Resources -- OwnYourServer

EP 01 Provision, harden, and own your first VPS

4 sections

// SSH Hardening

Connect to your VPS for the first time

$ ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Generate an SSH key pair (run on your local machine)

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"

Copy your public key to the server

$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Edit SSH daemon config

# nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Key sshd_config settings to change

Port 2222 # change from 22 PermitRootLogin prohibit-password PasswordAuthentication no PubkeyAuthentication yes X11Forwarding no

Restart SSH after changes

# systemctl restart sshd

Keep your existing session open and test the new port in a second terminal before closing.

// Virtualmin Install

Download the Virtualmin install script

# wget -O virtualmin-install.sh https://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/virtualmin-install.sh

Run the installer

# bash virtualmin-install.sh --minimal

--minimal skips mail and DNS components you can add later. Safer starting point.

// Firewalld Port Lockdown

Check firewalld status

# systemctl status firewalld

List all active rules

# firewall-cmd --list-all

Lock Virtualmin (10000) and Usermin (20000) to your home IP

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="YOUR_HOME_IP/32" port port="10000" protocol="tcp" accept' # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-rich-rule='rule family="ipv4" source address="YOUR_HOME_IP/32" port port="20000" protocol="tcp" accept' # firewall-cmd --reload

Replace YOUR_HOME_IP with your actual IP. Find it with: curl ifconfig.me

Open your custom SSH port in firewalld

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=2222/tcp # firewall-cmd --reload

// Initial System Setup

Set your server hostname

# hostnamectl set-hostname your.hostname.com

Update all packages (AlmaLinux / RHEL)

# dnf update -y

Check OS version

# cat /etc/os-release

Check server uptime and load

# uptime

REF General VPS Reference

6 sections

// File System Navigation

Where am I / what's here

# pwd # print working directory # ls -la # list all files with permissions # ls -lah # same but human-readable sizes

Find files

# find / -name "filename.txt" 2>/dev/null # find /etc -name "*.conf"

Disk usage

# df -h # disk free, human-readable # du -sh /var/log # size of a specific directory # du -sh /* # size of every root-level dir

// Processes and System

What's running / eating resources

# top # live process view (q to quit) # htop # better top (may need: dnf install htop) # ps aux # all running processes # ps aux | grep nginx # filter for a specific process

Memory usage

# free -h # RAM and swap usage

Kill a process

# kill PID # graceful stop # kill -9 PID # force kill # pkill processname # kill by name

// Systemd Services

Start / stop / restart / status

# systemctl start nginx # systemctl stop nginx # systemctl restart nginx # systemctl status nginx

Enable / disable on boot

# systemctl enable nginx # start on boot # systemctl disable nginx # don't start on boot

View service logs

# journalctl -u nginx # all logs for a service # journalctl -u nginx -f # follow live # journalctl -u nginx --since "1 hour ago"

// Networking

Check open ports and listening services

# ss -tlnp # TCP listening ports with process # ss -tulnp # TCP + UDP # netstat -tlnp # older alternative

Check your public IP

# curl ifconfig.me # curl icanhazip.com

DNS lookup

# dig yourdomain.com # dig yourdomain.com MX # mail records # dig yourdomain.com TXT # SPF / DMARC / DKIM # nslookup yourdomain.com

Test connectivity

# ping -c 4 google.com # traceroute google.com # curl -I https://yourdomain.com # check HTTP headers

// Log Files

Common log locations

# Auth / SSH attempts # tail -f /var/log/secure # Apache # tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log # tail -f /var/log/httpd/access_log # Postfix mail # tail -f /var/log/maillog # General system messages # tail -f /var/log/messages

Search logs for a keyword

# grep "Failed password" /var/log/secure # grep "Failed password" /var/log/secure | wc -l # count hits

// File Editing and Permissions

Edit a file

# nano /path/to/file # beginner-friendly # vi /path/to/file # always available, :wq to save+quit

File permissions

# chmod 644 file.txt # rw-r--r-- # chmod 755 script.sh # rwxr-xr-x (executable) # chown user:group file # change owner # chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html # recursive

Copy, move, delete

# cp file.txt /backup/file.txt # cp -r /dir /backup/dir # recursive copy # mv file.txt newname.txt # move or rename # rm file.txt # rm -rf /dir # recursive force - no undo

EP 02 Coming soon

Commands.No fluff.

Commands.
No fluff.