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You can run development, staging and production on one Ubuntu VPS, but only if each environment has its own service namespace, network, database, credentials and secrets. Put nginx or Caddy at the public edge, keep application services private, and expose only the hostnames and ports that users need.
Build one immutable release in CI, deploy that exact artifact to staging, verify it, then promote the same artifact to production. Backups, restore drills, monitoring and a tested rebuild plan determine whether this arrangement is safe enough for your workload; move production to another VPS when isolation, compliance, traffic or recovery requirements demand a smaller blast radius.
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A practical small-team layout uses one current Ubuntu LTS VPS with three DNS names:
dev.example.comfor active development and integration work.staging.example.comfor release candidates and production-like verification.example.comfor production traffic.
Each environment should have a separate Compose project (or service namespace), directory, private network, environment file, database and least-privilege credentials. Nginx or Caddy is the only public application entry point. It terminates HTTPS and proxies requests to services bound to private container networks or localhost.
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A VPS is a virtual machine that you operate yourself. DigitalOcean describes each Droplet as a new server that can run alone or as part of a larger cloud infrastructure, and its production setup guidance recommends SSH keys, a sudo non-root user, disabled password-based root access and a cloud firewall that restricts SSH (DigitalOcean production-ready Droplet guidance). Ubuntu’s server documentation covers SSH, firewalls, DNS, nginx, Docker, cloud images, databases, storage, monitoring and alerting (Ubuntu Server documentation).
The separation is logical rather than physical when all three environments share one VPS. A kernel failure, exhausted disk, compromised host account or provider outage can affect every environment. Treat the design as a cost-efficient starting point, not as the same isolation as three independent machines.
One VPS or separate VPS instances?
Choose the smallest architecture that meets your failure, access and compliance requirements. Document the decision before deploying.
| Decision axis | One VPS with isolated environments | Separate VPS instances |
|---|---|---|
| Blast radius | A host, kernel or storage failure can take down all environments. | A failure is more likely to remain confined to one environment. |
| Cost | Usually lower because compute, storage and administration are shared. | Higher because each machine has its own resources and baseline services. |
| Resource contention | Development jobs or staging tests can consume CPU, memory, disk I/O or database capacity needed by production. | Workloads have clearer resource boundaries. |
| Operations | One host, firewall and backup system are simpler to maintain. | More hosts mean more patching, monitoring, credentials and recovery procedures. |
| Compliance and access | Production data and non-production access share a host boundary. | Separate hosts make network and administrative controls easier to demonstrate. |
| Recovery objectives | A rebuild or provider outage affects all environments unless production backups and failover are independent. | Independent backups and hosts can reduce the recovery blast radius. |
| Scaling | Vertical scaling is straightforward until the host reaches its limits. | Production can be resized or moved without competing with development. |
Stay on one VPS when the application is small, the team can tolerate a shared failure domain, and access controls are strong. Move production to its own VPS when noisy-neighbor risk, regulatory separation, sustained traffic, recovery-time objectives or a need for independent maintenance outweigh the simplicity of one host.
Provision and harden the Ubuntu VPS
Start with a current Ubuntu LTS image from your VPS provider. Perform the hardening sequence while you still have console access, and keep an already-open session until the new SSH settings are verified. Ubuntu’s security guidance includes firewalls, AppArmor, user and group management, web servers, Docker, logging, monitoring and alerting (Ubuntu server how-to guides).
- Create a named administrative user. Log in with the provider’s initial account, create a named user, add it to the sudo group and install your SSH public key. Do not administer application processes as root.
- Verify key-based access. Open a second terminal and connect as the new user before changing SSH configuration. Keep the first session available for recovery.
- Disable password and direct root login. In the SSH server configuration, set password authentication off and prohibit direct root login. Reload SSH only after testing the syntax and confirming that key authentication works.
- Patch the base system. Apply the latest security updates, reboot when the kernel or critical libraries require it, and establish a regular patch window.
