Deploying a Secure Virtual Private Server with Ubuntu 20.04

Name: Deploying a Secure Virtual Private Server with Ubuntu 20.04
Rating: 4.6 (359 reviews)

Setting up a secure instance of Ubuntu 20.04 with Caddy, NGINX, Apache, PHP, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, and more

Created byTrevor Sawler

Last updated 2/2023

English

What you'll learn

Deploy a secure Virtual Private Server on a provider like Linode, Digital Ocean, or Vultr
Best practices to secure the VPS
Install most commonly used software (web server, PHP, databases, etc)
Learn how ufw, the "Uncomplicated Firewall" works
Connect to the VPS using SSH (secure shell) and Kes (public and private SSH keys)

Course content

10 sections • 66 lectures • 4h 21m total length

Introduction3:00
A brief overview of what we will cover in this course
Choosing a VPS provider3:13
Linode, DigitalOcean, or Vultr?
Choosing the right type of server and deploying our VPS6:24
Picking the correct server type from our VPS provider
A note about the Linux commands I'll be using0:39
Not to panic -- we'll cover the basic Linux commands in the next section
Connecting to our server for the first time5:30
Our first test drive of SSH, secure shell
Setting up a non-root user account4:29
Only become the super user (root) when absolutely necessary
Updating the system5:42
Our introduction to aptitude, Ubuntu's package manager: apt update and apt upgrade

Using the command line to get around our VPS14:23
An overview of navigating the Linux file system
Adding and deleting users and file ownership7:49
User management in Linux
File permissions7:38
How to determine who can do what to files and directories
Editors: vi and pico10:57
Some options for creating and editing text files on the remote system
Copying files5:47
How to copy and move files on the remote system
Quiz

Introduction1:40
What we will cover in this section
Generating public & private keys for Mac & Linux4:12
To secure SSH, we need to generate both public and private keys
A note for Windows Users0:24
Generating public/private keys for Windows3:06
How to generate public & private keys on Windows 10 and copy them to the server.
Copying our public key to the server2:14
Getting our public key up on the server
Spinning up new servers with your ssh public key1:19
Making new servers with ssh keys installed by default
Modifying the sshd_config to require keys, and prevent root login3:56
Locking down ssh
Additional SSH changes2:51
Fine tuning the ssh server
Installing fail2ban4:10
What about FTP?2:03
FTP is not secure. Don't use it.

More about ufw, the Uncomplicated Firewall0:48
ufw is your friend. Learn it, and use it
Setting up basic ufw rules2:33
Getting started with ufw
More complicated rules4:30
Making more complex ufw rules
Deleting rules2:05
How to delete rules you don't need any more
Enabling/disabling the firewall2:37
Turning the firewall on and off as needed
What about cloud firewalls?2:45
Can you depend on cloud firewalls?
Cheat Sheet2:19
A helpful reference guide

Server name - hostname2:20
Changing our server name from localhost to something more useful
Pointing DNS to our VPS3:34
If you own a domain, you can name your server to something that makes sense
Setting the timezone1:48
UTC is fine, but set the timezone to something that makes sense
Installing some helpful tools4:01
A few useful tools
How and when should you resize your VPS?4:18
Sometimes you just need more power

NGINX, Apache, and Caddy -- which one?2:43
A good webserver is a must
Setting up Apache1:53
Apache 2 - the most popular web server in the world
Adding a virtual host in Apache11:11
Setting up a couple of web sites with apache
Enable LetsEncrypt on Apache8:20
Installing a free SSL certificate
Apache logs & starting and stopping the server4:15
Basic control of the apache server
Setting up NGINX2:12
nginx is a fast, stable, lightweight web server and reverse proxy
Adding a virtual host in NGINX8:44
Pointing nginx to our two virtual hosts
Enable LetsEncrypt on NGINX3:42
Connecting LetsEncrypt to nginx for free SSL certificates
NGINX logs & starting and stopping the server2:24
Basic control of the nginx server
Setting up Caddy2:58
Caddy - my personal favourite web server (at the moment)
A note about Caddy 2.50:34
Adding a virtual host in Caddy7:48
Pointing Caddy to our two virtual hosts
Caddy logs & starting and stopping Caddy4:49
Basic control of the Caddy server

Installing MariaDB, a drop in replacement for MySQL3:46
MariaDB is a superb replacement for MySQL
Configuring and connecting to MariaDB2:46
Making sure we can connect to the database from the command line
Connecting to MariaDB remotely using a GUI client2:52
Using an ssh tunnel to connect to our database
Installing Postgres1:46
Postgres is my personal favourite among open source database servers
Connecting to postgres4:28
Making sure we can connect to the database from the command line
Connecting to Postgres remotely using a GUI client2:49
Connecting to Postgres through an ssh tunnel
Installing Redis1:39
Redis is a fast key/value memory store

Requirements

A functional Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer & an Internet connection
Some experience with Linux is helpful, but not essential. We'll go over the basics

Description

Many developers have been turning to Virtual Private Servers to host their projects, and with good reason: unlike in a shared hosting environment, you are not running the risk of someone else's badly written code resulting in poor performance or (worse yet) your site being compromised because of someone else's insecure programming.

With a Virtual Private Server, you have complete control over the software that is available to you, and you can fine tune the server to meet your exact needs. But setting up a secure VPS takes a bit of work, and requires a bit of learning.

This course will take you through the basics of setting up a fast, secure VPS on Linode, DigitalOcean, AWS Lightsail, Vultr or any other provider that offers VPS Linux hosting. We'll set up an Ubuntu 20.04 server with the most commonly needed software, and ensure that it is locked down as securely as possible. We will also go through best practices for adding users, software, and services, and ensure that we choose the right kind of server for a particular project. We will learn how to implement public and private keys for secure access using SSH, how to edit files on the remote server through the command line using vi or nano/pico, how to use the most common and useful Linux command line programs, and how to configure the most popular and useful server software.

Who this course is for:

Developers who want to host their own web applications
People who are interested in acquiring "DevOps" skills for future employment
People who are interested in best practices for securing a Linux based server

Deploying a Secure Virtual Private Server with Ubuntu 20.04

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction7 lectures • 29min

Getting started with our VPS5 lectures • 47min

Locking Down SSH10 lectures • 26min

Firewall7 lectures • 18min

Setting up the operating system5 lectures • 16min

Choosing and installing a web server13 lectures • 1hr 2min

Installing PHP5 lectures • 20min

Databases7 lectures • 20min

Installing web applications4 lectures • 14min

Regular Maintenance3 lectures • 11min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: