2. Before beginning

by Double Bastion - Updated April 7, 2023
  • All the Linux commands in this guide will be given as they are, without prepending the sudo command. We recommend disabling root login for SSH access, as described further on, and logging in as a regular user, then immediately running su - to switch to the root user, and execute all the commands on the server as root. Then you’ll have the right to run any command and avoid the prompts telling you that you don’t have permission to make changes on your own server. Good quality Linux programs like the ones we describe in this guide (Nginx, Postfix, ClamAV, SpamAssassin, ProFTPD, Memcached, BIND, etc.) run under their own user, even if they were installed as root. This means that you don’t affect your system’s security by installing such programs as root. Therefore, in this situation, where you install and configure specific high quality programs on your own server, as the only user running commands on the server, there is no reason to use a regular user and write sudo in front of every command. If you still have doubts on this matter, please read this article.
  • After editing a file, we won’t mention that you have to save it and then close it, since this is obvious. We recommend using nano to edit files. After you open a file with the command nano filename and edit it, you can save it by pressing Ctrl + x, then y, then Enter. You can also save the file while editing it with Ctrl + s.
  • All the text in red should be replaced with your own data. For example example.com must be replaced with your own domain name.
  • Some applications need other applications to be installed in advance. For example, to install WordPress, you need to have Nginx, MariaDB and PHP already installed. All the applications are presented in the order in which they should be installed. If you try to install them in a different order, you can run into problems.
  • By applying any of the instructions presented in this guide, you acknowledge that you agree to our Terms and that you have read the Introduction.
You can send your questions and comments to: