

Ask HN: Why there's no a quick guide for setting up a VPS? - jozi9

Is it just me, or are there other developers out there struggling with this every time, all the basic security and webserver configurations and so? Or everybody is just using PaaS?
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revorad
[https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials)

[https://www.linode.com/docs/](https://www.linode.com/docs/)

[http://articles.slicehost.com/](http://articles.slicehost.com/)

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colept
Linode's tutorials for setting up a basic VPS and protecting it are wonderful:

[https://www.linode.com/docs/getting-
started](https://www.linode.com/docs/getting-started)

You don't have to have Linode to use the tutorials either. They're a great
resource for learners.

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whichdan
Consider server administration to have the same learning curve as picking up a
new language: everything will feel unfamiliar at first, but once you get used
to it, you'll start recognizing patterns and similarities between each tool
that you use.

Let's say you're deploying a new Debian VM; at the bare minimum, you need to
know:

\- Basic Linux commands (top, tail, cat, cp, mv, ls, cd, rm, mkdir, et cetera)

\- Casual vim/nano usage

\- Casual less usage (mainly Ctrl-B/F)

\- Knowing that `man [command]` and `[command] --h` are the easiest ways to
decipher a tool

\- iptables/fail2ban (security)

\- Basic MySQL setup (almost everything can be done in a gui)

\- Basic Apache2 configuration (vhosts, enabling mods)

\- How to manage packages (apt-get update; apt-get upgrade; apt-get install
[whatever])

At that point, you just need to read a few tutorials to fill in the gaps, and
to figure out how to get Apache to serve files from your language of choice.

The easiest way to go about all of this is to setup a VM locally, document
each step you take while configuring it, then repeat that a few times until
you feel comfortable. Then you can figure out how to automate everything!

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nodesocket
I'm the founder of [https://commando.io](https://commando.io). We provide a
way to write scrips (in bash, perl, python, ruby, go, or node.js) and run
those scripts against servers. This saves you time, but also provides a
repeatable way to install packages and configure services on servers. Perhaps
we can help you.

------
h4waii
Because things like
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8478159](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8478159)
happen. There is no quick guide, because you can't quickly learn system
administration and security.

------
saluki
y, it's a pain setting up a VPS from scratch, each time you get faster but it
still takes time.

I've been developing with Laravel since last fall.

I've been using Laravel Forge, it's $10/mo put well worth it as it handles
setting up the VPS (on your linode, DO, etc) and code deployment, very nice.

[https://forge.laravel.com/](https://forge.laravel.com/)

Watch the laracast, link is on that page.

