Setting up a production ready VPS is a lot easier than I thought.

Summary

The video script details a journey of setting up a production-ready VPS for a guestbook web app. It explores the ease of deploying applications to the cloud with PaaS platforms, contrasts it with VPS for long-running tasks, and delves into the challenges of VPS setup. The host challenges themselves to configure a VPS from scratch, implementing security measures, DNS records, TLS, a firewall, and load balancing with tools like Docker, Traefik, and Watchtower. The script also covers automated deployments and website monitoring, concluding that setting up a VPS can be simpler than anticipated with the right tools.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video discusses the ease of deploying applications to the cloud using micro SaaS platforms, but notes their limitations for long-running tasks and data transfers.
• 🛡️ The presenter prefers VPS for production services due to consistent billing and fewer caveats compared to serverless platforms.
• 💡 The challenge is set to deploy a production-ready VPS from scratch, highlighting the perceived difficulty of setting up a VPS.
• 📝 A list of requirements for a 'production-ready' VPS is defined, including DNS setup, application deployment, security practices, high availability, automated deployments, and monitoring.
• 🔐 Security measures include enabling HTTPS with TLS, automatic certificate provisioning, hardening SSH access, and setting up a firewall.
• 💻 The use of a VPS from Hostinger is detailed, including the affordable pricing and the process of setting up the server with Ubuntu 24 LTS.
• 🌐 DNS configuration is covered, including purchasing a domain and setting up A records to point to the VPS.
• 🔧 Technical approaches are considered, with a preference for simple tooling and avoiding complex solutions like Kubernetes or infrastructure as code.
• 🚀 The deployment of a guestbook web app using both a direct binary execution and Docker containerization is demonstrated.
• 🔄 Traffic, a reverse proxy and load balancer, is introduced to manage HTTP and HTTPS traffic, including setting up TLS certificates with Let's Encrypt.
• 🔔 Automated deployments are set up using Watchtower, which monitors Docker images for updates and redeploys services as needed.
• 👀 Uptime monitoring is implemented using Uptime Robot to ensure the presenter is notified if the website becomes unavailable.

Q & A

What was the main challenge the speaker initially faced when considering a VPS for production services?

The speaker was initially hesitant to use a raw VPS for deploying production services due to the perceived difficulty of setting up a VPS to be production-ready.

What was the goal of the speaker's challenge to set up a production-ready VPS?

The goal was to deploy a simple guestbook web app on a VPS and to see how difficult it would be to set up the VPS from scratch according to a list of production-ready requirements.

What were some of the security practices the speaker implemented for the VPS?

The speaker implemented security practices such as enabling TLS for HTTPS, automatically provisioning and renewing TLS certificates, hardening SSH to prevent unauthorized access, and setting up a firewall to block unnecessary ports.

How did the speaker ensure high availability for the guestbook web app?

The speaker ensured high availability by setting up a load balancer using Traefik, which could distribute traffic across multiple instances of the guestbook service.

What tool did the speaker use to automate deployments on the VPS?

The speaker used Watchtower to automate deployments, which monitors Docker images for updates and automatically deploys new versions when available.

What was the issue the speaker encountered when trying to serve the web app over HTTPS?

The issue was that after setting up HTTPS, the website could not be accessed using the HTTP protocol on Port 80 by default, which led to a timeout. This was resolved by setting up an HTTP to HTTPS redirect.

How did the speaker address the problem of brief downtime during deployment with Watchtower?

The speaker addressed the problem by enabling rolling restarts with Watchtower, which updates services one by one instead of all at once, minimizing downtime.

What uptime monitoring service did the speaker use to get notified if the website went down?

The speaker used Uptime Robot as an uptime monitoring service to check if the website was available and to send notifications in case of downtime.

What was the speaker's final evaluation of setting up a production-ready VPS?

The speaker concluded that setting up a production-ready VPS was easier than initially anticipated, and tools like Traefik and Watchtower made it possible to set up a lot of functionality quickly.

What was the speaker's recommendation for obtaining a VPS for one's own applications?

The speaker recommended checking out Hostinger, the sponsor of the video, and using the coupon code 'dreams of code' for additional discounts on VPS instances.