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      Droplet

      Build and Deploy a Custom Droplet Image on DigitalOcean


      How to Join

      This Tech Talk is free and open to everyone. Register below to get a link to join the live stream or receive the video recording after it airs.

      DateTimeRSVP
      November 10, 202111:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ET / 4:00–5:00 p.m. GMT

      About the Talk

      Have you ever wanted to preconfigure your Droplet — DigitalOcean’s scalable virtual machine — before you deploy it? Do you want to use an operating system not currently available on DigitalOcean? Packer is a tool that allows you to build your own custom cloud images and deploy them.

      In this Tech Talk, we’ll use Packer and Ansible to build our own custom cloud image and deploy it to DigitalOcean.

      What You’ll Learn

      • How to build a custom cloud image using Packer
      • How to configure a custom cloud image using Packer and Ansible
      • How to use Packer to deploy your custom cloud image to DigitalOcean

      This Talk is Designed For

      • Software developers
      • DevOps engineers/SREs
      • Anyone who wants to build your own custom image and deploy it to DigitalOcean

      Resources

      Packer documentation

      Ansible documentation

      Custom Images are Linux and Unix-like images you import to DigitalOcean. You can create Droplets based custom images, which lets you migrate and scale your workloads without spending time recreating your environment from scratch.



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      How to Get WordPress Email Notifications on a DigitalOcean Droplet



      Part of the Series:
      Common WordPress Errors

      This tutorial series explains how to troubleshoot and fix common errors that you may encounter when deploying, maintaining, and updating your WordPress installation.

      Each tutorial in this series includes descriptions of common deployment, maintenance, or update errors, and explores ways to fix and optimize your installation to scale.

      Introduction

      Sending emails and notifications including form submission verifications and password resets from your WordPress site is an essential function. The process of sending automated emails is typically handled by an SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) server, but because SMTP servers are often complex to set up and require constant maintenance and monitoring against spam practices, using an external mail service is often a viable solution to attend to your WordPress site needs.

      In this tutorial, learn how to install and configure the Easy WP SMTP plugin to send emails from your WordPress site using an external mail service such as Gmail.

      Step 1 — Installing the Easy WP SMTP Plugin

      There are a number of ways to set up your WordPress site to send email notifications, and choosing the right one for your WordPress depends on your server configuration and preference. While you could choose to send emails directly from your server, the safest and most secure way to send emails from your WordPress site is through use of an external Email Service Provider (ESP) or SMTP server. Using an ESP or SMTP server ensures compatibility with popular email servers, and keeps emails from your server or Droplet out of spam and junk folders.

      For this tutorial, we’ll use the Easy WP SMTP plugin. You can install this plugin by visiting your WordPress dashboard, then accessing the Plugins item from the left menu. Click the Add New Plugin button, then search for Easy WP SMTP within the Search Plugins… search box.

      After installing the plugin, click on the Activate button to enable it. Then, move on to the next step to configure the Easy WP SMTP plugin to work with your SMTP server for outgoing emails.

      Step 2 — Configuring WordPress Email Settings

      To configure your WordPress SMTP plugin, visit Settings on your dashboard’s left menu, select the Easy WP SMTP menu option, then visit the General Settings tab within to set your preferences for Sender Name, SMTP Port, credentials, and more.

      Wordpress WP SMTP

      For detailed information about the various Easy WP SMTP plugin settings available, visit the main plugin page.

      Step 3 — Testing Email Settings

      To test your settings, navigate to the Easy WP SMTP settings page, towards the bottom of the page to Testing and Debugging Settings. You can send test emails and work to debug errors with your email server by augmenting the fields in this section.

      For more details about testing, visit the plugin download page.

      Conclusion

      In this tutorial, you used the Easy WP SMTP plugin to set up outgoing emails from your WordPress site. To learn about alternative ways to use SMTP servers with DigitalOcean Droplets, visit this tutorial, Using Gmail SMTP Servers to Send Email From WordPress on DigitalOcean.



