Digital Ocean with SSH access

In this post we will create a new machine (Droplet) in your Digital Ocean account and secure it with SSH access

Step 1: Make sure you have SSH configured

Go to Digital Ocean's dashboard, navigate to Settings > Security

Add your SSH keys there.

Step 2: Create a droplet

Go to Digital Ocean's dashboard, click the "Create" button on top of the page and select "Droplet"

And then click on Create.

Step 3: Login with SSH

Let's make sure you have ssh access to your new machine.

First let's get you a root password: go to Dashboard, click on your droplet's name, go to Access and ask for a new root password. You will receive your password via email.

Back to Dashboard, then navigate to Droplets and copy the IP address of your new droplet. I will use 1.2.3.4 as an example.

Open a terminal and let's access your server. Whenever prompted about a new host, confirm (Y) and continue.

You should be inside your droplet now. You will need to change your password the first time you access it.

ssh root@1.2.3.4

...
...

Changing password for root.

(current) UNIX password: [paste-root-password-here]
Enter new UNIX password: [new-password]

Enter a new password and repeat it. Once done, let's confirm everything is fine, by closing our session and connecting again. Run exit and reconnect:

root@1.2.3.4:~# exit [Enter]

> logout
> Connection to homebots.io closed.

$ ssh root@1.2.3.4

Ok, now let's remove password access from your machine. Yes, we don't want that.

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Locale the line with PermitRootLogin and replace yes with prohibit-password

...
PermitRootLogin prohibit-password
...

Now only ssh access with your keys is allowed.

Make sure you don't lose your keys! 😅

Next

Read more about security-related changes or check this article from DigitalOcean about SSH