code or configuration files.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
Database as a Service, Managed Database Service, or DBaaS for short, is a cloud service that allows users to access a cloud database system without having a personal cloud data system on a subscription basis.
A deadlock is a situation when two or more programs, processes, or other components are mutually waiting for the other in order to access a resource, which prevents all of them from proceeding.
The deadlocks plot shows the rate of deadlock creation in the database.
Failover is a high availability (HA) mechanism that monitors servers for failures and reroutes traffic or operations to a redundant server when the primary server fails.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
Hot standby is the act of listening for when a primary node fails in order for the standby node to take its place.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) is an open source disk encryption specification for block storage devices.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
Operations throughput metric is a measurement of throughput of fetch, insert, update, and delete operations across all databases on the server.
PgBouncer is an open-source, single-binary Postgres Pro connection pooler for PostgreSQL.
Point-in-time recovery, or PITR for short, ensures that automatic backups are made in order to restore or recover data made in a previous state of the server.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A read-only node is a replica of the cluster’s primary node.
Relational database is a type of database that organizes data in tables with predefined relationships. These tables consist of rows (records) and columns (attributes).
Scaling is the process of adding more capacity to a resource in your app.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
A standby node is a node that is set aside idling on hot standby.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
View all PostgreSQL glossary content.
Projects
Droplet-based resources are a category of resources within a DigitalOcean Project.
Independent resources are DigitalOcean resources that cannot interact with DigitalOcean Projects.
Project-based resources are DigitalOcean resources that are always associated with a DigitalOcean Project.
View all Projects glossary content.
Redis
ACID compliance is a set of database characteristics consisting of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability that ensure that database transactions are completed efficiently.
An access control list, or ACL, is a list of user permissions that controls access to a system resource.
Cache hit ratio is a metric that measures the efficiency of key retrieval in a database.
Connection pooling is a cache of database connections used for future requests to the database as required.
Connection status metric is a metric that measures the number of threads created, connected, and running in relation to a database’s connection limit.
A connection string is a string of characters that provides necessary information and parameters to establish a connection between a software application and the database. Connection strings are considered sensitive information and we recommend handling them securely, such as by avoiding hardcoding the string into the application’s code or configuration files.
A central processing unit, also called a processor or CPU, is an essential piece of computer hardware that executes the instructions from a computer program.
A data eviction policy specifies what happens when a database reaches its memory limit.
Database as a Service, Managed Database Service, or DBaaS for short, is a cloud service that allows users to access a cloud database system without having a personal cloud data system on a subscription basis.
In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, a threat actor renders information systems, devices, or other network resources inaccessible by overwhelming the target with malicious traffic. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a type of DoS attack where the overloading traffic originates from multiple attacking machines, amplifying the severity of the attack.
Failover is a high availability (HA) mechanism that monitors servers for failures and reroutes traffic or operations to a redundant server when the primary server fails.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
Hot standby is the act of listening for when a primary node fails in order for the standby node to take its place.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) is an open source disk encryption specification for block storage devices.
Machine type is the set of virtualized hardware resources used for a virtual machine (VM) instance.
Operations throughput metric is a measurement of throughput of fetch, insert, update, and delete operations across all databases on the server.
Point-in-time recovery, or PITR for short, ensures that automatic backups are made in order to restore or recover data made in a previous state of the server.
Random-Access Memory, or RAM, is a memory storage made to store and access memory on a short-term basis.
A read-only node is a replica of the cluster’s primary node.
A standby node is a node that is set aside idling on hot standby.
Tags are keywords associated with resources which help with managing resource ownership and organize lookups and actions on resources.
View all Redis glossary content.
Reserved IPs
Anchor IP addresses are IP addresses that reserved IPs can bind to.
Failover is a high availability (HA) mechanism that monitors servers for failures and reroutes traffic or operations to a redundant server when the primary server fails.
A gateway is a server or router that provides access to networks from other networks or the public internet.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
View all Reserved IPs glossary content.
Snapshots
Disk images are software copies of physical disks. Disk images save the data of a physical disk, like a hard drive, to one or more files.
View all Snapshots glossary content.
Spaces
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials is an HTTP header that, when set to true, allows browsers to send identifiable information (such as cookies, authorization headers, and TLS client certificates) with requests.
Access-Control-Allow-Methods is a header request that allows one or more HTTP methods when accessing a resource when responding to a preflight request.
Access-Control-Allow-Origin is an HTTP response header stating whether the application or source requesting access is allowed to access the response content. This header is part of the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) policy.
Access-Control-Expose-Headers is a header request that allows a server to show which response headers are available to scripts running in the browser.
Access-Control-Max-Age is a header request that determines how long to cache the results of a preflight request.
The Content Delivery Network (CDN) cache caches content such as images, videos, or web pages in a proxy server that are more closely located to end users.
A content delivery network (CDN) endpoint is a launching point or destination that is linked to the internet and receives communication and content between multiple servers.
CNAME records, or Canonical Name records, map an alias name to a canonical domain name.
High Availability (HA) is an approach to infrastructure design focusing on reducing downtime and eliminating single points of failure.
A key, or bucket key, is a unique data key for objects in a bucket.
A pre-signed URL is a connection URL created by an authorized user so that unauthorized users can access restricted resources without sharing credentials.
REST is an approach to building APIs with a set of architectural constraints that make them faster, simpler, and more standardized. RESTful APIs follow the principles built around unique URL and URI resources. RESTful APIs enable caching, scalability, and stateless communication with all of the necessary information in each request.
S3-Compatible Object Storage, or S3 is a storage solution that uses the S3 API.
SSL certificate is a digital document outlining the identity of the website.
View all Spaces glossary content.
Volumes
Attaching a DigitalOcean Block Storage Volume to a Droplet lets you mount the volume to make it accessible to the Droplet’s filesystem. Similarly, detaching a volume from a Droplet lets you reattach it to another Droplet.
In cloud computing, block storage is a network-based way to store data. Block storage services, like DigitalOcean Volumes Block Storage, provide similar behavior to traditional block storage devices, like hard drives.
ext4, or fourth extended file system, is a journaling file system for Linux. ext4’s most common use case is formatting volumes, hard drives, and other computing storage solutions.
Formatting a storage device, like a hard drive or block storage, creates a filesystem on the device (and erases any existing data). You typically only need to format a device once, when you first create it.
IOPS, or input/output operations per second, is a measurement of the performance of storage devices. A higher IOPS measurement implies better performance for reading and writing data.
Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) is an open source disk encryption specification for block storage devices.
Mounting makes the data on a storage device, like block storage, available to the file system on a computer. Users on the computer can then read and write to mounted storage devices.
View all Volumes glossary content.
VPC
Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation, or CIDR notation, is a method of representing an IP address network range.
cloud-init is an industry standard instance initialization tool that allows you to inject customized configurations into a Droplet at creation time, such as setting up a user with specific privileges. Using cloud-init can save you provisioning and setup time by allowing you to automate common setup tasks.
A gateway is a server or router that provides access to networks from other networks or the public internet.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a communications protocol used to connect computers across a network, specifically the Internet. IP consists of rules and regulations for transmission of packets across a network including routing and addressing. IP ensures that the packets of data that travel across a network arrives at the correct location.
A network is a collection interconnected servers or computers that communicate and share resources amongst each other.
View all VPC glossary content.