What a VPS is

A Virtual Private Server, or VPS, is a virtual machine running on provider hardware. DigitalOcean calls its virtual machines Droplets.

You get an operating system with its own users, processes, files, network interfaces, and public address. It behaves much like a physical Linux server, but DigitalOcean can create, resize, snapshot, or destroy it through a control panel or API.

Know the responsibility boundary

DigitalOcean operates the data center, physical hardware, and virtualization layer. You operate everything inside the guest system:

• user accounts and SSH access
• operating-system and application updates
• host firewall rules
• Nginx and application services
• application data and secrets
• backups, restore tests, monitoring, and incident response

This is the important mental model: a working Droplet is not a managed application. DigitalOcean can report that the virtual machine is powered on while your application is stopped, the disk is full, or the TLS certificate is broken.

Once we create the server, these commands will identify what we actually received:

cat /etc/os-release
uname -m
hostnamectl

The output should show the expected Ubuntu release, CPU architecture, and hostname. These facts belong in every useful support request.

A public IP address also creates a security boundary. Automated scanners will find open ports quickly. This does not mean the server is already compromised. It means updates, key-based access, a firewall, and useful logs are normal operating work, not optional hardening for later.

Your action is to write two lists. Put application code and generated build files under rebuildable. Put uploads, database data, secrets, and private keys under must be protected. That distinction will guide the deployment and backup decisions in the rest of the course.