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-date = 2021-03-30
-title = "How to Set Up a VPS Web Server"
-description = "A beginner's guide to setting up a virtual private server (VPS)."
-+++
-
-## Shared Hosting vs. VPS
-
-Choosing a place to host a website is one of the most confusing
-decisions for beginner web developers. Even for experienced web devs,
-choosing between different forms of web hosting can be a daunting
-choice.
-
-First, let's take a look at [shared web
-hosting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_web_hosting_service).
-Shared web hosting is a product where you are purchasing a small piece
-of a web server that is being shared between many websites. As a result,
-the cost of shared hosting is extremely low. You won't have access to
-the server itself, which means you can't install your own software on
-the server, such as Docker. Usually, you are simply allowed to connect
-your domains to the server, set up domain security, and other small
-utilities.
-
-In contrast, a [virtual private
-server](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_server) (VPS) is a
-virtual machine that replicates the environment of having a dedicated
-server to yourself. You are able to control the virtual server's host
-names, base file system, package manager, etc. Another great upside of a
-VPS is that since it's virtual, the company providing the VPS can
-dynamically increase the disk size, RAM size, or number of CPUs at any
-time. However, the virtual server is still physically located on a
-server that is shared between multiple virtual servers.
-
-The choice between shared hosting and VPS mostly depends on your skill
-level with system administration. If you're comforting working on a
-server that is mostly left up to you (or you're willing to learn), then
-a VPS is usually a better option. However, shared hosting is a fantastic
-option for people who don't want to have to learn how to manage their
-server.
-
-## My Situation
-
-I had used shared hosting for approximately 5 years before trying my
-first VPS. I manage a homelab and have had success running a server and
-performing typical sysadmin duties, but I was still hesitant to get a
-VPS. One fear was that I always struggled to properly set up the
-networking part of a server - DNS and hostname configurations were not
-my friend.
-
-As a little bit of background, I originally used
-[Siteground](https://www.siteground.com) for my initially shared hosting
-and stayed on that platform for at least a year. However, the UI was
-clunky, and I didn't like how they handled certain technical aspects,
-so I switched to [Namecheap](https://www.namecheap.com). Namecheap was
-great because it is the service I primarily use for purchasing domain
-names, which made it incredibly easy to link them to my hosting service.
-However, it was still mediocre shared hosting, and Namecheap is
-notorious for not letting you use [Let's
-Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org) to obtain free SSL/TLS certificates;
-Namecheap wants to make you purchase certificates through their store.
-
-Finally, I settled down with [iWebFusion](https://www.iwebfusion.net)
-for about the last year of my shared hosting. This service was pretty
-great, came with free SSL/TLS, and I never had any complaints.
-
-However, I finally grew tired of not being able to install software on
-my own web server. I wanted to be able to try out things like
-[Postmill](https://postmill.xyz) or [Matrix](https://matrix.org). This
-is possible with a VPS, so I decided to grab a new domain name to try it
-out.
-
-## Getting Started: Buying a VPS
-
-The first step to moving over to a VPS is (you guessed it): finding a
-VPS provider. For my VPSs, I use [1984](https://1984hosting.com) and
-prefer their services much more than any alternative, due to their
-location (Iceland), their [privacy
-policy](https://1984hosting.com/GDPR/), their respect for GDPR, and the
-ability to remain anonymous if you pay in Bitcoin or Monero.
-
-[Njalla](https://njal.la) is another good, privacy-oriented option for
-VPS services.
-
-You'll have to decide what specifications you want on your VPS. For me,
-I only build and deploy low-resource HTML, PHP, and Python websites.
-This means I can survive on the smallest VPS: 1 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and
-25GB SSD for \$5.00 per month.
-
-As noted above, the great thing about a VPS is you can request your
-provider to increase the resources at any time.
-
-## Configuring DNS Settings
-
-Okay, so now let's get into some actual work that has to be done to get
-content moved from a shared host to a VPS. At this point, I'm assuming
-you have a shared host with website content that you can still access,
-and you've purchased a new VPS and can SSH into that server.
-
-The first change is minor, but it should be done immediately in order to
-get things moving: DNS settings. Go to wherever your DNS settings are
-handled. If your shared host also managed your DNS settings, you'll
-need to first move that DNS over to your new VPS provider. For me, I
-route my DNS through [Gandi](https://www.gandi.net).
