Server Management (DigitalOcean)

When to use this skill

• •Provisioning a new DigitalOcean Droplet.
• •Configuring Nginx or UFW.
• •Troubleshooting Linux server issues.

1. Initial Setup

• •User: Create a non-root user with sudo privileges immediately.
• •SSH: Disable password login (PermitRootLogin no, PasswordAuthentication no). Use SSH keys.

2. Security

• •Firewall (UFW):
  bash

  ufw allow OpenSSH
  ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
  ufw enable
  

• •Fail2Ban: Install to prevent brute force attacks.

3. Nginx Config

• •Reverse Proxy: Standard pattern for Node/Python apps:
  nginx

  location / {
      proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
  }
  

• •SSL: Use Certbot (python3-certbot-nginx) for auto-renewing Let's Encrypt certificates.