New Cloud VDS Initial Setup and Security Checklist

In short: before installing anything on a new Cloud VDS, spend fifteen minutes on the basics: verify the server, install updates, create an admin user, switch SSH to keys, enable the firewall, set the clock and plan monitoring and backups. The list below is written for Ubuntu and Debian.

1. Connect and verify

Use the IP address, user and port from the FiberVM panel. Check that the processor, memory, disk and operating system match the plan you bought:

ssh root@SERVER_IP
hostnamectl
free -h
df -h

2. Install updates

A fresh image may have pending security updates:

apt update
apt upgrade -y

If the kernel was updated, reboot at a convenient time and check that services come back.

3. Create an administrator user

Do daily work with a sudo user rather than root:

adduser admin
usermod -aG sudo admin

Open a second SSH session as the new user and confirm sudo works before closing the root session.

4. Use SSH keys

Keys cannot be guessed. Generate a pair on your computer (ssh-keygen -t ed25519), copy the public key with ssh-copy-id admin@SERVER_IP, test it, then disable password logins. The full procedure, including moving the port and disabling root, is in secure SSH access.

5. Enable the firewall

Allow SSH first, then only the services you run. A web server needs 80 and 443:

ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable
ufw status verbose

Details and more rules are in the UFW guide.

6. Set the time zone and clock sync

Correct time matters for logs, SSL validation and scheduled jobs:

timedatectl set-timezone Europe/Istanbul
timedatectl status

7. Automatic security updates

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

8. Monitoring and backups

Watch CPU, RAM, disk usage and service status; the FiberVM panel shows live resource graphs, and an external uptime monitor alerts you when the server stops answering. Take a snapshot from the panel before every major change, and keep a file and database backup off the server. A snapshot is not a long-term backup: it lives on the same storage as the server.

Final check

• Updates installed and reboot done if needed?
• Admin user tested with sudo?
• Only the required ports open?
• SSH key login working, password login off?
• Monitoring and backups active?

With these done you can install your application. For a web stack on the server see installing cPanel on a VDS, and for the longer hardening list the VDS security guide.