To set up your new server, execute the following commands.
Set the hostname
Set the server hostname. Any name will do — just make it memorable. In this example, I chose “future”.
echo "future" > /etc/hostname hostname -F /etc/hostname
Let’s verify that it was set correctly:
hostname
Set the fully-qualified domain name
Set the FQDN of the server by making sure the following text is in the /etc/hosts file:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.1.1 ubuntu
<your server ip> future.<your domain>.net future
It is useful if you add an A record that points from some domain you control (in this case I used “future.<your domain>.net”) to your server IP address. This way, you can easily reference the IP address of your server when you SSH into it, like so:
ssh future.<your domain>.net
If you’re curious, you can read more about the /etc/hosts file.
Set the time
Set the server timezone:
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Verify that the date is correct:
date
Update the server
Check for updates and install:
aptitude update aptitude upgrade