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You will need git and docker on your server, so install them.
The root user is very useful for setting up the server, but it has a very high level of privilege and a mistake can be disastrous. Next we create an ordinary user which we will use for normal work. Here I call that user simon. We want to create a user with no password and the contents of your public key in its authorized_keys file. Once logged in, it needs to be able to run docker.
You need to get the command shown below exactly right, so if you're not used to Linux, copy and paste them. Note that pasting into a git bash command window doesn't work the way you might expect. To paste, right-click anywhere in your command window and select Paste from the menu that appears.
First, set the name of your user. I'm going to call my user "simon".
user=simon
That creates a variable containing the name of the user.
Change that line according to your needs.
You can then copy and paste the rest of these commands verbatim.
The text ${user} in the commands below is replaced automatically
by whatever user name you set.
useradd ${user} --create-home
usermod -L ${user}
mkdir /home/${user}/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/${user}/.ssh
chown -R ${user}:${user} /home/${user}/.ssh
usermod -aG docker ${user}
The new user is locked so you can't log in yet.
Start a second command window on your computer and
set the user name again (It only works in one window).
Create another variable containing the name of your domain:
user=simon
domain=example.com
Copy and paste this command. It copies your public key
across the network to the server and calls the result authorized_keys:
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@${domain}:/home/${user}/.ssh/authorized_keys
In my case
that would be the same as typing this:
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@example.com:/home/simon/.ssh/authorized_keys
which means "take the file id_rsa.pub from the .ssh directory in my home directory
on this machine,
connect over the network to the machine called example.com as its user root,
copy my file to the .ssh directory in
the user simon's home directory and call it authorized_keys".
Back in your first command window (which is logged into the droplet as root) change the ownership of the files you just created so that they belong to your new user:
chown -R ${user}:${user} /home/${user}/.ssh
Now you can use your second command window to connect to your server as your new user:
ssh ${user}@${domain}
Now you are logged into your server from two command windows. In one you are logged in as root, and one mistake there can be disastrous. In the other you are logged in as your ordinary user, which is much safer. You don't need root access now so disconnect the first window - click on it, hold down the ctrl key and type 'd' just once - no enter key needed. The command window stays running, but it's no longer connected to the remote machine. any command you type in there runs on your local machine.
In the second window, which is still logged in, check that your ordinary account can run docker by running the docker hello-world test container. This just displays "Hello from Docker!" along with lots of other stuff:
docker run hello-world
That produces:
Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
2db29710123e: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:37a0b92b08d4919615c3ee023f7ddb068d12b8387475d64c622ac30f45c29c51
Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest
Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
(amd64)
3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
to your terminal.
To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
$ docker run -it ubuntu bash
Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
https://hub.docker.com/
For more examples and ideas, visit:
https://docs.docker.com/get-started/
You have a user which is safe to use - you can't wreck your system by making a simple mistake. Your user can also run docker. As we'll see later, that makes it very easy to install services.
If you've not used Linux before, you can use docker to run some software that teaches you some more useful commands. You can find out more about that here
Now you can install a web server. Find out how to do that here.