Setting up my VPS

Cheetah Designs · 4 Jun 2011 at 10:02

I got my VPS around a month a go and haven't had time to set it up yet. I do have a managed service, but would prefer to do things myself.

I have a 600MB OpenVz server which has CentOS 5 installed.

Are there any guides for the initial setup/securing/optimizing of the setup which actually explains what I am doing as I go along?

Thanks for any input.

pthug · 4 Jun 2011 at 14:46

my bad post removed! I read it as vpn not vps

Xelene · 4 Jun 2011 at 15:38

http://www.rayheffer.com/36/building-a-secure-web-server-with-centos-5-part-1/

This was the first result in Google for secure centos webserver.

Cheetah Designs · 4 Jun 2011 at 16:37

sldsmkd said:
http://www.rayheffer.com/36/building-a-secure-web-server-with-centos-5-part-1/

This was the first result in Google for secure centos webserver.

Thanks - but this seems more geared towards setting up a server from scratch for the purpose of hosting many sites. Whilst I will be hosting a couple of sites,

I already have an install of Cent OS 5 which is the default from my service provider. Was more looking for a guide for securing/optimizing that, because obviously I have given them passwords for the root access (which is bad practice right?) etc....and their install will be a one-size-fits-all.

Thanks.

vidda · 4 Jun 2011 at 19:19

Start from 'Updating the System'.

It's a reasonably good guide from the looks of it and should suit your needs fine.

HumbleCoder · 5 Jun 2011 at 08:47

I find Linode Library excellent

mtalk · 6 Jun 2011 at 10:15

I will suggest you to try solusVM easy to create nodes and VPS.

Xelene · 6 Jun 2011 at 17:08

mtalk said:
I will suggest you to try solusVM easy to create nodes and VPS.

How does that help the original poster in anyway at all?

steve-h · 6 Jun 2011 at 17:46

Cheetah Designs said:
Was more looking for a guide for securing/optimizing that, because obviously I have given them passwords for the root access (which is bad practice right?) etc....and their install will be a one-size-fits-all.

Thanks.

Change your root password then. What are you going to be using it for?

Xelene · 6 Jun 2011 at 18:01

The guys that manage the servers that run my VPS have regular shell accounts on my box, with public/private key auth. If they need root they can sudo. There's nothing sensitive on it, and from my experience having spent a couple of years administrating servers at an ISP they haven't got the time or inclination to poke about. If there was actual customer data or useful code on it then i'd revisit that - but it's just a blog and test box.

The guide I posted is fine, it will get some basic security on the box, show you how to update the software that is running and get a webserver etc up and running.

If you want something more than that, then you can hire me to set it up and document what I did.