Initial Server Setup for Ubuntu 24.04

This guide walks you through every essential step after launching a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Cloud VPS — from system updates and user creation through installing a complete LEMP or LAMP web server stack. Where dedicated documentation already exists for a topic, we link directly to it so you can dive deeper without duplicated information.

What You'll Set Up

System updates and package management

Non-root sudo user with SSH key access

UFW firewall and SSH hardening

Swap space and automatic security updates

LEMP stack (Nginx + MySQL + PHP)

LAMP stack (Apache + MySQL + PHP)

Prerequisites

• A RamNode Cloud VPS running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Root SSH access to the server (see SSH Keys)
• A domain name pointed at your server's IP (optional, but required for SSL)

1. System Updates

After your first SSH login, update the package index and upgrade all installed packages to their latest versions:

Update and upgrade packages

apt update && apt upgrade -y

If a kernel update was installed, reboot to load it:

Reboot if needed

reboot

2. Hostname & Timezone

Setting a proper hostname and timezone is important for logging, scheduled tasks, and SSL certificates. We have a dedicated guide covering both topics in detail:

Setting Hostname and Timezone →

Configure hostnames (simple or FQDN), update /etc/hosts, set the timezone with timedatectl, and enable NTP synchronization.

As a quick reference, here are the most common commands:

Set hostname and timezone

# Set the hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname your-server.example.com

# Set timezone to UTC (recommended for servers)
timedatectl set-timezone UTC

# Verify
hostnamectl
timedatectl

3. Create a Sudo User

Running everything as root is a security risk. Create a regular user with sudo privileges:

Create user and grant sudo

# Create a new user (replace 'deploy' with your preferred username)
adduser deploy

# Add the user to the sudo group
usermod -aG sudo deploy

Copy your SSH key to the new user so you can log in without a password:

Copy SSH keys to new user

# As root, copy the authorized_keys file
rsync --archive --chown=deploy:deploy ~/.ssh /home/deploy

Test the new user before proceeding — open a new terminal and connect:

Test SSH as the new user

ssh deploy@YOUR_SERVER_IP

⚠️ Important: Do not close your root session until you've confirmed the new user can log in and run sudo commands successfully.

4. SSH Hardening

Once your sudo user is working, harden SSH by disabling root login and password authentication:

Edit SSH configuration

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find and update these settings:

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

Restart SSH

sudo systemctl restart ssh

5. Firewall Setup (UFW)

Ubuntu 24.04 ships with UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall). Enable it and allow only the ports you need:

Configure UFW

# Allow SSH (always do this first!)
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH

# Allow HTTP and HTTPS for web traffic
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

# Enable the firewall
sudo ufw enable

# Verify status
sudo ufw status verbose

UFW Basics — Full Guide →

Rate limiting, application profiles, port ranges, subnet rules, logging, and more.

⚠️ Warning: Always allow SSH before enabling UFW. If you're using Security Groups in the Cloud Control Panel, note that UFW and Security Groups work independently — both must allow traffic for it to reach your server.

6. Swap Space

Adding swap space provides a safety net when your applications temporarily exceed available RAM. This is especially useful on smaller instances.

Swap Partition — Full Guide →

Detailed instructions for creating swap files, tuning swappiness, and sizing recommendations per VPS plan.

Quick setup for a 2 GB swap file:

Create a swap file

# Create a 2G swap file
sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

# Make it permanent
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

# Verify
free -h

7. Automatic Security Updates

Keeping your server patched against known vulnerabilities is critical. Ubuntu 24.04 can be configured to install security updates automatically using unattended-upgrades.

Automatic Security Updates — Full Guide →

Complete walkthrough for Ubuntu/Debian, RHEL/AlmaLinux/Rocky, openSUSE, and Arch Linux — including email notifications and automatic reboots.

Quick-start for Ubuntu 24.04:

Enable unattended-upgrades

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

8. LEMP Stack (Nginx + MySQL + PHP)

The LEMP stack uses Nginx as the web server, MySQL as the database, and PHP for server-side processing. It's the most popular stack for WordPress, Laravel, and other PHP applications due to Nginx's efficient handling of concurrent connections.

