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Create a Virtual Machine

The next step is to create and launch your own virtual machine. We can use several hosting solutions for this, but for our purposes, we will use DigitalOcean.

Note that you will need a debit or credit card for this, and that this will incur a cost. The cost should be around $4.00 or less per month, but you will want to monitor your costs on the DigitalOcean website.

Part 1: Start creating your Droplet

  1. Visit the DigitalOcean website.
  2. Sign up or log in. You can create or log in with your Google account. Other account options are available, too.

Once you are logged in, you can create what DigitalOcean calls a Droplet. This is their term for a virtual machine. On the main page, you will see a Quick Actions section. In this section, click on Create a Droplet. This will take you to the Create Droplet page where you will pick the options for your Droplet:

  1. Choose a datacenter region
    • Select the default option or choose a location closer to you under the Additional datacenter regions dropdown menu.
  2. Choose an image
    • This is where you select your Linux distribution for your Droplet.
    • Choose the default option, which should be Ubuntu (Recommended) 24.04 (LTS) x64
  3. Choose a Droplet Plan
    • Select Regular Disk Type: SSD
    • Select $4.00/mo 1vCPU - 512 MB RAM - 10GB SSD - 500GB Transfer

The next step is to create and add an SSH key. The steps depend on which operating system you are using.

Part 2: Create an SSH key on your computer

SSH Key on Windows

Step 1: Open Powershell

  1. Press the Windows Key on your keyboard.
  2. Type powershell
  3. Click on Windows Powershell to open it.

Step 2: Run the Generation Command

  1. Run the following command:

    ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "ICT418 Droplet"
    • NOTE: if you receive a terminal message that your SSH key already exists, do not overwrite it. Instead, skip to Step 5 below.

Step 3: Follow the Prompts

  1. Save Location: The terminal will prompt you to choose where to save the key:

    Enter file in which to save the key (`C:\Users\YourName/.ssh/id_ed25519`):
    • Press Enter to accept the default location.

  2. Passphrase: Just press Enter twice to leave this blank (i.e., do not create a passphrase). In other circumstances, protecting an SSH private key with a passphrase is recommended. But for now, we can leave this passwordless.

    Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

Step 4: Locate Your Keys

Once completed, the terminal will display a “randomart” confirmation image. Your keys will be stored in your profile folder.

  • Default Directory: C:\Users\YourName\.ssh\
  • id_ed25519: This is your private key. Keep this secret and secure on your machine.
  • id_ed25519.pub: This is your public key. You will upload this to your DigitalOcean Droplet.

Step 5: Copy your Public Key

To copy your public key to your clipboard, use the following command in your terminal:

Get-Content ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | Set-Clipboard

SSH Key on macOS

Step 1: Open a Terminal

  1. Open the Terminal application. You can use Spotlight (Command-Space) to search for terminal.
  2. Click on Terminal to open.

Step 2: Run the Generation Command

  1. Run the following command:

    ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "ICT418 Droplet"
    • NOTE: if you receive a terminal message that your SSH key already exists, do not overwrite it. Instead, skip to Step 5 below.

Step 3: Follow the Prompts

  1. Save Location: The terminal will prompt you to choose where to save the key:

    Enter file in which to save the key (`~/.ssh/id_ed25519`)
    • Press Enter to accept the default location.

  2. Passphrase: Just press Enter twice to leave this blank (i.e., do not create a passphrase). In other circumstances, protecting an SSH private key with a passphrase is recommended. But for now, we can leave this passwordless.

    Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

Step 4: Locate Your Keys

Once completed, the terminal will display a “randomart” confirmation image. Your keys will be stored in your profile folder.

  • Default Directory: Accept as suggested (~/.ssh/)
  • ~/.ssh/id_ed25519: This is your private key. Keep this secret and secure on your machine.
  • ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub: This is your public key. You will upload this to your DigitalOcean Droplet.

Step 5: Copy your Public Key

To copy your public key to your clipboard, use the following command in your terminal.

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Part 3: Finish creating and connect to your Droplet

  1. Click on Add SSH Key.
  2. Paste your public key into the box labeled SSH Key content
  3. Give your SSH Key a name: enter “laptop” or similar to identify the machine the key was created on and that you will use to connect to your Droplet.
  4. Give your Droplet a name: Feel free to leave this as the default or update it with something more personal, if you would like.
  5. Skip to Finalize section and select a project for your Droplet.
  6. Click on Create Droplet to have DigitalOcean create your new virtual machine (aka, Droplet).

Once your Droplet has been created, then:

  1. Locate the Droplet’s public IP address on the DigitalOcean page.

  2. Open PowerShell or Terminal and enter:

    ssh root@your_IP_address

    You will see a message asking to confirm the authenticity of your host:

    Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

    For this newly created Droplet, type:

    yes

  3. Once you are connected, your command prompt will change. You should now be logged in to your Droplet as the root user. Congratulations! You have created your own virtual machine and connected to it remotely! To see that you are logged in as the root user, type:

    whoami

    You should see:

    root

You are now working on a remote computer (a virtual machine / Droplet).

your computer / laptop → SSH → another computer (Droplet) → root shell

NOTE! The root user can do most anything on the server. This includes deleting any files (including system files, applications, etc). Thus, be careful of the commands that you run as root. In the next section, we will learn how to create a regular user account but one that has administrative privileges to run commands as root when needed.