Setup
This tutorial requires access to the root user or a user with sudo privileges. You should have received your root password from the welcome email after you launched your installation via customer console.
Users on Ubuntu
How to Add a User on Ubuntu 12.04
To add a new user in Ubuntu, use the adduser command, replacing the “newuser” with your preferred username.
sudo adduser newuser
As soon as you type this command, Ubuntu will automatically start the process:
- Type in and confirm your password
- Enter in the user’s information. This is not required, pressing enter will automatically fill in the field with the default information
- Press Y (or enter) when Ubuntu asks you if the information is correct
Congratulations—you have just added a new user. You can log out of the root user by typing exit and then logging back in with the new username and password.
How to Grant a User Root Privileges
As mentioned earlier, you are much better off using a user with root privileges.
You can create the sudo user by opening the sudoers file with this command:
sudo /usr/sbin/visudo
Adding the user’s name and the same permissions as root under the the user privilege specification will grant them the sudo privileges.
# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
newuser ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
Press ‘cntrl x’ to exit the file and then ‘Y’ to save it.
How to Delete a User
Should you find that you find that you no longer want to have a specific user on the virtual private server you can delete them with a single command.
sudo userdel newuser
Finish up by the deleting the user’s home directory:
sudo rm -rf /home/newuser
Users on CentOS 6
How to Add a User on CentOS 6
To add a new user in CentOS, use the adduser command, replacing the “newuser” with your preferred username.
sudo adduser newuser
Follow up by providing the user with a new password, typing and confirming the new password when prompted:
sudo passwd newuser
Congratulations—you have just added a new user and their password. You can log out of the root user by typing exit and then logging back in with the new username and password.
How to Grant a User Root Privileges
As mentioned earlier, you are much better off using a user with root privileges.
You can create the sudo user by opening the sudoers file with this command:
sudo /usr/sbin/visudo
You will find the section to make the user privilege modifications at the bottom of the file. Type “a” to start inserting text. Adding the user’s name and the same permissions as root under the the user privilege specification will grant them the sudo privileges.
## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
newuser ALL=(ALL) ALL
Save and Exit the file by press “shift” ZZ.
How to Delete a User
Should you find that you find that you no longer want to have a specific user on the virtual private server you can delete them with a single command.
sudo userdel newuser
You can add the flag “-r” to the command if you would like to simultaneously remove the users’s home directory and files.
sudo userdel -r newuser
Next Steps
Once you have set up the users will you need, you can start building up your VPS. A good place to start is to install the LAMP stack (a collection of basic web server software) on your droplet, using the tutorials in our knowlege.