-
-Once you know where your DNS settings are, go ahead and update the
-`A` records to match the public IP address of your VPS. For
-example:
-
-```txt
-A         example.com     xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
-A         subdomain       xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
-CNAME     www             example.com.
-```
-
-If you have any other records that require updates, such as MX or TXT
-records for a mail server, be sure to update those accordingly.
-Personally, I don't host my own mail server. I route all mail on my
-custom domains to [Migadu](https://www.migadu.com). Hosting your own
-email server can become complex quickly and is not for beginners.
-
-DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate, so be sure to give it
-some time before assuming you've made an error.
-
-## Server Updates and Packages
-
-Now that the DNS settings have been changed, let's set up our server
-while we wait for the DNS to propagate. First up is to ssh into your
-server. If you've signed up with a service like DigitalOcean, you can
-add your SSH key to your account and to your VPS droplet so that you
-don't need a password in order to SSH.
-
-```sh
-ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
-```
-
-The VPS that is used in this blog post runs Ubuntu 20.04 with an Apache
-web server. If you're working on a different operating system (OS) or
-want a different web server, such as Nginx, you'll have to use
-different commands to set it up.
-
-First, let's update and upgrade our server.
-
-**NOTE:** Since we have logged in to the server as `root` for
-now, we don't need to use the `sudo` modifier before our
-commands.
-
-```sh
-apt update && apt upgrade -y
-```
-
-## Create A User Account
-
-While being able to use `root` can be beneficial at times,
-you shouldn't use `root` unless you have to.
-
-So let's set up a new user in our system. The `-m` option
-below tells the OS to create a home directory for the new user.
-
-```sh
-adduser USERNAME
-```
-
-Now, create a password for that user.
-
-```sh
-passwd USERNAME
-```
-
-Finally, add the user to the sudoers file, so they can perform
-priveleged commands.
-
-```sh
-usermod -a -G sudo USERNAME
-```
-
-If you are using SSH keys and not passwords, you'll need to copy your
-SSH key from your local machine to the VPS. If you haven't disabled
-password-based SSH yet, the easiest way to do this is
-`ssh-copy-id` from your local computer (not from the VPS):
-
-```sh
-ssh-copy-id testuser@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
-```
-
-If you've disabled password-based SSH, you'll need to manually copy
-your SSH key into the `~/.ssh/authorized_keys` file.
-
-## Install Software
-
-Our goal here is to host a web server, so the next step is to install
-the Apache web server and any other packages we need.
-
-From this point on, I will be logged in as a user (not
-`root`) and will need to use the `sudo` modifier
-for most commands.
-
-```sh
-sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade -y; sudo apt autoremove -y
-sudo apt install apache2
-```
-
-If you need other language support, such as PHP, you'll need to install
-that too.
-
-```sh
-sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php php-dom
-sudo a2enmod php
-sudo systemctl restart apache2
-```
-
-## Website Files & Folders
-
-Next up is to create the directories for the domain(s) we want to be
-hosted on this web server.
-
-```sh
-cd /var/www
-sudo mkdir example.com
-```
-
-We have a folder for `example.com` now, so let's add an
-`index.html` file and put it within a specific
-`public_html` folder. You don't need this
-`public_html` if you don't want it, but it helps with
-organizing items related to `example.com` that you don't
-want to publish to the internet.
-
-```sh
-cd example.com
-sudo mkdir public_html && cd public_html
-sudo nano index.html
-```
-
-You can put anything you want in this `index.html` file. If
-you can't think of anything, paste this in there:
-
-```html
-<!DOCTYPE html>
-<html lang="en">
-    <head>
-        <meta charset="utf-8" />
-        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
-        <title>Hello, world!</title>
-    </head>
-    <body>
-        <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
-    </body>
-</html>
-```
-
-If you want something to be served at
-`example.com/page01/file.txt`, you'll have to create the
-`page01` directory under the `example.com`
-directory. For example:
-
-```sh
-cd /var/www/example.com/public_html
-sudo mkdir page01
-sudo nano file.txt
-```
-
-## Apache Configuration
-
-Now, let's set up the files that will tell the server where to find the
-files for `example.com`. We will copy the default
-configuration file and create our own.
