Patrick Domingues

In this tutorial you will be shown how to setup a website server using Ubuntu 20.04 and Hestia Control Panel within A2 Hosting. I have made my move from Linode VPS to A2 Hosting VPS to host my website server. 

Now the few reasons I have decided to move my Hestia Control Panel over to A2 Hosting was due to a few issues with Linode servers. I had horrible server performance, however they would move me to less nosey shared VPS servers I would continue to suffer after a few hours. I also believe that Linode’s environment may be suffering from many bot crawls and DDOS attacks on their client base. After performing a live move to A2 Hosting and testing it out for a few days I have noticed increased performance. Pages loaded quicker and there has been less noise on the server from bot crawls and DDOS attacks. Let me also mention I have received a few emails from a few peers letting me know that my website PatrickDomingues.com seemed way more stable and is faster to access!

Also one of the major benefits was price comparison. I was due for an upgrade on the server and I needed more Storage, CPU and RAM. For $19.99/mo this ideal package provided the following:

• 4 Cores
• 4GB Ram
• 450GB SSD Storage
• Free Nightly Image Backups
• 4TB Data Transfer which is ideal for sending offsite backups
• Promises of high speed increases which I believe is true!

 

Now, Linode does have a high complex environment for applications, tools and has a lot of flexibility however I wasn’t using their environment for all the bells and whistles and unfortunately it has come short on what matters most to me, which is performance and resources. The price for VPS and its resources was a bit expensive. 

I hope that you will be as happy as I am with this love bundle of Hestia Control Panel and A2 Hosting.

Lets Start By Creating Your Domain.

1. I will be using Godaddy to register my website hosting 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 A2 Hosting. So once the server is created and we have the IP address you can edit and apply your host addresses for example:
   

Lets Get Started With A2 Hosting.

1. Select a unmanaged VPS from A2 Hosting. For myself I needed to go with RUNWAY 4!

   
   
   

2. Next, since you purchased a domain from GoDaddy select use my own domain and type in your domain. If you feel the need to register a domain through A2 Hosting instead of using GoDaddy that’s fine as well.
   
   
   
3. Once your on Customize screen scroll down and the only changes you need to make are for your Hosting settings. Select where you want the location of your server to be. Operating system has to be set to Ubuntu 20.04 and the rest can be left alone. Afterwards click continue for your purchase.
   
   
4. Verify what you are about to purchase on the next screen and click [ Check Out].
5. Fill out the form with your details and Complete the order. 
6. Log into your customer portal. Go to the following Portal Home > Client Area > My Products & Services > Product Details. Locate your server and click manage. 
7. Now that we are managing our server we will want to click on the [ Additional Information ] Tab. This will provide you with the information you need to SSH on your server.
   

Lets get started with Ubuntu 20.04 

1. Download and install Putty  Open Putty and use the IP address and user information they provided to get connected to your Ubuntu 20.04 server.
2. 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 A2 Hosting 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 A2 Hosting 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 A2 Hosting 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 A2 Hosting VPS and configuring Ubuntu 20.04 and Hestia Control Panel. If you happen to have any questions please feel free to ask me.

If you need assistance on the process of setting up your own VPS I will be more than willing to assist you for a fixed donation. 

Patrick Domingues

See Full Bio