Keeping it running is your job now
That sounds bigger than it is.
It's not a full-time job — just a small handful of habits, done every so often, that keep your VPS from ever becoming a problem.
Back it up
This is the single most important habit on this whole page.
Providers usually sell a one-click, whole-machine snapshot for a few dollars a month — worth it down the road, but not required. For free, right now, you can cover the part that matters most: your website's own files.
On your VPS, zip the website folder into your home directory:
rob@my-vps:~$ tar -czvf ~/website-backup-$(date +%F).tar.gz -C /var/www/html .
website-backup-2026-01-01.tar.gz created ✅
- 1Run that command every so often, and always before any risky change.
- 2Open your usual SFTP program, connect to your VPS the same way you connect anywhere else, and download that
.tar.gzfile to your PC. - 3If your website's files ever get wiped or corrupted, that download is your way back.
Let updates install themselves
You already know apt update && apt upgrade from Stop 3. Rather than remembering to run it, let Ubuntu apply security updates on its own, quietly, in the background.
rob@my-vps:~$ sudo apt install unattended-upgrades -y
rob@my-vps:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades
Automatically download and install stable updates?
<Yes>
unattended-upgrades enabled ✅
That's it — one setup, and it keeps patching itself against known security holes without you lifting a finger.
Peek in every so often
No need to watch it daily. Every few weeks, two quick checks:
1. Visit your own site. If it loads, you're 90% of the way to "everything's fine."
2. Check it isn't running out of space:
rob@my-vps:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1 25G 4.1G 20G 18% /
Anywhere under about 80% used is comfortable. Climbing past that is your cue to look at what's taking up room.
You can't truly get locked out
Even if SSH stops working, even if you break something badly — that web control panel from your provider always has a way back in: a button to reboot, and often a rescue console that opens a screen straight into the machine, no SSH required.
Worst case: rebuild the server from this guide and restore your website's files from your last backup.
The whole ongoing job
- ✓Back up your website fileszip /var/www/html, download it over SFTP
- ✓Unattended security upgrades are onpatches itself, quietly
- ✓A quick look-in every few weeksvisit the site, check df -h
- ✓You know where the rescue button livesin your provider's control panel
Every stop, walked
You did it. 🎉
This guide started as one beginner figuring it out. It ends as something the next beginner can follow, start to finish — because you just walked the whole thing yourself.
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