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):

  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:

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

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