VPS Getting Started Guide

First, three Important things to know:

• IP Address - Your VPS is assigned a dedicated IP - something that looks like 192.168.1.73 - you can always use this IP address to access your VPS. For example, if you have not yet assigned a domain name (www.yourname.com) to your VPS, you can use your IP address. If you've assigned a domain name but let it expire or are having other problems with it, you can reach your server with your IP Address.
• Username - When your VPS is configured, you are given a username to login with. Your VPS gives you full administrator rights (root access) but for safety and security, we also assign you a normal, non-administrator username to use.
• Password - Initially all passwords on your server are the same. We use the password you signed up with (or your current password if you are transferring from a shared hosting account to a VPS) for all your services. It is recommended that your change passwords and assign different passwords to different services (ie. make your root password, your mysql password and your "normal username password different from each other) as soon as possible. Your password works for your username, your root account and your mysql root account.

How to access your VPS

When your VPS is first configured, there are three primary ways to access your server.

• WebMin (aka your Control Panel) - webmin is a powerful, open-source server administration program. It is widely used and any skills you learn with it will help you with other servers you encounter. Webmin will also be familiar to any developers your hire to work on your website.

  Webmin is accessed through your web browser using the IP address of your server or your domain name and the port 10000. For example, if your domain name was : mydomain.com, your would use:

  https://mydomain.com:10000/

  If there was no domain name assigned to your VPS yet, you can also use the servers IP. If your IP was 192.168.1.73 (an example only - this is not your actual IP), you would use:

  https://192.168.1.73:10000

  The login for webmin is:

  root

  and the password is the password you signed up with.

  Webmin allows you to perform most common administration tasks. If you are an experienced administrator you can also use the command line interface to configure your server. Webmin is provided as a convience but there is no requirement that you use it. You have full root access after all. The configuration we make on the server is only a base configuration - you are free to change anything you like, install new services, etc.

• SSH

ssh is provides you with the most powerful access to your server. It is very important to note that direct root ssh access is initially disabled on your server. Instead you need to first ssh to your server as your "normal" username and then type "su" to become root (the password is initially the same as your control panel password). direct root access is disallowed in order to improve the security of your server. Because all servers have a "root" username, hackers scan servers in attempts to guess the root password. By disabling direct root access you will protect yourself from the most common source of server hacks.

You can still login directory as root using an ssh key-pair. This is very useful for automating backups and others tasks on your server. Only password-based root access is disabled. Because you have full control of your server, you are able to undo the configuration we made. However we do not recommend it. It is very easy to set up ssh keys and many times more secure.

• FTP

ftp is a common method used to upload files to your server. Initially you server has a single ftp user (your username). However you can use webmin or the command shell to create as many users as you would like.

Next: Adding websites to your VPS using webmin