Hi, I just got a small DO plan for testing purposes and I intend on switching my websites here too, but having worked on shared hostings so far, I don’t know what’s the “bootstrap” for each droplet.
I installed the LAMP stack, composer, git and all the stuff I need ( laravel project ) and also set up ssh keys and I can connect to my droplet using PuTTy just fine ( windows 7 )
My main concern is security. Because the droplets are “empty boxes” I need to secure them, so I was wondering if there is any images or starting points which have all the default and must have packages already installed.
I know that each droplet is unique and the packages depend on the purpose of it, but there must be some starting points that are useful for every one of them, such as firewall configuration, optimizations, ftp/sftp servers and so on…
If not, I will gladly follow a guide on how to secure my droplet and what are some “must take” steps before starting working on my droplet.
Sorry for the long text and for any grammar mistakes.
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
Once thing that I have started doing: Change the default ssh port. This will keep out a load of automated attempts to get in. It is easy to do and well worth the few minutes it takes.
Personally, for me first thing I do for Droplets is install Centmin Mod LNMP web stack as it auto installs and configures CSF Firewall for security :)
so I end up with latest Nginx 1.7.4, PHP-FPM 5.4.32 or 5.5.16, MariaDB 10.0.13 MySQL and CSF Firewall :)
Become a contributor for community
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
DigitalOcean Documentation
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
Resources for startups and AI-native businesses
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
The developer cloud
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Get started for free
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.