Getting Started With Debian 12 on a VPS

Overview

This guide walks you through the first steps on a brand-new Debian 12 (Bookworm) VPS. You will end up with a hardened, production-ready server in under 30 minutes. If you need a VPS to follow along, Contabo (affiliate) offers 4 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM from $5.50/month — great value for Debian 12 deployments.

Full guide → Initial Server Setup on Debian 12

Step 1 — Update the System

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apt update && apt full-upgrade -y

Step 2 — Create a Sudo User

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adduser deploy
usermod -aG sudo deploy

Step 3 — Harden SSH

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

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PermitRootLogin no
PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

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systemctl restart sshd

Step 4 — Configure UFW Firewall

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apt install ufw -y
ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw enable

Step 5 — Install Essential Packages

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apt install -y curl wget git unzip htop fail2ban

🖥️ Check Them Out — Contabo VPS

Running these guides on a real server makes all the difference. Contabo offers some of the best VPS value around — NVMe SSDs, generous RAM, and Debian 12 available out of the box.

→ Check Out Contabo VPS Plans (affiliate link)   → Need More Power? Dedicated Servers (affiliate link)

More Guides

• Nginx Web Server on Debian 12
• UFW Firewall Configuration
• SSH Key Authentication