My Journey to Self-Hosting: Part 1 - VPS and SSH Key

This article is also available in German (Deutsch).

If you develop several small web apps and hobby projects, you’ll quickly run into a financial problem: if you pay for separate hosting or a PaaS (Platform as a Service) like Heroku or Render for each project, the monthly fixed costs add up very quickly.

That’s why I want to have my own VPS for my small projects, one that gives me full control and lets me run as many apps as I want without additional costs (as long as the RAM and CPU are sufficient 😉).

VPS Lite

To get started, I’ve decided to go with VPS Lite from the Swiss provider Infomaniak. VPS Lite stands for “Virtual Private Server Lite” and is simply a cost-effective, stripped-down version of a virtual private server. Another reason I chose this provider is that their servers are 100% hosted in their own Swiss data centers.

After completing the order, all I have to do is choose an operating system (I went with Ubuntu) and wait a short while for the installation to finish.

SSH Key

To connect to my server, I need an SSH key (a secure key pair). I generate this using the Terminal (I'm using a Mac):

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "vps" -f ~/.ssh/vps

ssh-keygen: stands for “SSH Key Generator” and launches the program to generate the keys

-t ed25519: specifies the encryption algorithm

-C “vps”: adds a comment so I know later what the keys are for

-f ~/.ssh/vps: specifies the folder and filename where the keys will be saved

Two files are generated:

• vps (the private key): this is like a house key, it stays on my own computer, and no one else is ever allowed to see this key

• vps.pub (the public key): this is the lock that is stored on the VPS

Every time I log in, the server uses this lock to verify that my computer has the matching private key.

The Infomaniak advantage: Normally, you would have to upload this key to the server manually via the command line. However, Infomaniak makes our lives easier, I can simply copy the contents of the vps.pub file and paste it directly into the Infomaniak web interface. The system then installs the key automatically for me.

Establishing a connection

In the terminal, I can now establish the connection as follows:

ssh -i [key_path] [user]@[server_IP]

In practice, this looks like this (example):

ssh -i ~/.ssh/vps ubuntu@123.45.67.89

ssh: starts the protocol for a secure connection

-i ~/.ssh/vps: the -i stands for “Identity File”, here you specify the path to the private SSH key on your local computer

ubuntu: the default username that Infomaniak has set up for the selected operating system

123.45.67.89: the IP address of the VPS Lite (you can find this in the Infomaniak dashboard under “Startup Procedure”)

Tip for the lazy 😉

To avoid having to type this long command every time you want to connect to the server, you can create shortcuts in a local file.

Use this command to create the file:

touch ~/.ssh/config

Then add the following to the file:

Host vps
    HostName 123.45.67.89
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/vps
    IdentitiesOnly yes

When connecting to a server, SSH tries all the keys in the ~/.ssh folder or loaded in the background one after another until one works. IdentitiesOnly yes prevents this by sending the correct key immediately.

Now I can easily connect to my VPS in the terminal using the command ssh vps.

What's next?

The first connection is up! 🎉 The server is running, but it's still completely “bare.” In the next part, I'll secure the server and set up a firewall.