Linux VDS Getting Started Guide: SSH, Security and Core Commands

Linux VDS Getting Started Guide

You bought a Linux VDS and now you are staring at a blank terminal. This guide takes you from the first login to a properly hardened server, one step at a time.

Connecting Over SSH

Linux servers are managed through SSH (Secure Shell).

Connecting From Windows (PuTTY)

Download PuTTY
Enter your server IP in the Host Name field
Port: 22, Connection type: SSH
Click “Open”
Enter your username and password

Connecting From a Terminal (macOS or Linux)

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Connecting With an SSH Key (Recommended)

# Generate an SSH key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com"
 
# Copy the key to the server
ssh-copy-id root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

💡 Key based authentication is far safer than passwords. On Xeon Enterprise VDS and Ryzen Premium VDS plans you have full root access, so you can configure security exactly the way you want.

Core Linux Commands

Files and Directories

# Show the current directory
pwd
 
# List directory contents
ls -la
 
# Create a directory
mkdir new_folder
 
# Change directory
cd /home/username
 
# Copy a file
cp source.txt target.txt
 
# Move a file
mv old_path.txt new_path.txt
 
# Delete a file
rm file.txt
 
# Delete a directory and everything in it
rm -rf folder_name

System Information

# Disk usage
df -h
 
# RAM usage
free -h
 
# CPU details
lscpu
 
# Running processes
htop  # or top
 
# System uptime
uptime

Package Management (Ubuntu and Debian)

# Refresh the package list
sudo apt update
 
# Upgrade installed packages
sudo apt upgrade -y
 
# Install a package
sudo apt install package_name -y
 
# Remove a package
sudo apt remove package_name

First Security Steps

1. Change the Root Password

passwd root

2. Create a Regular User

Working as root all day is a habit worth breaking:

# Create a new user
adduser new_user
 
# Grant sudo rights
usermod -aG sudo new_user

3. Change the SSH Port

Moving off port 22 will not stop a targeted attacker, but it removes most of the automated brute force noise:

# Edit the SSH configuration
sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
 
# Change the Port line
Port 2222
 
# Restart the SSH service
sudo systemctl restart sshd

# In /etc/ssh/sshd_config
PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no  # only if you use SSH keys

5. Configure the Firewall (UFW)

# Install UFW
sudo apt install ufw -y
 
# Allow the SSH port
sudo ufw allow 2222/tcp
 
# Allow HTTP and HTTPS
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp
 
# Enable the firewall
sudo ufw enable
 
# Check the status
sudo ufw status

6. Install Fail2Ban

Automatic protection against brute force attempts:

# Install
sudo apt install fail2ban -y
 
# Create a local configuration file
sudo cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
 
# Start the service
sudo systemctl enable fail2ban
sudo systemctl start fail2ban

Automatic Updates

To install security patches without babysitting the server:

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades -y
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

Adding Swap Space

Swap gives you a safety margin when RAM runs short:

# Create a 2 GB swap file
sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
 
# Make it persistent
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Monitoring

Live Process Monitoring With htop

sudo apt install htop -y
htop

Disk I/O Monitoring

sudo apt install iotop -y
sudo iotop

Conclusion

Linux server administration looks intimidating for about a week. Once the core commands and the security basics click, you have an extremely capable and flexible platform. Every White Bilişim VDS plan ships with full root access, so nothing here is off limits.

👉 Browse Xeon Enterprise VDS for your first Linux server, Ryzen Premium VDS when you need more headroom, or a backup server to keep your data on a separate machine.