Configuring a fresh server

Setting up a new server#

Please choose the latest Ubuntu LTS version. At the time of writing it is version 26.x. When ordering the server, please already provide your public SSH key. Then when the server is setup you can access it using ssh root@<server_ip>. To configure a newly acquired server, follow the following steps.

First things first - disabling root access#

apt update
apt full-upgrade
apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg git unzip rsync htop ufw make

hostnamectl set-hostname staging # or any other hostname

Create a normal server user#

adduser dev
usermod -aG sudo dev

Create a SSH directory

mkdir -p /home/dev/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/dev/.ssh
chown -R dev:dev /home/dev/.ssh

Put your public SSH key into

Copy your and the other existing SSH public keys (from other server) into /home/dev/.ssh/authorized_keys.

chmod 600 /home/dev/.ssh/authorized_keys
chown dev:dev /home/dev/.ssh/authorized_keys

Please test by SSH-ing into staging by using user account dev ssh dev@<staging_ip_address>

If all works, then we can disable root access using the firewall.

Disable root access#

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Then set the following properties:
PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

Validate the configuration

sudo sshd -t

If that gives no output, the configuration syntax is valid. Then reload SSH:

sudo systemctl reload ssh

One additional Ubuntu step is to lock the root password:

sudo passwd -l root

Create SSH public key#

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Install docker#

https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

sudo apt update

Install the docker packages

sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Verify that the installation is successful by running the hello-world image:

sudo docker run hello-world

Linux post installation steps.

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated.

Getting started with portal#

Add the created public key to gitlab so that production server can access repositories. Run git clone.

Install Volta#

Volta must be installed before running the portal server. It provides Node at the version pinned in the portal's package.json (the volta field), so the server always runs the intended Node version. Install it as the user that runs the portal:

curl https://get.volta.sh | bash

Open a new shell (or source ~/.bashrc) so volta is on the PATH. Volta automatically fetches the pinned Node version the first time you run node or npm inside the portal checkout.