-
-```sh
-cd /etc/apache2/sites-available
-sudo cp 000-default.conf example.com.conf
-sudo nano example.com.conf
-```
-
-This configuration file will have a few default lines, but you'll need
-to edit it to look similar to this (settings may change based on your
-personal needs):
-
-```config
-<VirtualHost *:80>
-    ServerAdmin your-email@email-provider.com
-    ServerName example.com
-    ServerAlias www.example.com
-    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/public_html
-    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
-    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
-</VirtualHost>
-```
-
-Now, enable the configuration for your new site, disable the default
-configuration, and reload the web server.
-
-```sh
-sudo a2ensite example.com.conf
-sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
-sudo systemctl reload apache2
-```
-
-You can always run a test to make sure no errors or warnings are found
-in your configuration files.
-
-```sh
-sudo apache2ctl configtest
-```
-
-Now, restart the web server entirely. After this, you should be able to
-browse to `http://example.com` and see the HTML content you
-provided earlier. Note that SSL/TLS has not been enabled yet, so you
-won't be able to use the secure version yet
-(`https://example.com`).
-
-```sh
-sudo systemctl restart apache2
-```
-
-You can repeat this for as many websites as you need. Just create the
-domain folders in `/var/www/`, add the configuration file,
-enable the configuration, and restart `apache2`.
-
-## SSL/TLS Certificates: Serve Websites Over HTTPS
-
-In order to serve secure content, you'll need to obtain SSL/TLS
-certificates. Luckily, there's a free tool called
-[Certbot](https://certbot.eff.org) that helps us with the process.
-
-The first step is to install `snapd` and `core`
-for Ubuntu.
-
-```sh
-sudo apt install snapd
-sudo snap install core
-sudo snap refresh core
-```
-
-Next, install the `certbot` snap package.
-
-```sh
-sudo snap install --classic certbot
-```
-
-Execute the following command to ensure that the `certbot`
-command can be run.
-
-```sh
-sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
-```
-
-Finally, you can run `certbot` one of two ways:
-
-1.  run it and let it alter your Apache configuration files
-    automatically to enable HTTPS redirects.
-2.  run it and only allow it to create certificates. You'll need to
-    manually alter the config files to enable HTTPS redirects.
-
-Run certbot and allow automatic config changes:
-
-```sh
-sudo certbot --apache
-```
-
-Run certbot for certificates only and don't allow it to alter config
-files:
-
-```sh
-sudo certbot certonly --apache
-```
-
-The Certbot packages on your system come with a cron job or systemd
-timer that will renew your certificates automatically before they
-expire. You will not need to run Certbot again unless you change your
-configuration. You can test automatic renewal for your certificates by
-running this command:
-
-```sh
-sudo certbot renew --dry-run
-```
-
-Now, test your domains by going to `https://example.com`.
-
-## Firewall Security
-
-To enable better security on your server, you'll need to enable a basic
-firewall. For Ubuntu, we'll use [the uncomplicated
-firewall](https://cleberg.net/blog/secure-your-network-with-the-uncomplicated-firewall.html).
-
-Now, add the following rules to the firewall allow SSH, Apache, and
-HTTP(S) connections. If you need to, you can enable different ports for
-specifics applications, SFTP, etc.
-
-```sh
-sudo ufw default deny incoming
-sudo ufw default allow outgoing
-sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
-sudo ufw allow Apache
-sudo ufw allow proto tcp from any to any port 80,443
-```
-
-Once you've added all the rules you need, enable the firewall.
-
-```sh
-sudo ufw enable
-```
-
-## Troubleshooting
-
-If you run into any issues during your VPS set-up, be sure to walk back
-through your actions and make sure you didn't miss any steps.
-
-Many websites have fantastic guides to setting up various web servers.
-This is one of the areas [where DigitalOcean
-shines](https://www.digitalocean.%20com/community/tutorials). For
-simpler or more Linux-oriented questions, I suggest using [Linuxize]
-(<https://linuxize.com>).
-
-If you're getting certain errors (e.g. =500 Internal Server Error=) and
-need to debug locally, you can view the `access.log` and
-`error.log` files in the `/var/log/apache/`
-directory.