Provision a simple VPS with a basic LAMP server via OVH Manager and OVH Public Cloud.

This guide walks through creating an instance, configuring it, connecting via SSH to install Apache, and testing the connection.

OVH Manager - Cloud Overview

Preparation

  • OVH account with Manager Access
  • Basic Linux knowledge (SSH, vim, apt), see the UNIX cheatsheet
  • Estimated time of completion: 10 min

Walkthrough

Add your SSH Key in the OVH Manager

Refer to https://docs.ovh.com/gb/en/public-cloud/create-ssh-keys/ to create one. Have your public+private key saved somewhere as TXT format, no matter the extension.

In your OVH Manager, go to ‘Cloud > Create new Project > Fill info > SSH Keys > Add > Add your public SSH Key’.

OVH Manager SSH Keys overview

Create the VPS instance

Infrastructure > Actions > Add a server:

Add server instance

  • Select your closest geographic area, i.e. London UK 1
  • Select Debian 9
  • Select the cheapest, S1-2, which stands for Server 1 vCore CPU + 2GB RAM + 10 Go HDD
  • The SSH Key should be pre-selected
  • Leave Advanced options as is
  • Click Launch Now

Configure S1-2 instance

Wait 2-5 minutes and a popup should appear with the server IP and the linux root username. In this case it was ssh [email protected]. To open this window again click on ‘Login Informations’.

Login information

Let’s connect and run a quick enumeration:

Quick enumeration

Server is up and running, great!!

Install Apache and create a HTML test page

$ sudo apt update # refresh all repo
$ sudo apt install apache2 # install apache
$ cd # make sure we are in our home folder
$ mkdir public_html && cd public_html # create public_html, per Apache convention
$ touch index.html && echo "Hello world from OVH Cloud Iaas!" > index.html # create basic html file
$ sudo chgrp www-data ~/public_html # edit permission to have www-data as group owner
$ sudo a2enmod userdir # enable apache module "userdir"
$ sudo service apache2 restart # restart apache

See https://wiki.debian.org/LaMp for details

Advanced configuration with OpenStack Dashboard: Horizon

Open the advanced dashboard through the tab OpenStack. Create a user and start Horizon:

OpenStack Horizon setup

It will open in a new tab:

Horizon dashboard

Browse to your instances, and find an overview, the server log and an open stack console:

Instance overview in Horizon

Add alert with usage threshold

Project Management > Usage > Estimate of my next invoice > Create alert:

Create alert

Validation & troubleshooting

And that’s it! Open http://54.xx.xx.xx/~debian/ in a browser:

Instance is running

Going further

  • Install full LAMP with PHP and MySQL
  • Install Plesk for server management made easy (hostnames, HTTPs, one-click wordpress, cron via UI, users…)
  • Install and connect 100Go Storage disk to host nextcloud data
  • My linux server is full!: find what fills the disk of your new VPS