How to create your first VPS
Provision a virtual server, log in over SSH, and understand what you were given.
A VPS is an entire computer you rent, with root access. This article provisions one and gets you a shell prompt.
What you get
Every HostingSwift VPS is a KVM virtual machine: a genuine hardware-virtualised server, not a shared container. That means its own kernel, its own IP addresses, and guaranteed vCPU and RAM rather than a fair-share with neighbours. You receive:
Root access over SSH (and a web console as a fallback).
One public IPv4 address and IPv6 connectivity.
NVMe storage.
Membership of our private WireGuard mesh, so your VPS can talk to your other services over a private LAN.
Provision it
Open /panel/vps and choose New VPS, or order from /pricing.
Pick an operating system. Debian or Ubuntu are the safest defaults; Alpine is superb if you know you want it; AlmaLinux and Rocky are the RHEL-family options.
Pick a plan. Start smaller than you think you need — you can resize upward later without reinstalling.
Add your SSH public key. Do this now; it is far less painful than adding it after the fact. If you have never made a key, see SSH keys and access.
Confirm. Provisioning usually completes in under a minute.
Log in
Once the status is running, connect from your own machine:
ssh [email protected]Replace the address with the one shown in the panel. On the first connection you will be asked to accept the host key fingerprint — check it against the value shown in the panel before typing yes.
If you chose a password instead of a key, the panel shows it once. Change it immediately:
passwdThe first five minutes
Before you install anything:
# Update the package index and installed packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y # Debian/Ubuntu
# dnf update -y # AlmaLinux/Rocky
# Confirm what you actually bought
nproc # CPU count
free -h # memory
df -h / # disk
ip -br addr # network interfaces and addressesSetting the hostname and timezone now avoids confusing logs later:
hostnamectl set-hostname web1.example.com
timedatectl set-timezone Europe/LondonDo not skip hardening
A freshly provisioned VPS with SSH open to the internet will be probed within minutes. Before you put anything on it, follow Harden your VPS: disable password authentication, install a firewall, enable automatic updates and add fail2ban.
When you lock yourself out
It happens. Use the rescue console in /panel/vps to get an out-of-band shell that works even if the network is misconfigured. If the filesystem will not boot, boot into rescue mode and repair from there.
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