The root user on a fresh Debian VPS has the default password “rootroot”.

After logging in to your VPS for the first time, please change this password to something more secure. Type passwd at the prompt and follow the instructions. Don't forget this password as there is currently no way to recover it.

It is a good habit to create a regular user account for working, using su to obtain root privileges as needed. To create a regular user account:

useradd -m <username>

This user will be able to perform administrative tasks by runing su to obtain superuser privileges using the root password.

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

In your control panel at vps.sdf.org, note YOUR_IP (e.g. 205.166.94.255) on the top line, and YOUR_HOSTNAME (e.g. debian99).

Start your server, and log in via the console. (default= root:rootroot)

Open /etc/network/interfaces in an editor and add the following, replacing the text YOUR_IP with your own actual IP number, add:

/etc/network/interfaces

  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet static
  address YOUR_IP
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  network 205.166.94.0
  broadcast 205.166.94.255
  gateway 205.166.94.1
  dns-nameservers 205.166.94.20

Note: For VPS installations of Debian 8.4 (jesse) on VPS3, please omit the above dns-nameservers line from the interfaces file, and instead add this line to /etc/resolv.conf:

nameserver 205.166.94.20

Add this to /etc/hosts:

/etc/hosts

YOUR_IP 	YOUR_HOSTNAME.sdf.org 	YOUR_HOSTNAME

Change /etc/hostname to:

/etc/hostname

YOUR_HOSTNAME

Run/Type:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

You may wish to add ssh access to your VPS. It is highly recommended that you disable root login via ssh and use a normal user account to login.

Run/Type:

apt-get install openssh-server

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change the line:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin yes

To:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin no

Now restart sshd by running/typing:

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

You can now test ssh by running ssh user@localhost.

Refer to the following article to see how to clean up (remove packages) from your VPS:

• Cleaning up a Debian GNU/Linux system

Disable IPv6:

# echo "blacklist ipv6" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Edit rules:

# vi /etc/firewall

/etc/firewall

  *filter
 
  -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
  -A INPUT ! -i lo -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j REJECT
 
  -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT
  -A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
 
  -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
  -A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
 
  -A INPUT -p icmp -m icmp --icmp-type 8 -j ACCEPT
 
  -A INPUT -m limit --limit 5/min -j LOG --log-prefix "iptables denied: " --log-level 7
 
  -A INPUT -j REJECT
  -A FORWARD -j REJECT
 
  COMMIT

Load rules (now):

now

# iptables -F
# iptables-restore < /etc/firewall

Load rules (boot):

boot

# vi /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/firewall
 
#!/bin/sh
/sbin/iptables-restore < /etc/firewall
 
# chmod 755 /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/firewall

To update your system, run the following commands:

• apt-get update

   apt-get update

• apt-get dist-upgrade -y

   apt-get dist-upgrade -y

If you are using a 128MB slice, it's a good idea to reduce the memory usage of some processes or even disable them.

You might not need one or both of those, so you can deactivate them with

cron and at

  # update-rc.d -f atd remove
  # update-rc.d -f cron remove

This frees up ca. 7MB (if both are deactivated).

This being a virtual system, you won't need getty on tty1-6. In order to eliminate them, edit /etc/inittab and modify the corresponding lines like this:

/etc/inittab

  co:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty hvc0 9600 linux
 
  #1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
  #2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
  #3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
  #4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
  #5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
  #6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6

You need to keep the line with hvc0 so you can attach a serial console from vps.sdf.org to your vps. This frees up ca. 10MB.

rsyslogd eats a lot of memory by default (26MB on my vps) which can be reduced by the usage of ulimit. Edit /etc/init.d/rsyslog and include the following line just before the command where rsyslogd will be started:

ulimit -s 256

Example:

/etc/init.d/rsyslog

    case "$1" in
      start)
            ulimit -s 256
            log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$RSYSLOGD"
            create_xconsole
            do_start
            case "$?" in
                    0) sendsigs_omit
                       log_end_msg 0 ;;
                    1) log_progress_msg "already started"
                       log_end_msg 0 ;;
                    *) log_end_msg 1 ;;
            esac
            ;;

This frees up about 23MB.

I don't need portmap, so i removed it completely:

apt-get remove --purge portmap

If you dont need all the extra features openssh has compared to dropbear, you can reduce memory consumption from 23MB to 5MB while being connected with 1 non-root user to the system by replacing openssh with dropbear.

apt-get install dropbear

Edit /etc/defaults/dropbear and set NO_START to 0 and add the extra args “-w -s -g” to disallow root and password logins (You'll be only able to login with a non root user and ssh keys):

    # disabled because OpenSSH is installed
    # change to NO_START=0 to enable Dropbear
    NO_START=0

    # the TCP port that Dropbear listens on
    DROPBEAR_PORT=22

    # any additional arguments for Dropbear
    DROPBEAR_EXTRA_ARGS="-w -s -g"

    # specify an optional banner file containing a message to be
    # sent to clients before they connect, such as "/etc/issue.net"
    DROPBEAR_BANNER=""

    # RSA hostkey file (default: /etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key)
    #DROPBEAR_RSAKEY="/etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key"

    # DSS hostkey file (default: /etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key)
    #DROPBEAR_DSSKEY="/etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key"

    # Receive window size - this is a tradeoff between memory and
    # network performance
    DROPBEAR_RECEIVE_WINDOW=65536

Afterwards, you can deactivate openssh with

update-rc.d ssh remove

or uninstall it:

apt-get remove openssh-server

$Id: VPS_Debian.html,v 1.19 2018/02/22 02:06:34 slugmax Exp $ Debian on SDF VPS - traditional link (using RCS)