Five things to do in the first ten minutes on a new VM
Keys instead of passwords, a firewall, backups and a snapshot habit: a short checklist for every new server.
A new server on a public IP address starts getting login attempts within minutes. None of this takes long, and all of it is easier to do on day one than after something has gone wrong.
1. Sign in with an SSH key, not a password
Save your public key once under Settings → SSH keys and pick it when you create the VM. Keys cannot be guessed the way passwords can.
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "my-laptop"
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
Linux VMs come with a bytenests user that has sudo rights. Connect with ssh bytenests@<public-ip>.
2. Turn on the firewall
Open the VM’s Firewall tab and use Quick setup, for example to allow SSH, HTTP and HTTPS and drop everything else. It shows the rules before you apply them. For anything more specific, add your own rules; they are checked from top to bottom and the first match wins.
Make sure a rule allows SSH (or RDP for Windows) from your address before you set Everything else to Drop. If you do lock yourself out, the browser console on the VM page still works.
3. Turn on scheduled backups
Choose weekly or daily backups when you create the VM. A backup is a full copy stored separately from the VM, so it survives a broken disk, a bad upgrade or an accidental rm -rf.
4. Snapshot before every risky change
Before a major upgrade or a config change you are unsure about, take a snapshot from the Backups tab. If it goes wrong, Roll back returns the VM to that moment. Snapshots are a quick undo; backups are for real recovery. Use both.
5. Protect the account, not just the server
Whoever controls your ByteNests account controls every server in it. Turn on two-factor authentication under Settings → Security and keep the backup codes somewhere safe. When others need access, invite them under Settings → Team with the smallest role that works, such as Viewer for read-only access, instead of sharing a login.