Before You Install Open edX: Prepare the Right Server

Before installing Open edX, prepare the Ubuntu host that Tutor will depend on. In this tutorial, we choose a practical single-server baseline, verify the delivered VPS, update Ubuntu, enforce key-only SSH, establish the firewall boundary before Docker, and prepare the LMS, Studio, and micro-frontend DNS names. At the end, Docker, Tutor, and Open edX are intentionally still absent. The result is a checked Ubuntu host ready for the installation in the next video. 📘 Complete companion guide — prerequisites, exact commands, validation, troubleshooting, rollback, and resources: https://gist.github.com/OpenEduOpsLab... ▶ Open edX Foundation playlist:    • Open edX Foundation   🌐 OpenEduOps: https://openeduops.com In this video: • Understand where LMS, Studio, micro-frontends, Tutor, Docker, and the Ubuntu host fit • Compare Tutor’s minimum and recommended host resources • Verify the operating system, AMD64 architecture, CPU, memory, and disk • Install current Ubuntu updates and validate the rebooted system • Disable direct root login and password-based SSH authentication • Prove that a new key-based connection works before closing the original session • Enable a pre-Docker UFW boundary while keeping SSH reachable • Confirm that ports 80 and 443 have no listeners yet • Create and verify the LMS A record and wildcard Tutor CNAME • Run one final host-readiness check Demonstrated environment: • OVHcloud VPS-2 single-server lab • Ubuntu Server 26.04 LTS on AMD64 • 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM class, and 75 GB NVMe storage • Non-root sudo account with an existing SSH key • UFW managing IPv4 and IPv6 rules • LMS hostname: learn.openeduops.com • Tutor wildcard: *.learn.openeduops.com • PowerShell used for external SSH and DNS verification Series installation target: • Tutor v22.0.1 • Open edX Verawood Important scope note: This video prepares a fresh host only. It does not install Docker, Tutor, or Open edX, and it does not claim that the server is production-ready or highly available. A single VPS remains a single point of failure. Inspect the effective public exposure again after Tutor starts publishing container ports. Safety note: Keep provider console or KVM access available, take a clean recovery snapshot, and do not close your original SSH session until a second key-based connection succeeds. If your SSH service uses a port other than 22, adapt the firewall rule and listener checks before enabling UFW. Chapters: 00:00 Prepare the host before installing Open edX 00:31 How Open edX and Tutor fit together 01:41 Choose the server and recovery path 03:12 Verify the delivered VPS 03:45 Update Ubuntu and validate the reboot 04:47 Enforce key-only SSH 07:35 Set the firewall boundary before Docker 09:21 Configure the Tutor DNS hostnames 11:27 Run the final readiness check 12:18 What comes next #OpenEdX #Tutor #OpenSourceLMS