VPS Setup

Linux VPS (Virtual Private Server) Setup notes.

Connecting to Server

Connect to server with SSH

ssh root@12.13.14.15

It will prompt to add fingerprint. Type yes and it will ask for password.

To exit from the ssh session we just need to simply type:

exit

Update and Upgrade packages

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

You may need to reboot the server after updating some packages or kernel upgrade.

To check if the server needs reboot, run the following command:

ls /var/run/reboot-required

Restart the ssd service

If we change the ssh configuration, we need to restart the ssh service daemon.

sudo service ssh restart

sudo systemctl restart sshd

Securing the Server

Check login attempts

tail -n 10 -f /var/log/auth.log

Change the user password

passwd

Login with SSH

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the ssh public key and add the value on the server’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

After that SSH promts should not ask for password and directly login.

If the SSH login is not working on the server, check /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and make sure PubkeyAuthentication is enabled.

Disable password login

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Change the PasswordAuthentication value to no

PasswordAuthentication no

Disable root login

Set the value of PermitRootLogin to no in ssh config file

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin no