VPS aquisiton and setup

VPS aquisiton and setup
(posted 2015.02.02, last updated 2018.11.07)

In the following I explain my steps of getting a vServer and starting to use it.

Aquire vServer

Select Provider

Criteria: Location, Price, Recommendations, ...
Overview: http://www.webhostlist.de/
Recommendations (No problems so far - for me) http://alfahosting.de/ (used 12.2011 - 02.2015) https://www.netcup.de/ (used 09.2014 - now) https://contabo.de/ (02.2015 - now)
Further possibilities: https://uberspace.de/ (not yet tested, but interesting concept) https://linevast.de/information/datenblatt-burstvz.html (not tested, €35,-/year)

Select Product

RAM (depends on applications)
HDD, Traffic, ...

Seperate/additional Domains (optional) well-priced offers: http://www.do.de/

Initialize vServer

Operating System (philosophic decision, and depending on applications)

Ubuntu 14.04 (latest LTS, most packages available)

Usually automatically: Setup root password & activate ssh server

DNS Settings

(on the responsible Nameserver)

MX Entry (specifies the mail server for a domain)

  mydomain.tld. 86400 IN MX 10 mail.mydomain.tld.

A Records (specifies the IPv4 for domains)

  mydomain.tld        86400   A   0   123.123.123.123
  mail.mydomain.tld   86400   A   0   123.123.123.123
  *.mydomain.tld      86400   A   0   123.123.123.123

AAAA Records (specifies the IPv6 for domains)

  mydomain.tld        86400   AAAA    0   FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329
  mail.mydomain.tld   86400   AAAA    0   FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329
  *.mydomain.tld      86400   AAAA    0   FE80:0000:0000:0000:0202:B3FF:FE1E:8329

SPF Records (specifies which servers are allowed to sent mail for a given domain, and how to treat other mails)
```
  mydomain.tld    86400   TXT     0   "v=spf1 mx a a:otherdomain.de -all"
```
Explanation: This record allows to sent mail from the server referenced in the A record and MX record as well as the server mentioned in the A record of otherdomain.de, mail from any other server should be rejected! (See Wikipedia/SPF, SPF Wizard) To test your SPF setup use: http://tools.bevhost.com/spf/ and http://www.kitterman.com/spf/validate.html
RDNS (Reverse DNS: specifies the domain name of a given server):
```
  server1.mydomain.tld
```

Hints

Mind the (DNS) lease times when you move from one hoster to another!

More References

Contabo & SPF Records: http://carsten.familie-schumann.info/blog/2015/02/contabo-und-spf/