This article goes over some basic installation steps to be performed when a new Debian-based linux VM is provisioned at a cloud provider.
Your cloud provider management screen will list an internet facing IP address that you can use to access the remote system. Always use SSH for remote connections.
Once you have the IP address and an SSH client, you're ready to log in via SSH. Here's how:
Open the terminal window or application, type the following command, and then press Enter. Be sure to replace the example IP address with your VM's IP address.
ssh root@123.456.78.90
If the warning shown below appears, type yes and press Enter to continue connecting.
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)?
The log in prompt appears, as shown below. Enter the password you created for the root user.
root@123.456.78.90's password:
The SSH client initiates the connection. You know you are logged in when the following prompt appears:
Warning: Permanently added '123.456.78.90' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@li123-456:~#
Now you can start executing commands on your VM.
You'll need to set your system's hostname and fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Your hostname should be something unique. Some people name their servers after planets, philosophers, or animals. Note that the system's hostname has no relationship to websites or email services hosted on it, aside from providing a name for the system itself. Your hostname should not be "www" or anything too generic.
Enter following commands to set the hostname, replacing plato with the hostname of your choice:
1 2 | echo "plato" > /etc/hostname hostname -F /etc/hostname |
If it exists, edit the file /etc/default/dhcpcd to comment out the
SET_HOSTNAME directive:
File excerpt: /etc/default/dhcpcd
1 | #SET_HOSTNAME='yes' |
Next, edit your /etc/hosts file to resemble the following example, replacing
plato with your chosen hostname, example.com with your system's domain name, and
12.34.56.78 with your system's IP address. As with the hostname, the domain
name part of your FQDN does not necesarily need to have any relationship to
websites or other services hosted on the server (although it may if you
wish). As an example, you might host "www.something.com" on your server, but the
system's FQDN might be "mars.somethingelse.com."
File: /etc/hosts
1 2 | 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost 12.34.56.78 plato.example.com plato |
If you have IPv6 enabled on your VM, you will also want to add an entry for your IPv6 address, as shown in this example:
File: /etc/hosts
1 2 3 | 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost 12.34.56.78 plato.example.com plato 2600:3c01::a123:b456:c789:d012 plato.example.com plato |
The value you assign as your system's FQDN should have an "A" record in DNS pointing to your VM's IPv4 address. For VMs with IPv6 enabled, you should also set up a "AAAA" record in DNS pointing to your VM's IPv6 address.
You can change your VM's timezone to whatever you want it to be. It may be best to set it to the same timezone of most of your users. If you're unsure which timezone would be best, consider using universal coordinated time or UTC (also known as Greenwich Mean Time).
Enter the following command to access the timezone utility:
1 | dpkg-reconfigure tzdata |
Now try entering the following command to view the current date and time according to your server:
1 | date |
The output should look similar to this: Thu Feb 16 12:17:52 EST 2012.
Now you need to install the available software updates for your VM's Linux distribution. Doing so patches security holes in packages and helps protect your VM against unauthorized access.
Enter the following commands to check for and install software updates:
1 2 | apt-get update apt-get upgrade --show-upgraded |
Good work! Now you have an up-to-date VM running in the data center of your choice.
Jonas' Tech Notebook
