Category: Blog
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Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation
Building a VPS requires lots of complex steps, and these steps change over time. The time has come to create comprehensive, consolidated documentation for how I setup these machines. Many of these steps are optional. Deploy A New VPS With Digital Ocean FQDN DNS Setup With Godaddy Recommended Initial Installations Setup Email Server Create a VirtualHost Setup…
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VPS Setup: Automated Database Backups
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. Create a new directory for the backups; mkdir /var/backups/mysql I added the following line to /etc/crontab in order to facilitate automatic database backups; 0 22 * * * root /usr/bin/mysqldump -uroot -i[MySQL Root Password] [MySQL Database Name] | gzip > /var/backups/mysql/mysql-backup-$(…
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VPS Setup: Install Free SSL From LetsEncrypt
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. LetsEncypt allows us to setup free SSL certificates for our virtualhosts. First, make sure you are in your root home directory “/~” and then clone the LetsEncrypt git repository; git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt Enter the directory cd letsencrypt And run the automatic…
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VPS Setup: Create A Virtual Host
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. Once you have your FQDN forwarded to the VPS, create a directory for it with; mkdir /var/www/[fqdn]/ Now we make a new virtualhost conf file with this command. Again, substitute your fqdn; cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/[fqdn].conf Then edit the file with nano…
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VPS Setup: Email Server
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. Many of my apps send lots of emails, so I usually need to setup a local outbound email server. Secure the port with iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -j REJECT -p tcp –dport 25 Install postfix for the server apt-get -y install postfix…
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VPS Setup: Recommended Initial Installations
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. When initially setting up a VPS, I generally install the programs listed below. Before installing anything, it is important to first update and upgrade all packages already installed on the server with apt-get update && apt-get upgrade First, install Fail2Ban in order…
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VPS Setup: FQDN DNS Setup With GoDaddy
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. Once you have a VPS deployed and know its static IP, you can forward a FQDN to it by creating a new A Record. I use GoDaddy for my DNS registration because they are simple, reliable, and quick. In order to do…
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VPS Setup: Deploying A New Virtual Private Server With Digital Ocean
This is a subpost of the larger post Updated Comprehensive VPS Setup Documentation. I like Digital Ocean (Referral Link) for my VPS host. The first step in creating a new VPS is to select a Linux distribution. I always use the most current version of Debian. At the time of this post, that is version…
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Expanse 1 – Leviathan Wakes
This quickly became one of my all-time favorites. After I heard its TV adaptation called “The best scifi since Firefly,” I had to give it a shot. The first season of the show takes you about halfway through this first book in the series… In true space-opera fashion, it follows a group of people loosely…
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Building a Jabber/XMPP Server With OpenFire and Debian
I wanted to create a new chat server for my company for two reasons. For one, we want any confidential information to stay as in-house as possible. And two, we wanted web access because lots of our employees move around between different offices and they don’t want to have to install chat programs every day.…