Server setup Part-1: ufw firewall and ssh security on DigitalOcean or Vultr or Linode

Since moving to AWS, I did not have to setup servers from scratch. However, recently I found myself needing cloud servers that are more cost-effective, and easier-to-use than AWS. I started exploring DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode. These are the new generation of developer-focused cloud server providers. If you need a simple Linux box for testing something, they can be as cheap as $5.00 a month.

This article is more of a note-to-self as I don’t want to forget about it in a couple of months.

Create a small box on one of the cloud providers.

Select SSH key

Choose SSH key for authentication. Click on New SSH key if your key is not already in DigitalOcean.

If you don’t know already have an SSH key in your account, do the following on Mac and upload it to DigitalOcean.

ssh-keygen -t rsa