Your first hour with a new server
The machine is yours from the moment the credentials land in your inbox. Here is what we would do first.
1. Log in and change what you were sent
You receive the IP address and a root password. Log in over SSH, change that password immediately, and put your public key in place. The password we generated has travelled through email, so treat it as temporary by definition.
If SSH does not answer, do not wait for us: open the remote KVM from the portal and look at the console. Nine times out of ten you are watching the machine finish its first boot.
2. Confirm you got what you ordered
Takes two minutes and saves an argument later:
lscpufor the processor and core countfree -hfor memorylsblkandsmartctl -a /dev/sdXfor the disksethtool eth0for the negotiated link speed
Something missing or smaller than agreed? Tell us the same day and we sort it out.
3. Update, then lock it down
The image we install is clean but not fresh off the press. Run your distribution's update before anything is exposed, then follow hardening a fresh install.
4. Set reverse DNS
If the machine sends mail or you want clean traceroutes, set the reverse record now rather than when something breaks. See IP addresses and reverse DNS.
5. Decide how you will get back in
Our servers are unmanaged: we do not hold a copy of your root password and we cannot read your disk. Remote KVM, power control and an unattended reinstall are in the portal, and that is your way back in when a kernel upgrade goes sideways. Make sure you can reach the portal before you need it.
Still stuck? Mail support@novogara.com — an engineer answers, at any hour. Back to the knowledge base