Rent a VPS

Rent a small cloud server for Qwest, secure it and install Docker.

2 min read

A VPS (virtual private server) is a computer in a data center that you rent by the month. It’s always on and reachable from anywhere.

1. Pick a provider

Any of these work. Pick one with a data center close to your team.

Provider	Data centers	Good to know
Hetzner Cloud	Germany, Finland, USA, Singapore	Usually the cheapest. Pick a shared x86 (Intel/AMD) plan, not the ARM ones.
OVHcloud VPS	Europe, Canada, USA, Asia-Pacific	Low prices, generous bandwidth.
DigitalOcean	Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia	Very beginner-friendly dashboard and guides.
Vultr	30+ cities worldwide	Many locations.
Akamai (Linode)	Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia	Long-running, solid support.

What to rent: 2 vCPUs and 4 GB of RAM (2 GB works for small teams), Intel/AMD, with Ubuntu 24.04. Prices change, so compare on each provider’s page.

2. Make an SSH key

An SSH key lets you log into the server securely, without a password. Skip this if you already have one.

Open a terminal (Terminal on Mac and Linux, PowerShell on Windows) and run:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Press Enter at each question. Then show your public key:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the whole line it prints. It starts with ssh-ed25519.

3. Create the server

In your provider’s dashboard, create a new server (Hetzner calls it a server, DigitalOcean a Droplet, Vultr an instance, Linode a Linode):

Image / OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
Type / plan: shared CPU, x86 (Intel/AMD), 2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM.
Location: closest to your team.
SSH key: paste the line you copied.
Optional: turn on the provider’s backups (a cheap extra safety net).
Click Create. After a minute, copy the server’s IPv4 address.

4. Log in

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Type yes the first time. You’re now typing commands on the server.

5. Update it and turn on the firewall

apt update && apt upgrade -y
ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw enable

Type y when asked. This blocks everything except SSH. You’ll open more later only if you put Qwest online.

Optional but wise: turn on automatic security updates.

apt install -y unattended-upgrades
dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

6. Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Check it works:

docker compose version

It should print a version number.

Install Qwest.