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Building a Website Part 3: Configuring the Server

By Josh Anderson

A simple guide to build a personal website that will make your techy friends proud.

This is the third article in a four-part series, so if you jumping in here go ahead and take look at the introduction on page 1.

Step 3: Configuring the Server

This is where we do the real tech work. Again, I promise it’s not scary. We will be following this guide from Digital Ocean, but I will summarize and explain the key steps along the way to make your life a little easier. As always, there are Step-by-Step instructions at the bottom of this page if you prefer to skip the explanations.

Instructions

First things first, we need to get our information and tools together so that we are can get to work.

Take a moment and make sure you have all of this information handy, we will need it soon:

  • Username and Password for GoDaddy
  • Username and Password for DigitalOcean
  • Server IP Address from DigitalOcean
  • Your Domain Name
  • The root password you created when you made your droplet
  1. Get some tools (optional but recommended)
    1. I will show you how to do all of these steps without getting these tools, but I highly recommend you get them if you don’t already have them. One is to connect to you sever directly via SSH. When you do this, you will flashback in time to a world of text-based black windows where you type in commands and the computer responds. We won’t have to do a lot of this, but the tools below will help. The second is for moving files back and forth. This will make adding files to your webserver a little easier, but really is optional as WordPress is its own upload system once you get going.
    2. SSH Client: Either
      1. SolarPutty: https://www.solarwinds.com/free-tools/solar-putty A great free tool, but you need to provide an email address and will get some marketing stuff from down the road.
      2. Putty: https://www.putty.org/ Also free, no strings attached.
    3. FTP Client: Either
      1. WinSCP https://winscp.net/eng/index.php A free file transfer application
      2. FileZilla https://filezilla-project.org/ another free file transfer application
  2. Log in
    1. This can be done in either the DigitalOcean Consol or your shiny new SSH client. If you using the DigitalOcean Portal, you will find the Access Console option, under More^
    2. When you first log in, you will enter root as the username and the password you created earlier in this guide
  3. Start the Guided Set Up. (No action Needed) Note: the next few steps will help you walk through the WordPress set up guide that will appear the first time you log into your server. These are all done in the little back box, called a terminal window. Keep in mind that you can right-click to paste things, and highlighting lines will automatically copy them. We are just going to follow the directions on the screen for a bit.
  4. Enter your domain name (I put in joshandersonconsulting.com)
  5. Enter your email address (use your current email address, this if logging in and notifications)
  6. Make a username (save this!)
  7. Make a new password (use the password generator again and make sure you take note of it along with the username you picked)
  8. Blog Title: Pick something simple, we will change this later on
  9. Enter Y when all the information is correct
  10. Enter Y to set up SSL for you page
  11. Enter your email address for SSL renewal notifications
  12. Enter A to accept the TOS for CertBot (CertBot is a cool little tool that makes your page secure)
  13. The next prompt is up to you Read the message and choose if you want to share your info A to accept N for no.
  14. Press enter to create SSL Certificates for all recommended addresses

You are done with the little back box! Go ahead and close it. We will do the rest of our work in a web browser. (You’re almost there!)

  1. The first thing we want to do is make our new Domain Name take people to our New Server. For this, we will need to log back into GoDaddy and update a few things.
  2. Log into Godady.com and find your Domains Select the Option to Manage DNS.
    1. A Record: Add the IP address you got from the digital ocean and save the page
    2. We do not need to modify the other records at this time, but we will come back to this if you are using this name for email as well.
  3. It may take a minute or two, but once you save your DNS record, you will be able to access your WordPress page by navigating to your website.
  4. You can get to the login page by adding /wp-login.php to the end of your Domain name or finding the Log In option on the default WordPress home screen
  5. Log in using the username and password you created earlier in this process. Note this will be the second password that you set up.
  6. You are now on your website

Your Web Server is now configured! From here on out it is all about content!

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Optional- Install SolarPutty as Alternative to Digital Ocean Admin Consol
  2. Log into your Web Server via the Digital Ocean Admin Consol or SolarPutty
  3. The Guided set up will start Automatically, respond to each prompt
  4. When Prompted: Enter your domain name
  5. When Prompted: Enter your email address
  6. When Prompted: Create a user name
  7. When Prompted: Create a new password
  8. When Prompted: Enter your Blog Title
  9. When Prompted: Confirm the information is correct by typing Y
  10. When Prompted: Type Y to set up SSL
  11. When Prompted: Enter your email Address
  12. When Prompted: Type A to accept TOS
  13. When Prompted: Type A to share info or N to Decline (This is your choice)
  14. When presented with a list of recommendations: Press enter to create for all recommended Sites.
  15. When Prompted: Type A to share info or N to Decline (This is your choice)
  16. Navigate to in Browser to GoDaddy.com, login, and go to Manage Domains (If you have used GoDaddy for Hosting)
  17. In GoDaddy Admin Page: Update the A-Record for your WebSite to your Public IP address. Click Save
  18. Go to your domain name and confirm it now has a WordPress splash page. (this may take up to 5 min)
  19. add /wp-login.php to log into your WordPress login page
  20. Log-in with user name and password from steps 6 and 7
  21. DONE! 

Your all set!!!! Now, all that you have to do is decide what to put on your website. Take a look at the next article see what packages to check-in WordPress and get started with content.