Why I need a VPS?
It was time for an upgrade. While I’ve been using Hostinger (Mumbai) to handle my domains and email services, and they do a great job. But I needed a bit more raw power and freedom for my engineering projects. I needed root access, I needed better ping for certain tasks, and honestly? I just wanted a proper playground.
So, I pulled the trigger and set up a new home base with OVHCloud in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Hardware: Under the Hood
I went with the VPS 1 Plan, which is honestly a steal for the performance you get. It’s the perfect middle ground for what I’m building:
- CPU: 4 vCores (Plenty of headroom for multitasking)
- RAM: 8 GB (Essential for running multiple containers comfortably)
- Storage: 75 GB SSD (Fast and spacious enough for now)
- Safety Net: Automatic 7-day backups, plus I grabbed the One-click Snapshot addon. If I break something (which, let’s be real, will happen), I can roll back in seconds.
For the OS, I opted for Debian 12 (Bookworm). It’s free, open-source, and rock-solid. For the uninitiated, Debian is actually the foundation that Ubuntu was built on. Think of it as the industrial-grade ancestor of that popular desktop distro we all know.
Security First: Locking the Doors
The first rule of owning a VPS: Don’t leave the front door open. Before doing anything fun, I set up SSH Key Authentication and completely disabled password logins. Unless you have my private key, this server doesn’t even know you exist. It’s a small step that adds a massive layer of peace of mind.
Access & Control
Of course, power is nothing without control. I configured UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall) to strictly limit traffic, ensuring only the necessary ports are open to the world. For moving files, I skipped the insecure FTP route and relied on SFTP, which piggybacks securely on my SSH connection. To top it off, I set up Termius on my phone. Now, whether I’m commuting or just away from my desk, I have full SSH and SFTP access to manage the server right from my pocket. It’s about having total control, wherever I am.
The Stack: Keeping it Clean
didn’t want to clutter the OS with messy dependencies, so I went the containerization route. Everything runs in Docker. To make life easier, I set up:
- Portainer: Because managing containers via CLI is cool, but having a visual dashboard is efficient.
- Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM): The traffic controller. It handles all the SSL certificates and routing, so my subdomains land exactly where they need to without exposing messy ports to the world.
First Deployment: FlexIO
To verify the pipeline was solid, I set up secure SFTP access and deployed my first custom container: flexio_cdn. Right now, it’s just a placeholder, but it’s going to serve as the backbone for the Flexio System project I’ve been developing.
Learn more about FlexIO here:
The infrastructure is live, secure, and ready to work. Now the real fun begins.