How to set up VPS on Linux – Initial Setup

Abhimanyu Rathore | May 14, 2014 | Networking, Technology, Training, Tutorial | No Comments

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series How to set up VPS on Linux

How to set up VPS on Linux

How to set up VPS on Linux – Introduction
How to set up VPS on Linux – Initial Setup

Deploying a Linux Distribution
First step in doing initial setup on VPS is deploying the linux on the server, For this tutorial i will be working with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.
1. Login to your VPS Console
2. Find the option to deploy the server, location can vary from provider to provider. I will be working with Linode
3. Select the distribution mine is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS you can also work with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
4. Enter the deployment Size(Disk Size), keep default if you don’t know much about it.
5. Select the Swap Disk Size. i recommend to keep the default.
6. Enter your Root password. keep a strong password for security
7. click Rebuild/Build/Deploy
Boot The Server
After deployment the next step is to Booting up the Server(on your VPS Provider it may boot automatically after deployment).
1. login to Linode Manager
2. Click the Linodes tab
3. Select your Linode.
4. Click the Boot
Connecting to Server first time
when you connect the server first time, you need to find the server’s IP address.
1. Finding the IP Address – this process may vary from provider to provider . i will be telling the process for linode
  1. Log-in to your Linode Console.
  2. Click on Linode Tab.
  3. Select your Linode.
  4. Click on Remote Access Tab.
  5. Here you can see the IP-Address of your server. something like this public ip
```
123.456.78.90/ 255.255.255.0 
```
2. Logging in for the First Time
  1. Choose your ssh client. i will be using putty
  2. open the ssh client and enter the ssh Address. replace 123.456.78.90 with your server IP
```
ssh root@123.456.78.90
```
    for putty see the below screenshot.
    
    ssh VPS using putty
  3. you will receive prompt warning similar to below, say yes and hit enter
```
The authenticity of host '123.456.78.90 (123.456.78.90)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 11:eb:57:f3:a5:c3:e0:77:47:c4:15:3a:3c:df:6c:d2.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
```
  4. enter your credential.
  5. If server IP is correct and credentials are ok you will be logged into your server
Setting the Hostname
enter the following command to set the host-name.replace “plato” with hostname of your choice. Same hostname will be user wherever we mention the hostname in later steps.
```
echo "plato" > /etc/hostname
hostname -F /etc/hostname
```
check the hostname by entering below command
```
hostname
```
Update hosts file
Next step is to update the host file with your server IP-Address and the hostname
1. open the hosts file in edit mode using command:
```
sudo nano /etc/hosts
```
2. Replace ubuntu with your hostname
3. Add the below line to the file, where replace your-ip by your server’s IP-Address
```
Your-serverip yourhostname.yourdomainname
e.g. 123.456.78.90 plato.example.com
```
4. Save file using Control-X, then Y and hit enter.
Setting the Timezone
Use the below command to set the Timezone.
```
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
```