Dokku on Digital Ocean

For this you will need a Digital Ocean account. If you don't have one yet, please consider using our referral link which will give you more than enough credits to run this for 60 days.

Setting up a droplet

A 'droplet' is Digital Ocean's term for a virtual server.

Anything not listed here you can just leave as it is.

1. Click Create in the top right corner, and then Droplets
2. Choose an image
3. Go to 'Marketplace' tab
4. Search for 'dokku'
5. Select 'Dokku 0.21.4 on Ubuntu 20.04' (or whatever the latest version is)
6. Choose a plan: 'Basic', 'Regular intel with SSD', '$5/mo'
7. Choose a datacentre region: pick whichever datacentre is closest to you
8. Authentication: we recommend using an SSH key method if you are able to follow the instructions in the interface. If not then a password is totally fine but make it a strong one, ideally using a strong password generator.
9. Choose a hostname: pick a memorable name for the server
10. Enable backups: this is up to you but we recommend it
11. Click 'Create Droplet' and you're done!

Signing into the droplet

You will then see a list of droplets in your interface. Give it a second while it sets up your new droplet.

1. Copy the IP address (e.g. 123.123.123.123)
2. In the terminal on your computer, type ssh root@YOUR_IP. Type 'yes' when it asks you if you want to proceed.

You can now return to the main installation instructions where you left off.