8a. Install Nginx

Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

Verify Nginx is running by visiting http://YOUR_SERVER_IP — you should see the default Nginx welcome page.

8b. Install MySQL

Install MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server -y
sudo systemctl enable mysql

Run the security script to set a root password and remove insecure defaults:

Secure MySQL installation

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Recommended answers: set a strong root password, remove anonymous users (Y), disallow remote root login (Y), remove test database (Y), and reload privilege tables (Y).

Database Deployment Guides

For more advanced database setups, see our dedicated guides:

MySQL Deployment Guide — Replication, backups, performance tuning
MariaDB Deployment Guide — Drop-in MySQL replacement with extra features
PostgreSQL Deployment Guide — Advanced relational database

8c. Install PHP

Install PHP and common extensions

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip -y

Verify the PHP version and check that php-fpm is running:

Verify PHP

php -v
sudo systemctl status php8.3-fpm

8d. Configure an Nginx Virtual Host

Create a server block for your domain. Replace example.com with your actual domain:

Create Nginx server block

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/example.com/html;
    index index.php index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the site

# Create the web root
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com

# Save the config above to:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

# Enable it
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

# Test and reload
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

8e. Test PHP Processing

Create a test file

echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' | sudo tee /var/www/example.com/html/info.php

Visit http://example.com/info.php. If you see the PHP info page, your LEMP stack is working. Delete this file afterward — it exposes sensitive configuration details:

Remove test file

sudo rm /var/www/example.com/html/info.php

9. LAMP Stack (Apache + MySQL + PHP)

The LAMP stack uses Apache instead of Nginx. Choose LAMP if your application relies on .htaccess files or Apache-specific modules. If you already installed Nginx in Step 8, skip this section — running both web servers on the same ports will cause conflicts.

⚠️ Choose one: Install either the LEMP stack (Step 8) or the LAMP stack (Step 9), not both. They serve the same purpose with different web servers.

9a. Install Apache

Install Apache

sudo apt install apache2 -y
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start apache2

Verify Apache is running by visiting http://YOUR_SERVER_IP.

9b. Install MySQL

The MySQL installation is the same as in the LEMP stack above (Step 8b).

Install and secure MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server -y
sudo systemctl enable mysql
sudo mysql_secure_installation

9c. Install PHP for Apache

Apache uses libapache2-mod-php instead of php-fpm:

Install PHP with Apache module

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql php-cli php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml php-zip -y

9d. Configure an Apache Virtual Host

Apache virtual host

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    ServerAlias www.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com/html

    <Directory /var/www/example.com/html>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/example.com-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site

# Create web root
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/example.com/html
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/example.com

# Save the config above to:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com.conf

# Enable site and mod_rewrite
sudo a2ensite example.com.conf
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf

# Test and reload
sudo apache2ctl configtest
sudo systemctl reload apache2

9e. Test PHP Processing

Create and test

echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' | sudo tee /var/www/example.com/html/info.php
# Visit http://example.com/info.php, then remove:
sudo rm /var/www/example.com/html/info.php

10. SSL Certificates

Once you have a domain pointed at your server and a web server running, add free SSL/TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt using Certbot. Our dedicated guide covers everything in detail:

Let's Encrypt via Certbot — Full Guide →

Install Certbot, obtain certificates for Nginx or Apache, configure auto-renewal, and troubleshoot common issues.

Quick-start:

Install Certbot and obtain SSL

# For Nginx
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

# For Apache
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache -y
sudo certbot --apache -d example.com -d www.example.com

# Verify auto-renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Next Steps

Your Ubuntu 24.04 server is now secured, updated, and running a full web server stack. Here are some recommended next steps depending on what you plan to deploy:

Deploy an Application

→ WordPress Deployment Guide → Laravel Deployment Guide → Ghost CMS Deployment Guide → Browse All Deployment Guides

Harden Security

→ Fail2Ban Guide → CrowdSec Guide → SSH 2FA Setup

Use Docker Instead

If you prefer containerized deployments over bare-metal stacks:

→ Docker Basics Guide → Docker Compose Guide

Monitor Your Server

→ Basic Resource Monitoring → Uptime Kuma Guide → Netdata Guide

More Deployment Guides View Cloud VPS Plans

📋 Guide Contents