The only reason you want to rent a virtual server may be because your web hosting is being slow for any particular web application. You have to install web server, database, PHP and some remote access SSH. These are the things that you must know so that your application can work relatively fine. Server hosting and server monitoring service providers have an eye to all your problems and solve it effectively.
Putting an Ubuntu server on public- what to do?
1. There are various things that one has to consider before, during and after the work or assigned service. That will surely depend on your provider; most are unmanaged and will not provide a firewall, or at the very least, expect you to configure it yourself.
2. You can review various guide for an overview of some security measures that can be considered. You can secure your Linux VPS by taking control of your own Linux server which is a prospect to attempt innovative things and control the power and tractability of a great platform.
3. You need to care for the following points too:
• You must create users and ensure that their SSH keys are updated
• You can Switch SSH to a non-standard port
• You can enable iptables and disable all ports other than 80, 443, the SSH port or 25
• You must also ensure that you include only confidential users in the sudoers list
• Edit the SSH configuration and disable passwords authentication
4. You must start reading about Linux and Ubuntu which are good for starting. If you use wordpress or other CMS like Joomla, Drupal etc. then there are several ways to make those hardened. You can choose that. And talking about database, generally if you install MySQL in a server, it is by default not accessible from outside world, which is protected in a way. But it is always superior to make much more protected by using fail2ban. You can use fail2ban for safeguarding SSH server too. SSH will be there by default when you buy and install the VPS.
5. You can harden the SSH access by allowing only the IPs you are on which will be much more protected. There are fewer open ports in a fresh Ubuntu. So at first you will not be in need of knowing iptables that much. But you should learn the way of it.
6. Here are few of the golden rules with public servers:
• Keep them up to date
• Ensure that you know what every process and port open does. If you don’t understand that service then either learn about it or remove it.
7. You can even consider some of the security measures that can be used to harden Ubuntu server:
• Check Listing Network Ports
• Use Secure Shell (SSH)
• Turn on SELinux
• Check Password Expiration of User
• Disable ICMp
• Configure malware and rootkit scanners
• Perform regular package updates and software updates
The security vulnerabilities in various packages are fixed in the updates and hence it is the key to keep the packages updated. Before putting an Ubuntu server on public you must consider the steps discussed in above points. You must know the work excellence and gather experience in all fields that are meant for your purpose.
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