Setting up an instance

What do I need before I start?

Setting up an instance takes a few minutes once you have these at hand:

• A product name, for example "Consultation" or "Meet". People see it in the browser tab and in email invitations.
• A host name, for example meet.example.com, and access to the DNS of that domain. A subdomain of your own website works best.
• A logo: PNG or JPEG, at least 250 pixels wide and no larger than 500 KB. A transparent background helps.
• An app icon: a square PNG of 1024 x 1024 pixels. It is used as the browser icon and as the app icon on phones and computers.
• Your brand colors, as RGB values or picked by eye.
• The details of an email account the instance can send from: SMTP server, port, user name and password. The account only sends; it does not need to receive anything.
• The addresses of your legal pages: privacy policy, terms and conditions, and imprint (legal notice), if you have them.
• The name and email address of the person who will administer the instance.

A background image and an image for link previews on social networks are optional and can be added at any time.

How do I set up a new instance?

1. Create the instance

1. Log in to the partner portal on your reseller host name.
2. Open Configuration in the side menu. It shows your own reseller.
3. Open the whitelabel tab, enter the customer's name and select Add whitelabel.

The partner portal then opens the settings of the new instance. The new instance already works with default values: everything you do from here on replaces a default with your own value.

2. Point the host name at the platform

1. In your DNS, create a CNAME record for the host name. The settings page shows the target under the host name field, in the form "Make sure your DNS CNAME points to …".
2. Wait until the record has propagated. Depending on your DNS provider this can take a few minutes.
3. In Marketing, enter the Product name and the Host name of the meeting application, then save.

When you save, the platform checks that the CNAME record exists and that no other instance uses the host name. It then sets up the web server for the host name and obtains a TLS certificate for it. You do not need to buy or upload a certificate.

If the field shows an error about the DNS record, the record has not propagated yet or points somewhere else, and you cannot save. Check the record, then enter the host name again so that it is checked anew.

3. Set up email

1. In Email, enter the From name and From email that recipients should see.
2. Enter the Email host, Email port, Email username and Email password of your mail server. Use port 465 for a connection that is encrypted from the start, or the port your server uses for STARTTLS, usually 587.
3. Save, then use Test email to send yourself a message.

Invitations, meeting summaries, password resets and all other system emails now leave from this account.

4. Set the region and legal links

1. In Region, choose the UI languages your users may select, the Default language and the Base timezone, the timezone new users start with.
2. In Legal and compliance, enter the Privacy policy URL, the Terms and conditions URL and the Imprint. They appear on the login page and on the screen where participants join a meeting.

5. Apply your branding

Open Configuration > Branding, upload the logo and the icon, set the colors and save. A live preview shows the result on the Schedule meeting and Join meeting screens before you save. Branding describes every option.

6. Add the first administrator

1. Open the Admins tab of the instance.
2. Add the administrator with their name and email address.

The administrator receives an email with their login details. Because logging in on an instance requires an account, the platform also creates a 14-day trial account for them, named after their email address, with one meeting room. Inside the instance, under Account management, the administrator can turn it into a regular account or create the customer's real accounts next to it.

The instance is ready. Its administrator logs in on the instance's host name and finds everything under Platform settings.

What else is worth setting on day one?

• Leave URL: where participants without an account are taken after a meeting, typically your own website.
• Marketing URL: the website linked at the bottom of every email.
• Support email address: the address your users should write to for help.
• Features: which meeting features the instance offers. See Features.
• Sign-in: whether users log in with a password, through your own login page or with SAML single sign-on. See Sign-in and security.

Everything else can wait. Every setting starts from a working default, and most instances change only a handful of them.