* [Implementing a tiny web server in a single printf call](https://tinyhack.com/2014/03/12/implementing-a-web-server-in-a-single-printf-call/)

is an absurd C language hack that you would never want to use in any

real project but still an amazing little application and wonderful

explanation that you can learn a bit more about web servers by reading.

* Published a new blog post showing

title: How to Provision Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux Servers on DigitalOcean

slug: provision-ubuntu-1804-linux-servers-digitalocean

meta: Learn how to provision Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on DigitalOcean for deploying your web applications.

category: post

date: 2018-10-14

modified: 2018-10-14

newsletter: False

headerimage: /img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/header.jpg

headeralt: Flask, Green Unicorn and Ubuntu logos. Copyright their respective owners.

[Python web applications](/web-development.html) need to be

[deployed](/deployment.html) to a production [server](/servers.html) or

[service](/platform-as-a-service.html) so your users have access to

the application.

[DigitalOcean](https://do.co/fullstackpython) is one such service

that makes it easy to immediately get access to initially free servers

which are low cost (~$5 per month depending on the resources) to continue

using after the first few months.

In this tutorial we'll learn how to quickly sign up and spin up an

[Ubuntu](/ubuntu.html)-based Linux server that only you will have

access to based on a private SSH key.

These steps sign you up for a DigitalOcean account and guide you through

provisioning a virtual private server called a "Droplet" for $5/month which

we configure throughout the rest of the book.

Point your web browser to

[Digitalocean.com's registration page](https://do.co/fullstackpython).

Note that this link uses a referral code which gives you $100 in free

credit. Feel free to just go to

[digitalocean.com](https://www.digitalocean.com/) if you

do not want to use the referral link (you will not get the $100 in credit

though). Their landing page will look something like the following image.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/do-landing-page.jpg" class="shot rnd outl" alt="DigitalOcean landing page." width="100%">

Register for a new DigitalOcean account. Fill out the appropriate

information. When your account is registered and active you can create

a new DigitalOcean server, which they call "droplets".

After you finish the registration process you will be able to start

creating DigitalOcean servers. Select the "Create" button which

opens a drop-down menu. Choose "Droplets" to go to the "Create Droplets"

page.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/create-droplet.png" class="shot rnd outl" width="100%">

The new droplet configuration screen will appear and look like

the following image. The default Ubuntu instance is 16.04, but

we will use the newer LTS release 18.04 in this book.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/create-droplets-page.jpg" class="shot" width="100%">

Select the 1 GB memory-sized server for $5 per month. This instance

size should be perfect for prototypes, side projects and minimum

viable products. Feel free to choose a larger instance size if you

want more memory and resources for running your application.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/create-droplet-size.jpg" class="shot" width="100%">

Scroll down and choose the data center region where you want your

instance to be located. I typically choose New York because I am

on the East Coast of the United Statest in Washington, D.C., and you will

want the server to be closest to your users' location.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/choose-region.png" class="shot" alt="Choose the data center region closest to your customers." width="100%">

Next, scroll down and click "New SSH Key". Copy and paste in the contents

of your **public** SSH key. If you do not yet have an SSH key here are a

couple of guides that will walk you through creating one:

* [Creating SSH keys on macOS](/blog/ssh-keys-macos-sierra.html)

* [Creating SSH keys on Ubuntu Linux](/blog/ssh-keys-ubuntu-linux.html)

You can see the contents of a public key using the `cat` command. For

example on my system the command:

cat root.pub

Outputs the contents of my public key:

ssh-rsa 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 matthew.makai@gmail.com

Copy and paste this key into the DigitalOcean modal window and give it

a memorable name for future reference:

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/root-key.png" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Paste in the public root key into the modal window." width="100%">

Optionally, give your server a nickname such as `flask-deploy-manual`.

Then click the big green "Create" button at the bottom of the screen.

The server provisioning process will begin and our Ubuntu Linux 18.04

LTS-powered will soon be ready to go.

Ubuntu 18.04 is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release and has a

5 year support lifecycle. This version will receive security updates until

April 2023 as shown on the

[Ubuntu release end-of-life](https://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life)

page.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/ubuntu-lts-releases.png" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Ubuntu end of life schedule for all releases." width="100%">

You should now be back on the DigitalOcean dashboard.

<img src="/img/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu/ready-to-deploy.png" class="shot rnd outl" alt="New Ubuntu server ready for access." width="100%">

Our server is now up and ready for SSH access.

Connect to the server using the IP address associated with it:

You should now be connected to your new server and can proceed

with development or deployment.

We just stood up a new virtual private server on DigitalOcean that can be

used as a production or development environment.

Next up I recommend either configuring the development environment or

deploying your application with one of the following tutorials:

* [Configure Python 3, Flask and Gunicorn on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS](/blog/python-3-flask-gunicorn-ubuntu-1804-bionic-beaver.html)

* [How to Make Phone Calls in Python](/blog/make-phone-calls-python.html)

* [5 ways to deploy your Python web app from PyCon US 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGphzPLemZE)

You can also figure out what to code next in your Python project by reading

the [Full Stack Python table of contents page](/table-of-contents.html).

Questions? Contact me via Twitter

or [@mattmakai](https://twitter.com/mattmakai). I'm also on GitHub with

the username [mattmakai](https://github.com/mattmakai).

Something wrong with this post? Fork

[this page's source on GitHub](https://github.com/mattmakai/fullstackpython.com/blob/master/content/posts/181014-digitalocean-ubuntu-1804.markdown)

and submit a pull request.