Flask App Hosting

Most of my recent apps have been built with Flask, a simple bare bones Python based framework, even this site! Here I will detail my full set up of the web server using Linode, a very reliable VPS provider.

Once you have signed up to Linode, create a $5 nanode with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, choose it's location and set a strong root password.

Once the nanode has finished booting go to the networking tab and you will see the ip attached to a copyable SSH command. Run this command in your local terminal:

ssh root@yourserverip

Enter the root password you created a moment ago.

Update Ubuntu:

apt update && apt upgrade

Set hostname:

hostnamectl set-hostname yourhostname
hostname

Edit hosts:

vi /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost
yourserverip    yourhostname

Add new user and enter strong password:

adduser yourusername

Add new user to sudoers:

adduser yourusername sudo

Exit and log in as your new user:

exit
ssh yourusername@yourserverip

Create ~/.ssh folder on your server:

mkdir ~/.ssh

On your local machine generate ssh key pair if you don't already have one:

ssh-keygen -b 4096

Copy over your local public key to the server:

scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub yourusername@yourserverip:~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Change permissions on SSH directory and files:

sudo chmod 700 ~/.ssh/
sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/*

You may now SSH into your server with just your local SSH key:

exit
ssh yourusername@yourserverip

Disallow root logins over SSH:

sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no

Restart SSH service:

sudo systemctl restart sshd

Install and configure firewall:

sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status verbose

In the next part we'll continue setting up the server so we can serve our flask app.