Rent a cloud server

At the beginning of this tutorial we will take care of getting a server and installing Ubuntu Linux as operating system on it.

To end up with a productive system, we will rent a server from a hoster. More precisely, we will rent a cloud server with a static IP address. Cloud servers have the advantage that they are easily scalable and can be had for little money. This allows us to start small and expand capacities as required without having to make a complicated server transfer.

We also register a domain and configure a DNS record.

The choice of the provider is up to you. If you already have a server and a domain, you can apply the next steps to your hoster in a similar way.

A well known and in my opinion good hoster is Hetzner. I've been there myself for a few years and still find it highly recommendable. The cloud data centers are located in Germany, Finland and the USA. The European locations are advantageous in terms of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), because the storing of personal data of EU citizens on servers outside the EU is only permitted under certain circumstances..

At the time of writing, these costs are to be expected at Hetzner:

Cloud Server CPX11, hourly cancellable = max. 4,52 Dollar / month
COM Domain, annually cancellable = 3,72 Dollar / Year
one time setup for domain = 1,90 Dollar

Hetzner gives new customers 20 euros starting credit for cloud services via this link. Perfect for testing!

Without new customer bonus you need a starting capital of 10,14 Dollar. The running costs are then 4,52 Dollar per month for the server and 3,72 Dollar per year for the domain (the information is without guarantee and was researched at the time of writing).

Cloud servers are affordable, scalable and billed by the minute. The smallest cloud server (CX11) costs only a few euros and is perfectly sufficient for light to medium applications. Linux is known to be very resource-efficient. A few simple websites with database connections can run simultaneously on a CPX11 without any problems. If the computing power should run short, additional services can be easily booked or canceled online via the customer account.

The next pages show step by step how to create a cloud server and a domain. Since I was already registered with Hetzner, I had to create a fake account for a few screenshots (sorry Hetzner!).

If you prefer another hoster, that's no problem. We are mainly interested in these important services that all hosters have in their program:

cloud server or virtual server
register domain
edit DNS records