I found that doing it the "hard" way was in some way easier for me.
Been at least 2 months since I setup the server on vps and its amazing how much you can forget in 2 months when you have to cram other stuff in your head, but here is what I recall of it: 1) Disable admin. Setup a sudo user (I recall there being some decent online documentation for this... you can do an impressive amount of customization on sudo privileges) 2) Download the source folder for Web2py on your local machine and look at the file ./scripts/setup-web2py-unbuntu.sh to figure out the dependencies. 3) Install the dependencies. Of the dependencies... ssh is installed by default on vps so you don't need to worry about it. You can change python 2.5 for python 2.6 without problems too. I recall the following being optional (didn't install them as I wanted a minimalistic installation): mercurial python-reportlab python-matplotlib postfix 4) The following set of instructions was pretty straightforward and right on the mark: cd /home mkdir www-data cd www-data rm web2py_src.zip* wget http://web2py.com/examples/static/web2py_src.zip unzip web2py_src.zip chown -R www-data:www-data web2py a2enmod ssl a2enmod proxy a2enmod proxy_http a2enmod headers a2enmod expires mkdir /etc/apache2/ssl 5) Haven't setup an ssl certificate yet so I'm not sure about that part. 6) Make sure Apache is not running. Write the apache config file for wsgi using the model file provide it to you (but consider it a template file, don't just copy it verbatim). If you do some searching, I vaguely recall there being 2 versions for the temple (1 was better), but you should lookup the configuration file and make sure it matches what you have (in my case, I had to modify it a little). 7) Setup iptables and make a bunch of rules that makes the firewall as tight as you can make it for your usage (minimall, you should You can setup a file in /etc/network/if-pre-up for the firewall settings to apply automatically everytime your machine boots. A good Reference I used for the iptables rules: http://www.amazon.ca/Linux-Administration-Beginners-Guide-Fifth/dp/0071545883/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285255663&sr=8-1 Some of the info is dated (particularly the section about GRUB), but from a beginner level, the section about networking, routers and firewalls is rock-solid. 8) Setup your PostGreSQL db. I don't recall the specifics, but if you have a modicum of patience, all the info can be found here: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/ (I seem to recall I had some trouble following the instructions in the deployment recipe so I had to lookup the official PostgreSQL docs) Also, make sure you modify your model in your Web2py app with your DB info. Instructions for for modifying your model file can be found here: http://web2py.com/book/default/chapter/11#PostgreSQL 9) Ah, there was an exploit that recently poped up with the Linux kernel. Make sure that you're running the kernel version 2.6.32-24 or later. You can figure out which version of the kernel your're running by typing "uname -r". Instructions on patching the kernel for Ubuntu can be found here: http://www.vps.net/forum/public-forums/announcements/3309-update-your-ubuntu-installs#post30846
