DigitalOcean Web Server Configuration and Hosting Multiple Websites

Prerequisites

Read this: DigitalOcean Initial Ubuntu Server Setup

Step 1: Install Nginx

# Install nginx
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install nginx

# Adjust the firewall to allow http
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP' # Open port 80

# Modify the website index if you want
sudo nano /var/www/html/index.nginx-debian.html
sudo service nginx restart

Now check your browser by typing your server IP (example: http://your_server_ip). You should see a ‘Welcome to nginx!’ message.

Read more: How To Install Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04

Step 2: Add a custom domain name (optional)

Let’s assume our domain name is www.example.com

1. Get a domain name from any domain name registrar.
2. Set up the DNS records for your domain by using a DNS hosting service (which DigitalOcean provides).
3. Add the domain to your DigitalOcean account:
   • Modify the A flag to assign your domain to the right droplet
   • Modify the CName flag to allow the www.example.com to link to the domain name (without www).

Read more: How To Point to DigitalOcean Nameservers From Common Domain Registrars

Step 3: Add a SSL certificate to your HTTP to get HTTPS (optional)

#  Install Certbot
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot  # press enter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-certbot-nginx

# Modify nginx config file
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
# Find the existing server_name line and replace the underscore, _
server_name example.com www.example.com;
# Verify config is ok
sudo nginx -t
# Reload the new config
sudo systemctl reload nginx

# Allow HTTPS through your firewall
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP'

# Obtain an SSL Certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

You will be asked to choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access. Choose the option 2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access.

You can Set Up Auto-Renewal in crontab. You don’t need to do that because cerbot will take care of this.

# Open crontab
sudo crontab -e
# Add this
15 3 * * * /usr/bin/certbot renew --quiet

The 15 3 * * * part of this line means “run the following command at 3:15 am, every day”. You may choose any time.

Read more at: How To Secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu 16.04

Frequently asked questions

grep processor /proc/cpuinfo | wc -l

ulimit -n

# Open the config file
sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

# Add something like this
worker_processes 1;
worker_connections 1024;

service nginx start