Setting up a VPS for production: the 2026 playbook

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Setting up a VPS for production

Every time I set up a new VPS, I do the same dance: patch it, lock it down, deploy Docker, set up backups. This guide is the playbook — every step I actually run, in order.

0. Pre-flight

Before I SSH in for the first time, I always:

Set the hostname in the cloud console
Add my SSH key (not password!)
Note the public IPv4 and private IP (if VPC)
Create a DNS A record pointing to the public IP

1. First 60 seconds

apt update && apt upgrade -y
apt install -y ufw fail2ban unattended-upgrades curl wget git htop vim
timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Bangkok

Set timezone first. Logs mean nothing without correct timestamps.

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Setting up a VPS for production: the 2026 playbook

Setting up a VPS for production

0. Pre-flight

1. First 60 seconds