v1
Log:
I got a droplet on DigitalOcean with the following specs:
1 GB / 25 GB Disk / SFO3 - Ubuntu 24.04 (LTS) x64.
I registered the domain name: owenabbott.dev using namecheap.com. It cost me about $3 for the first year but ramps up to $20 if I want to renew next year :/
Made a new user that I can log into the ssh using named: owen. This is the way to use ssh normally because you don’t want to be root all the time as you can make too big of mistakes on accident. Use sudo to do root commands anyway because owen has admin privileges.
Learned about VPSs (briefly). Basically just a computer that has a public IP address (unlike my laptop for example which is connected to the public through a router which is more secure). SSH is a shell that allows me to communicate to the server’s terminal via port 22. Got a grip on the file system and learned a few more commands (I already learned the basics of linux and file systems in school but this has been more hands on and experimental). UFW is the firewall which controls which ports are open, so I enabled ports 22 (ssh), 80 (HTTP), and 443 (HTTPS).
I installed Nginx which is a web server. I had some previous experience with Apache but was convinced that Nginx was the way to go as it is more modern and just seemed overall better. I understand Nginx as a piece of software that delivers users to the website. When someone types in my website name, the DNS stuff happens where it is translated from website name to IP address and then a request is sent into the ports 80 or 443 which my firewall allows. Ngninx is listening in on these ports and decides what file they get. It’s config files live /etc/nginx and the web files that it gives to the user where my html, css, etc, live in /var/www/html.
I got my website certified using the following commands in the ssh:
sudo apt update (refreshes list of available packages)
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y (installs certbot and Ngnix plugin that auto-configures HTTPS)
sudo certbot --nginx -d owenabbott.dev -d www.owenabbott.dev (requests and installs SSL certificate for domain and ato-edits Ngninx config to enable HTTPS)
Right now the app is just one index.html file. My vision for this website is to have a current version of the website as the main landing page and then the ability to access all previous versions to see progress. I want to log what I have learned and what I have changed. Excited!
V1 was completed November 29, 2025