Are you interested in hosting database, api's, websites, bots, or game servers? How about setting up DNS level ad blocking and personal VPN's? Cloud servers can do that and so much more! Linode makes it incredibly easy for us to make new cloud servers on the fly for our personal projects and help us bring our ideas into reality. You can get started with a 1GB Nanode Shared CPU (basically a cloud raspberry pi) for as little as 5 bucks a month! So what are you waiting for? Let's get started!

Step 1: Create a Linode Account
The first step to setting up your Linode server is to create a Linode account. Head over to the Linode website and create an account.
Once you've created your account, log in and navigate to the Linode dashboard.

Step 2: Create Your Linode
Once you're logged into the Linode dashboard, click on the "Create" button to create a new Linode. Select the "Nanode 1GB" plan and
choose the "Shared CPU" option.

Step 3: Choose Your Server Location
Choose the server location closest to your audience or the one that offers the best performance. Linode offers data centers in various
locations around the world, so you can choose one that's closest to your audience.

Step 4: Choose Your Linux Distribution
Select the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS distribution for your server. This version of Ubuntu is the latest Long-Term Support release and will be
supported for several years.

Step 5: Configure Your Server
Once you've chosen your Linux distribution, you'll need to configure your server. Give your server a hostname (Linode Label), which
will be used to identify it on the network. You can also set a root password, which will be used to log in to your server.

Step 6: Set Up SSH Key (Optional)
You can add your ssh pub key to your machine's ssh keys so that you don't have to put in your root password in every time you ssh into
your server. To generate an ssh key if you haven't done so already, follow this documentation from github.
Then you just copy the content of your id_ed25519.pub and paste it in the "Add An SSH Key" option.

Step 7: Boot Your Server
Once you've configured your server, you're ready to boot it up. Click on the "Create Linode" button to create your server.
Once your server is created, it will partition and boot up your new server!

Step 8: Connect to Your Server
To connect to your server, you'll need to use an SSH client. If you're using a Windows machine, you can use a tool like PuTTY to connect to your server. If you're using a Mac or Linux machine, you can use the terminal to connect to your server. To connect to your server, you'll need to use the IP address provided by Linode. This can be found on your linode server page. Copy the SSH Access into your terminal to ssh in.

Step 9: Configure Your Server
Once you're connected to your server, you can start configuring it. You can install any necessary software and configure your server according to your needs. For example, you can install NGINX, Postgres, and Node to set up a web server.

And there you have it, the world of linux servers on the cloud is at your fingertips! I look forward to sharing more articles on projects you can get going with your first cloud server soon. See you in the next one!