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Step 3: Essential Configuration
*********************************

.. include:: 1-urls.rst

.. contents:: Table of Contents

Essential Configuration
=========================
Most default settings are acceptable and we should leave them unless
we have a reason to make a change.

We should set the timezone of the VPS to our local area, which is
``Asia/Almaty``, Then we can test it using the ``date`` command.

#. Enter these commands one at a time into the terminal window.

   ``timedatectl set-timezone``
       Tells the OS to set a specific timezone of the system. You can
       use any timezone from |this list of available zones|.

   ``date``
       Displays the current date and time.

   .. code-block:: bash

       sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Almaty
       date

   .. code-block:: bash
       :linenos:
       :emphasize-lines: 1,2

       root@vps298933:~# timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Almaty
       root@vps298933:~# date
       Sun Mar 10 20:16:31 +06 2019

Install Common Packages
========================
Next, we will install some common/security packages using ``apt``.
We will install more packages later, but this list provides some
essential packages that we might need.

2. Install these applications

   ``zip`` and ``unzip``
       Compress and decompress .zip files

   ``fail2ban``
       An intrusion prevention software framework that protects
       computer servers from brute-force attacks

   ``ufw``
       |Uncomplicated Firewall| is an easy-to-use firewall application

   ``htop``
       A utility to view the running processes

   .. code-block:: bash

       sudo apt -y install zip unzip fail2ban ufw htop

   .. code-block:: bash
       :linenos:
       :emphasize-lines: 1

       root@vps298933:~#
       root@vps298933:~# sudo apt -y install zip unzip fail2ban ufw htop
       Reading package lists... Done
       Building dependency tree
       Reading state information... Done
       htop is already the newest version (2.1.0-3).
       ufw is already the newest version (0.35-5).
       Suggested packages:
       mailx monit sqlite3 python-pyinotify-doc
       The following NEW packages will be installed:
       fail2ban python3-pyinotify unzip whois zip
       0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
       Need to get 732 kB of archives.
       After this operation, 3,306 kB of additional disk space will be used.
       Get:1 http://nova.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 fail2ban all 0.10.2-2 [329 kB]
       Get:2 http://nova.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 python3-pyinotify all 0.9.6-1 [24.7 kB]
       Get:3 http://nova.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 unzip amd64 6.0-21ubuntu1 [167 kB]
       Get:4 http://nova.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 whois amd64 5.3.0 [43.7 kB]
       Get:5 http://nova.clouds.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 zip amd64 3.0-11build1 [167 kB]
       Fetched 732 kB in 0s (2,738 kB/s)
       Selecting previously unselected package fail2ban.
       (Reading database ... 98638 files and directories currently installed.)
       Preparing to unpack .../fail2ban_0.10.2-2_all.deb ...
       .
       .
       .