From: [email protected]
Date: 2017-11-02
Subject: Shoving off with Lightsail

[Lightsail][1] is basically a stripped-down version of Amazon's EC2
cloud computing service. I've wanted to have a cloud-based instance
for  a  while,  but it seemed that the complexity of setting up EC2
just barely overcame my willingness to commit to such an  endeavor.
With  Lightsail, I had a cloud-based Debian instance up and running
in just a few clicks. As you might expect, there  are  a  few  more
steps to make it *really* fun, so I'll go through my initial steps.

Immediately  after  setting  up my Lightsail Debian instance, I was
able to use the web-based ssh client to connect to it. But I really
wanted  to  be able to ssh to it from my machine at home, my phone,
and my Raspberry Pi. As with a native machine, [the first thing you
want to do][4] is update the software.

The  next  thing you want to do is [set up a user account for your-
self][3]. Lightsail sets up an `admin` account for you, but I don't
recommend using that everyday.

 `sudo useradd <user>`

Also,  add this user to the sudoers group so that you can do things
like install sofware and manage the instance. As I write this,  the
procedure is to add the following line to `/etc/sudoers.d/<user>`:

 `<user> ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL`

**Note:**  The  first  time  I did this, I messed up the format and
this somehow prevented *anyone* from using  sudo.  Not  having  the
root  password  for the instance, this basically meant that I could
no longer manage the instance. While  it's  possible  to  fix  this
without trashing the instance, I chose to start over.

Now that I've created my user, I want to be able to use ssh to con-
nect to my Lightsail instance. To do this, Lightsail requires  that
you  use  a  keypair stored in a .pem file. Lightsail sets up a de-
fault keypair for you and you can download  it  from  your  Account
page.  This  works  out  of  the box with your default user account
(e.g. `admin`), but you'll need to set it up for use with the  user
account you created for yourself.

 1.  Set a static IP for your instance. *(optional, but recommend-
ed)*
 2. Download your pem file from AWS.
 3. Run `ssh-keygen -y` locally and give it the path to  your  pem
file.
 4.  Back on your Lightsail instance, paste the key into `.ssh/au-
thorized_keys` for your new user.

Now you should be able to ssh to your new user  account  from  your
local  machine  (or any machine with the pem file) with the follow-
ing:

 `ssh -i <pemfile.pem> <user@host>`

If you have a domain sitting around, you can [set up DNS][7].  This
opens  up some fun possibilities, but mainly makes it easier to re-
member your hostname.

 1. Create a DNS zone in Lightsail
 2. Update your registrar with the AWS DNS servers
 3. Add an A record to the DNS zone (I took the subdomain off  and
it seems to work fine)
 4. Wait for the DNS settings to propogate

Now  you  can  log  in  and  install  and  configure software ([of-
flineimap, msmtp, mutt][5], [weechat][6], pastebins, a gopher serv-
er, bookmark manager, [the list goes on][8]).

*But  why  wouldn't you set up dynamic DNS and just connect to your
machine at home?*

Well, yeah, I suppose I *could* do that, but it  probably  wouldn't
be  as  complicated or expensive, now, would it? Seriously, though,
my home network isn't the most reliable and, frankly, it might  ac-
tually be easier to set up a Lightsail instance. Plus, having a box
in the cloud seems so badass and the network speed/latency is  mar-
velous.

[1]: https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com
[2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46937957/unable-to-ssh-to-remote-server
[3]: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/new-user-accounts-linux-instance/
[4]: https://www.doomd.net/2017/06/a-few-things-to-do-when-first-setting-up-a-lightsail-instance-running-wordpress.html
[5]: https://pbrisbin.com/posts/mutt_gmail_offlineimap/
[6]: https://weechat.org/files/doc/devel/weechat_user.en.html
[7]: https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/how-to/article/lightsail-how-to-create-dns-entry
[8]: https://github.com/Kickball/awesome-selfhosted

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