Patrick Domingues

In this tutorial I will be showing you how to use Linode, Ubuntu 20.04 and Hestia Control Panel to create yourself a website server. This is a much better option than using shared website hosting servers where compromised website server incidents can happen due to improper maintained webservers and websites. 

Lets Create Your Domain.

1. I will be using Godaddy to register my domain which will be websitemsp.com. 
2. Once your domain is created go to the manage DNS section.
3. Within the Advanced features we will be adding hostnames to the ip address given to us after creating a VPS from Linode. Once the server is created and we have the IP address you can create your host addresses for example:
   

Lets Get Started With Linode.

1. Sign up for a Linode Account.

   

2. Click on the blue button [ Create Linode ] to get started.
3. Under Choose Distribution please select Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
4. Select the region that your in.
5. If this is your first VPS select the cheapest for testing and you can expand as you grow.
6. Under Linode Label give your self a fully qualified domain. for example: sr1.WebsiteMSP.com
7. Type in a strong root password. (do not forget it)
8. For 2$ extra you can get backups for your server.
9. Click
10. Click on the blue button [ Create Linode ] to finish.
11. Download and install Putty  Open Putty and use the IP address they provided to get connected to your Ubuntu 20.04 server.

Lets get started with Ubuntu 20.04 

1. Now that we are logged into our new server lets make sure that it is up to date with all of its patching.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Lets Install Hestia Web Server Control Panel

1. We are ready to install the control panel for your website sever. 
2. Log into your Ubuntu server and lets run the following commands.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hestiacp/hestiacp/release/install/hst-install.sh
bash hst-install.sh

3. You will be required to remove conflicting packages. For this option move forward with removing the packages by selecting: Y.
4. Once all the conflicting packages are removed you will be prompted to continue with installation. Select Y here to continue.
5. You will be requested to type in your admin email.
6. Type in your servers FQDN fully qualified domain name for example mine will be: sr1.websitemsp.com .
7. Now lets wait 10 to 15 mins while the server gets configured. 
8. Wait! Before you reboot! Make sure to scroll upward, you will see Admin URL and access credentials.

9. Reboot server.
10. You cannot log into the server using the URL they provided just yet. Also, don’t forget you also had to make that Godaddy hostname change. 
11. Lets move forward with adding the required entrees to get this server running properly.

Lets Get Started With Hestia Control Panel

1. To access Hestia Control Panel we will use the Linode VPS IP address. For example: https://45.56.112.30:8083/
2. You will be presented with a control panel similar to the following. Type in the credentials given to you after Hestia Control Panel Installation finished.
   
3.  Once logged in click on the WEB tab.
4. Click on Add Web Domain.
5. Type in your domain, for example mine was websitemsp.com
6. Make sure Create DNS zone is checked.
7. Make sure Enable Mail for this domain is checked.
8. Click [Save].
9. Click the DNS tab.
10. We will be adding the NS1 and NS2 records to the domain.
11. Click Add Record.
12. Under Record type in NS1.
13. Under IP or Value type in your Linode VPS IP address. 
14. Click Save, do it again for NS2 and for sr1.
15. Make sure to go back to GoDaddy or your registrar and change your nameservers and point it to your new Linode website server.
16. It may take up to 48 for your DNS records to propagate throughout the internet. 
17. You can now move forward with installing your website.

Follow this tutorial to add SSL Certificate to Hestia Control Panel.

I hope the information provided in this tutorial meets your expectations as a complete guide to setting up a Lenode VPS and configuring Ubuntu 20.04 and Hestia Control Panel.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If you would like to be notified of when I create a new post, you can subscribe to my blog alert.