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      How To Set Up an Ubuntu 20.04 Server on a DigitalOcean Droplet


      Introduction

      In this guide, you will create an Ubuntu 20.04 server through DigitalOcean’s administrative panel and configure it to work with your SSH keys. Once you have your server set up, you can use it to deploy apps and websites.

      This tutorial is part of the Introduction to the Cloud Curriculum, which guides users through all the steps of securely deploying an application to the cloud. If you are searching for general documentation on DigitalOcean Droplets, please visit our product documentation How to Create a Droplet from the DigitalOcean Control Panel.

      Prerequisites

      Before you begin this guide, you’ll need the following:

      • Some familiarity with the command line. If you’d like an introduction or refresher to the command line, you can visit our Linux Command Line Primer (coming soon).
      • SSH keys to enable a secure connection with your server. To set up SSH keys via the command line, you can follow our guide How to Set Up SSH Keys on Ubuntu 20.04.
      • A credit card or PayPal account to set up a DigitalOcean Droplet. Note that the smallest Droplet offering can be used for this tutorial, whose monthly subscription fee is available on our Pricing page. Users can cancel their Droplet service at any time.

      Note: Eligible students can sign up to receive $50 in free credits for Digital Ocean through the GitHub Student Developer Pack.

      Step 1 — Creating a DigitalOcean account

      To access the DigitalOcean Control Panel and create a Droplet, you need a DigitalOcean account. To create a new account, navigate to the DigitalOcean new account registration page. You can choose to register through email, Google, or GitHub.

      After you’ve confirmed your account, you will need to enter your credit card or Paypal information. This information is collected to verify identity and keep spammers out. You will not be charged until you choose a plan and confirm your subscription, which we will cover in Step 4. You may see a temporary pre-authorization charge to verify the card, which will be reversed within a week.

      Once your information has been accepted, you will be taken to a window that says “Registration Complete”. You are now ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 2 — Setting Up Your Droplet

      In the previous step, you should have been taken to a window that says “Registration Complete” with a “Let’s make something” button. Click on the “Let’s make something” button. The next window will display buttons for different Droplet options. Click on the “Go to Control Panel” link at the bottom:

      Webpage displaying Droplet options

      Once you click on the “Go to Control Panel” link, you will be taken to the control panel:

      Digital Ocean Cloud Control Panel

      Navigate to the “Create” menu in the upper right corner and click “Droplets” to open the Droplet create page. If you don’t have any Droplets, the Resources tab displays a large, blue “Get Started with a Droplet” button, which takes you to the same Droplet create page.

      The Droplet create page is where you choose your Droplet’s configuration, like its operating system, how much memory it has, and which features (like backups or monitoring) to enable.

      In the next step, you will choose an image of the operating system to be installed on your Droplet.

      Step 3 — Choosing an Image

      An image is a copy of an operating system. To create a Droplet, users need to pick an image of an operating system to run their server. DigitalOcean offers five different Linux operating system distributions. As this tutorial is for setting up an Ubuntu 20.04, click on the option for Ubuntu 20.04 (LTS) x 64:

      Options of images for Droplets

      After selecting your operating system, you are ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 4 — Choosing a Plan

      In the Choose a plan section, you can choose the amount of RAM, storage space, and CPU cores your Droplet will have. If you are following this tutorial for the Introduction to the Cloud Curriculum, the Basic $5 per month plan will work for the Curriculum’s hands-on tutorials and exercises.

      Click on the option for the Basic $5/mo plan:

      Choose a plan secton

      After selecting a plan, you are ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 5 — Adding Block Storage (Optional)

      This option allows users to add block storage as independent volumes that can be moved from one Droplet to another within the same region. Block storage is useful when you need additional file storage space for your Droplet. If you are following this tutorial for the Introduction to the Cloud Curriculum, you do not need to add block storage. Leave this option unselected unless you want to add block storage.

      You are now ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 6 — Choosing a Datacenter Region

      In the Choose a datacenter region section, select the region where you want to create your Droplet.

      A good default will be preselected for you, but for the best performance and minimal latency, choose the datacenter nearest to you and your users.

