Infrastructure Guide · 15 min

Your first small server: a weekend checklist

Everything to do in the first two days so the next two years are uneventful.

Daniel RenInfrastructure
· · 15 min read

A fresh virtual server is a blank page. A few careful hours at the start make the difference between a machine you forget about — in the good sense — and one that keeps surprising you.

Day one: access and updates

  1. Log in with an SSH key, not a password.
  2. Create a regular user and use sudo for administration.
  3. Install all pending updates and reboot.
  4. Enable unattended security updates.
ssh-copy-id you@your-server
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo apt install unattended-upgrades fail2ban

Day one: the firewall

Allow only what you need — usually SSH and the ports of the services you actually run — and block everything else.

Day two: backups and notes

  1. Set up nightly backups that leave the machine.
  2. Restore one file to prove that they work.
  3. Write a README describing what runs on the server and why.
Daniel RenInfrastructure at Bet on Future

Looks after small servers and writes down everything that broke along the way.

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