My initial server setup – Ubuntu 16.04

Recommended installs

sudo apt update -yq && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt install nginx fail2ban htop supervisor screen iptables-persistent mc -y

• nginx – reverse proxy
• fail2ban – scans logs, bans failed password attempts
• htop – pretty process viewer
• supervisor– monitors and controls applications
• screen – manage persistent virtual terminals on server
• iptables-persistent – Persistent iptables take care of automatic loading of saved firewall rules from /etc/iptables/rules.v4 for IPv4 and /etc/iptables/rules.v6 for IPv6. Reload iptables rules with netfilter-persistent reload. Try iptables -L, and you should see your rules in output.

Disable root login

• Login to server as root

  ssh root@hostname

• Add new user

  adduser foobar

• Add root access for your user

  visudo

  Below # User privilege specification add line:

  foobar     ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

  Save file and exit.

• Configure ssh
  Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config. Add following lines at the end of file.

  PermitRootLogin no # disables root login
  UseDNS no
  AllowUsers foobar

• Save file and exit, reload ssh

  service ssh reload

Now you should be able to login with foobar, and not with root.

Change SSH port

Not necessary, but preferable as a security measure. Keeps your /var/log/auth.log less crowded with strange login attempts.

• Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config again.

  nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

• Locate line
  # Port 22
  Remove # and change 22 to another port
• Save file and exit, reload ssh

  service ssh reload

• Login to your server

  ssh root@hostname -p <your_new_ssh_port> 

Configure passwordless login

• Create ssh key on your local machine

  ssh-keygen -t rsa

• Create .ssh/authorized_keys on your server

  ssh foobar@hostname 'mkdir .ssh | touch .ssh/authorized_keys'

• Copy your ssh key directly to your server

  cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh foobar@hostname 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'

• Try to login again. Server shouldn’t require a password.

Where to from here? Maybe…

• Install Docker
• Install Java 8
• Install NodeJs