Well, I’m trying out DigitalOcean.com to see what it’s like firing up my own little servers, instead of paying extra for a managed VPS that isn’t as fast as I’d like. So far, there is a big learning curve. Droplets and snapshots aren’t as user-friend as I’d like.

DigitalOcean Notes

To Create a New Server

1. Install new droplet

• Centos 7
• IPv6
• Monitoring
• With SSH key (id_rsa)

1. Reset root password to get the root password (if none emailed, seems not!)
   • Login via SSH, you’ll have to change to a new password
   • Easiest with Terminal because you can copy/paste passwords

2. Install Vesta:

# Connect to your server as root via SSH

ssh root@your.server

# Download installation script

curl -O http://vestacp.com/pub/vst-install.sh

3. Run Vesta Installer to get LAMP, email, etc.
   • Vesta Installer using default settings (https://vestacp.com/#install ):
   • Fill in the hostname which is the droplet name, e.g. “centos-512mb-sfo”
   • Fill in email
   • Fill desired admin password for Vesta
   • Sample command created by the Vesta website:

bash vst-install.sh --nginx yes --apache yes --phpfpm no --vsftpd yes --proftpd no --exim yes --dovecot yes --spamassassin yes --clamav yes --named yes --iptables yes --fail2ban yes --mysql yes --postgresql no --remi yes --quota no --hostname MYSERVERHOSTNAMEHERE --email MYEMAILHERE@MOI.COM--password MYPASSWORDHERE

• Look for results after this runs:

Congratulations, you have just successfully installed Vesta Control Panel

    https://107.170.250.202:8083

    username: admin

    password: MYPASSWORDHERE

Make a Snapshot

Make a snapshot of a server setup so you don’t have to build from scratch.

1. Power down the droplet from command line:

Login to your Droplet as root and execute the “shutdown -h now”(or “poweroff”?) command. This will shut down your operating system, flush any pending changes to the disk, and then terminate power to your server.

2. When the droplet shows as “off”, make a snapshot
3. When finished, turn the droplet back on if you wish.

Domain Names

• Set your DNS servers:
  • digitalocean.com
  • digitalocean.com
  • digitalocean.com

Add User with the new domain name

• Use the “admin” user for a single-user server (?)
• Best to wait for DNS to propagate!
• Add a new user for the new domain
• Login as the new user (directly from Vesta, there is a link to login as the user)
• Create a new domain under the “Web” menu
  • Advanced: add SSL support using Lets Encrypt! Might fail if DNS isn’t live yet.
• https://www.atlantic.net/community/howto/install-wordpress-on-vesta-control-panel/
• http://www.servermom.org/install-wordpress-vesta-cp/