If you’re an admin who’s been tasked with installing Ubuntu Server to your data center, you’ll quickly realize how easy it is to deploy this enterprise-ready platform. The operating system itself is incredibly easy to install and will take you maybe 10 minutes tops. After the initial deployment is complete, however, the real work begins. It is at this point your Linux skills might be tested.

Fortunately, they don’t have to. Jack Wallen, writing for TechRepublic Premium, presents a handy checklist to ensure your Ubuntu Server deployment not only runs well but is secured before you start installing the necessary applications, services, and connect the server to your network.

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SECURE SSH

Next in line is securing secure shell access. Ubuntu Server ships with root access disabled, so you no longer have to worry about disabling that option. However, you will want to set up SSH key authentication.

To do this, create your SSH key on the machine you’ll use to remote into the server and then copy it to the server with the command:

ssh-copy-id USER@SERVER

Where USER is the remote username and SERVER is the IP address of the server.

After you test to make sure SSH key authentication works, log into the server and then disable standard password authentication.

To do that, open the SSH daemon configuration file with the command:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find the line that starts with PasswordAuthentication and change PasswordAuthentication from yes to no.

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TIME SAVED: Crafting this content required 16 hours of dedicated writing, editing, research and design.