Login to your VPS with a username and password

Normally you log in to your VPS with an SSH key. If you want to log in with a username and password instead, follow the steps below.

Adding a username and password

1. Connect to your VPS via SSH
   

   ssh ubuntu@123.123.123.123

2. Add a new user

   # adduser jan
   
   Adding user `jan' ...
   
   Enter new UNIX password:
   
   Retype new UNIX password:
   
   passwd: password updated successfully
   
   

   You will be prompted twice to set a password. Click here to generate a secure password. You can leave the answer to the remaining questions blank by clicking ‘Enter’.
   

   Changing the user information for henk
   
   Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
   
   Full Name []:
   
   Room Number []:
   
   Work Phone []:
   
   Home Phone []:
   
   Other []:
   
   Is the information correct? [Y/n] y

   Answer the question “Is the information correct?” by pressing “y” followed by “Enter
3. Now add the created account to the sudo group
   

   usermod -aG sudo username

Allow password login on your VPS

By default, you are not allowed to log in to your VPS with a username and password. Follow the steps below to change this.

1. Connect to your VPS via SSH
   

   ssh ubuntu@123.123.123.123

2. Open the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config
   

   vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Adjust the next line
   

   PasswordAuthentication no

   to:
   

   PasswordAuthentication yes

4. Save the file with the key combination

   :wq

5. Finally, restart SSH to make the change active
   

   sudo service ssh restart