      Datacenter region selections

      Once you have selected your datacenter, you are ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 7 — Selecting Additional Options

      In the Select additional options section, you can enable several optional services that add functionality to your Droplet:

      Select additional options

      The three features available in this section are free, so enabling them does not increase the Droplet’s monthly cost. They can be understood as follows:

      IPv6 enables IPv6 access for your Droplet. IPv6 is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol, which identifies computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv6 addresses provide more address space than their IPv4 counterparts, and are part of an effort to sustain the growth and deployment of Internet-ready devices.

      User data is arbitrary data that you specify which is written to the user-data field of the DigitalOcean metadata service. To learn more about the purpose of user data, you can visit the User Data product documentation.

      Monitoring adds the DigitalOcean agent to collect extended metrics and create alert policies. To learn more about monitoring, you can visit the Monitoring product documentation.

      You can leave these options blank unless you’d like to enable them. Once you’ve selected your desired options, you are ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 8 — Setting Up SSH Authentication

      In this section, you will set up SSH authentication for your Droplet, using the pair of SSH keys you created as one of the prerequisites for this tutorial. If you did not already create SSH keys, there will be an opportunity to create them in just a few moments.

      Click on the option to use SSH keys for authentication, which is more secure than a password. Then click on the “New SSH Key” button:

      Authentication section of Droplet set up

      A pop up window will appear prompting you to copy your public SSH key and paste it in the provided space:

      Pop-up window for SSH key

      Note: If you have not created SSH keys, follow the directions on the right side of the pop-up window to create the keys or follow our guide How to Set Up SSH Keys on Ubuntu 20.04.

      To copy your public key, run the following command in your terminal:

      Copy the output from your terminal and paste it into the space provided by the cloud panel pop-up window. Then give your key a name so you can select it later on. When you have finished, click “Add new SSH key”. You will then return to the cloud panel where you can make sure your new key is selected.

      When you have selected your new key, you are ready to proceed to the next step.

      Step 9 — Finalizing and Creating Droplet

      In this final section of the Droplet creation process, you have the option to:

      • Select the number of Droplets you wish to create. If you are following this tutorial as part of the Introduction to the Cloud Curriculum, you need to only create one Droplet. Otherwise, select your desired amount of Droplets.
      • Name the Droplet. You can use the automatically-generated name or create your own name.
      • Add tags to help organize your Droplets. You can leave this option blank if you wish.
      • Assign your Droplet to a project to help with organization. A default folder will be created and selected here. You can create new folders later if you wish.
      • Add backups. This option enables a system-level backup of your Droplet to help prevent data loss. Note that choosing this option adds $1 to your cost per month. Choose this option if you wish.

      Finalizing and Creating Droplet <br>
section

      When you are finished making your choices, click “Create Droplet.” You will then be taken to a page showing a progress bar for the Droplet creation process. When the Droplet is ready, its IP address will be displayed:

      Droplet page

      You will use this IP address to securely connect with the Droplet through your terminal. Copy the IP address and then run the following command in your terminal to securely connect with your Droplet via SSH as a root user.

      The terminal will then display a message like this:

      Output

      The authenticity of host '167.172.146.33 (167.172.146.33)' can't be established. ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:+Mx4ID5k4N8H7R24y+APZAoTe69hmAh9qMawyf/Lq9U. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

      Type yes. If you chose a passphrase when setting up SSH, you will be prompted to enter it here. If everything is working, you will then be logged into your Droplet as a root user. Note that it is strongly recommended to create a new user with lesser privileges for day-to-day use of your Droplet to avoid making irreparable changes. To create a new user, you can follow our Initial Server Setup guide, which is the next tutorial in the Introduction to the Cloud Curriculum.

      Conclusion

      In this tutorial, you have set up an Ubuntu 20.04 server on a Droplet and enabled SSH access. To learn more about what you can do with this Droplet, you can visit our Introduction to the Cloud Curriculum.

      If you wish to delete your Droplet, you can visit our product documentation on How To Destroy a Droplet. To cancel your account, please follow the instructions on our Account Cancellation page.



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