Alternatively, if you are using an SSH key that is passphrase protected, you may be prompted to enter the passphrase the first time you use the key each session. If you are using password authentication, provide your root password to log in. Be sure to replace the highlighted portion of the command with your server’s public IP address:Īccept the warning about host authenticity if it appears. If you are not already connected to your server, go ahead and log in as the root user with the following command. If you have not already logged into your server, you may want to follow our guide on how to connect to your Droplet with SSH, which covers this process in detail.

To authenticate, you’ll need either the account’s password or the SSH private key for the root user’s account, in case you have set up an SSH key for authentication within the server. Make sure you know your server’s public IP address. To get started, you’ll need to log into your server.

In the next step, you’ll set up such a user. For that reason, the recommended practice is to set up a regular system user and give this user sudo permissions, so that it may run administrative commands with certain limitations. This is because part of the power inherent to the root account is the ability to make very destructive changes, even by accident. Because of the heightened privileges of the root account, you are discouraged from using it on a regular basis.

The root user is an administrative user that has very broad privileges. Newly installed servers typically have only a root account set up, and that is the account you’ll use to log into your server for the first time. This guide will walk you through a few procedures that you should complete early on in order to create a solid foundation for your new server, before moving on to installing and configuring any software or services. After creating a new Ubuntu 18.04 server, you should take some configuration steps as part of an initial server setup in order to increase security and facilitate management later.

Ubuntu server 18.04 virtualbox