You’ve rented a VPS. Now what? In one hour, you’ll go from a fresh IP address to a fully functioning production web app \u2014 with SSH hardened, a web server running, a database installed, and your application deployed. No control panels, no fluff. Just commands that work on any Ubuntu 24.04 or Debian 12 server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your provider sent you an IP address and root password. Let’s lock that down immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Connect:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a non-root user with sudo:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Set up SSH key authentication:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now disable root password login: run Set up the firewall:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ll use Nginx and PostgreSQL \u2014 a fast, modern stack. For a WordPress setup, swap PostgreSQL for MySQL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start and enable services:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a database and user for your app:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Create an Nginx server block for your domain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enable the site and get a Let’s Encrypt certificate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a Node.js app, install Node and PM2:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a PHP app (e.g., Laravel or WordPress), install PHP-FPM and configure Nginx to pass PHP requests through the FastCGI socket shown in the config above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check everything is running:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Install a quick monitoring tool to keep an eye on resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set up automatic security updates:<\/p>\n\n\n\nssh root@your-server-ip<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nadduser deployer\nusermod -aG sudo deployer\nsu - deployer<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nmkdir -p ~\/.ssh\nchmod 700 ~\/.ssh\necho \"your-public-key-here\" >> ~\/.ssh\/authorized_keys\nchmod 600 ~\/.ssh\/authorized_keys<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsudo nano \/etc\/ssh\/sshd_config<\/code> and set PermitRootLogin prohibit-password<\/code> and PasswordAuthentication no<\/code>. Then sudo systemctl restart sshd<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nsudo ufw allow OpenSSH\nsudo ufw enable\nsudo ufw status<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n10\u201325 Minutes: Install a Web Server and Database<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y\nsudo apt install nginx postgresql postgresql-contrib certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsudo systemctl enable --now nginx\nsudo systemctl enable --now postgresql<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsudo -u postgres psql -c \"CREATE USER appuser WITH PASSWORD 'strong-password-here';\"\nsudo -u postgres psql -c \"CREATE DATABASE myapp OWNER appuser;\"\nsudo -u postgres psql -c \"GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE myapp TO appuser;\"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n25\u201340 Minutes: Configure Nginx and Get a Free SSL Certificate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
sudo nano \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/myapp<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nserver {\n listen 80;\n server_name your-domain.com www.your-domain.com;\n root \/var\/www\/myapp;\n index index.html index.php;\n\n location \/ {\n try_files $uri $uri\/ =404;\n }\n\n location ~ \\.php$ {\n include snippets\/fastcgi-php.conf;\n fastcgi_pass unix:\/run\/php\/php8.3-fpm.sock;\n }\n\n location ~ \/\\.ht {\n deny all;\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsudo ln -s \/etc\/nginx\/sites-available\/myapp \/etc\/nginx\/sites-enabled\/\nsudo nginx -t\nsudo systemctl reload nginx\nsudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com -d www.your-domain.com<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n40\u201355 Minutes: Deploy Your Application<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
curl -fsSL https:\/\/deb.nodesource.com\/setup_22.x | sudo -E bash -\nsudo apt install nodejs -y\nsudo npm install -g pm2\n\n# Clone and start your app\ngit clone https:\/\/github.com\/your-org\/your-app.git \/var\/www\/myapp\ncd \/var\/www\/myapp\nnpm install\npm2 start app.js --name myapp\npm2 save\npm2 startup systemd<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n55\u201360 Minutes: Verify and Set Up Monitoring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
sudo systemctl status nginx\nsudo systemctl status postgresql\ncurl -I https:\/\/your-domain.com\npm2 status<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsudo apt install htop -y\nhtop # Hit F9 to sort by CPU usage<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nsudo apt install unattended-upgrades -y\nsudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nWhat’s Next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n