server-quickstart.md

Ultra-brief instructions for how to get a Linux server

These instructions are meant as companion to the server prep chapter of my book. They're almost telegraphic in style, but I hope they're better than nothing!

Use Digital Ocean

I didn't want to make a specific recommendation in the book itself, but I'll make one here. I like Digital Ocean. Good value for money, fast servers, and you can get a couple of months' worth of free credit by following my referral link.

Generate an SSH key

SSH aka "secure shell" is a protocol for running a terminal session on a remote server, across the network. It involves authentication, as you might expect, and different types of it. You can use usernames and passwords, but public/private key authentication is more convenient, and (as always, arguably) more secure.

If you've never created one before, the command is

ssh-keygen

NOTE If you're on Windows, you need to be using Git-Bash for ssh-keygen and ssh to work. There's more info in the installation instructions chapter

Just accept all the defaults if you really want to just get started in a hurry, and no passphrase.

Later on, you'll want to re-create a key with a passphrase for extra security, but that means you have to figure out how to save that passphrase in such a way that Ansible won't ask for it later, and I don't have time to write instructions for that now!

Make a note of your "public key"

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

More info on public key authentication here and here

Start a Server aka VM aka Droplet

A "droplet" is Digital Ocean's name for a server. Pick the default Ubuntu, the cheapest type, and whichever region is closest to you. You won't need access to the ancillary services that are available (Block storage, a VPC network, IPv6, User-Data, Monitoring, Back-Ups, etc, don't worry about those)

• Choose New SSH Key and upload your public key from above

Make a note of your server's IP address once it's started

Log in for the first time

ssh root@your-server-ip-address-here

It should just magically find your SSH key and log you in without any need for a password. Hooray!

Create a non-root user

It's good security practice to avoid using the root user directly. Let's create a non-root user with super-user ("sudo") privileges, a bit like you have on your own machine.

useradd -m -s /bin/bash elspeth # add user named elspeth 
# -m creates a home folder, -s sets elspeth to use bash by default

usermod -a -G sudo elspeth # add elspeth to the sudoers group

# allow elspeth to sudo without retyping password
echo 'elspeth ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/elspeth

 # set password for elspeth (you'll need to type one in)
passwd elspeth

su - elspeth # switch-user to being elspeth!

Add your public key to the non-root user as well.

• Copy your public key to your clipboard, and then

# as user elspeth
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
echo 'PASTE
YOUR
PUBLIC
KEY
HERE' >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Now log out from the server, and verify you can SSH in as elspeth from your laptop

ssh elspeth@your-server-ip-address-here

Also check you can use "sudo" as elspeth

sudo echo hi

Registering a domain name

There's one more thing you need to do in the book, which is to map a domain name to your server's IP address.

If you don't already own a domain name you can use (you don't have to use the www. subdomain, you could use superlists.yourdomain.com), then you'll need to get one from a "domain registrar". There are loads out there, I quite like Gandi or the slightly-more-friendly 123-reg.

If you want a free one there's dot.tk. Be aware that their business model is based on ads, so there will be ads all over your domain until you configure it.

Pull requests and suggestions accepted!

I literally threw these instructions together in 10 minutes flat, so I'm sure they could do with improvements. Please send in suggestions, typos, fixes, any common "gotchas" you ran into that you think I should mention.