Linux VPS Server Setup (Ubuntu)

Configure your Ubuntu-based VPS server from scratch. Security, user management and basic settings.

Intermediate30 min

Setup Steps

1. Connect to your VPS via SSH:

ssh root@server_ip_address

2. Update the system:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

3. Create a new user:

adduser newuser
usermod -aG sudo newuser

4. Configure SSH key-based authentication:

mkdir -p /home/newuser/.ssh
cp ~/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/newuser/.ssh/
chown -R newuser:newuser /home/newuser/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/newuser/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/newuser/.ssh/authorized_keys

5. Harden SSH configuration (/etc/ssh/sshd_config):

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
Port 2222

6. Restart SSH:

systemctl restart sshd

7. Enable UFW firewall:

ufw allow 2222/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

8. Set timezone:

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Istanbul

9. Create swap space (2GB):

fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
chmod 600 /swapfile
mkswap /swapfile
swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

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