- Configure two firewalls. Use the provider’s cloud firewall to allow SSH only from your administration allowlist and allow public HTTP and HTTPS. Mirror the policy with the host firewall. Do not open database, cache, Docker daemon or internal administration ports to the internet.
- Restrict services to private interfaces. Bind application containers to an internal Docker network or localhost. The reverse proxy should be the only process accepting public application traffic.
- Review host protections. Enable and tune AppArmor where appropriate, remove unused packages and services, and keep administrative keys and sudo membership limited to people who need them.
A typical host firewall policy has three classes of traffic: SSH from a small management allowlist, TCP 80 and 443 from the internet, and unrestricted access only on internal container networks. Never treat a firewall as a substitute for authentication or application authorization.
Install the runtime and public edge
Choose a service model
Docker Engine with Compose is convenient when each environment needs repeatable dependencies and isolated networks. A language runtime with a process supervisor can be appropriate for a simpler deployment. Whichever model you choose, keep the runtime and its configuration in version control and avoid hand-editing production containers.
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Install the reverse proxy
Install nginx or Caddy on the host, or run the proxy as a dedicated edge service. Configure one virtual host for each public name. The proxy should:
- Accept HTTP and HTTPS on the public interfaces.
- Redirect HTTP to HTTPS where appropriate.
- Present a certificate for the requested hostname.
- Forward only to the intended private service and port.
- Pass the original host and client protocol headers needed by the application.
- Apply request-size, timeout and rate limits suitable for the application.
Create DNS records for dev.example.com, staging.example.com and example.com that point to the VPS address. Issue certificates for the names that will be public and renew them automatically; monitor expiry so a renewal failure is detected before users see certificate errors. Development can remain private behind an allowlist or VPN if it does not need public access.
Create hard boundaries between environments
Use separate projects, networks and directories
Keep files in distinct paths such as /srv/app/dev, /srv/app/staging and /srv/app/production. Give each Compose project a unique name so container, volume and network resources cannot be confused:
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docker compose -p app-dev --env-file /srv/app/dev/.env up -d
docker compose -p app-staging --env-file /srv/app/staging/.env up -d
docker compose -p app-production --env-file /srv/app/production/.env up -dEach project should define its own private network and persistent volume names. Avoid a shared default network that allows a development container to discover production services. If a service must communicate across environments, make that connection explicit, authenticated and read-only where possible.
Separate configuration and secrets
Use a distinct environment file or secret-management mechanism for each environment. Store non-production values in protected CI variables or a secret store; restrict file permissions on the VPS; never commit secrets to the repository. Production credentials must not be copied into development or staging. Use different signing keys, API tokens, encryption keys, database passwords and third-party accounts so a non-production compromise cannot impersonate production.
Give each environment its own database
Run a separate database instance or an isolated database service for development, staging and production. A concrete VPS runbook also uses separate hostnames and a separate PostgreSQL database for each environment (VPS deployment runbook).
Separate databases prevent test migrations, seed scripts and accidental deletes from changing live data. Use separate database roles with only the privileges required by the application. Keep database listeners on private networks; do not publish the database port through the VPS firewall.
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Handle production-like data safely
Staging is useful only when its configuration and representative data resemble production, but copying a live database wholesale creates a privacy and security risk. Prefer synthetic fixtures. If production-derived data is necessary:
- Export only the tables and fields needed for the test.
- Anonymize names, email addresses, tokens, payment details and other personal or secret fields before import.
- Invalidate sessions, API keys, password-reset links and webhook credentials in the copy.
- Restrict staging access to the people and systems that require it.
- Define deletion and retention rules and apply them automatically.
- Record which transformations were applied so a future refresh is repeatable.
Development should normally use small synthetic datasets. Never make production data available through a developer’s default credentials or a publicly reachable debugging endpoint.
Build once and promote the same artifact
The safest deployment path is a promotion pipeline rather than separate builds for each environment:
- Commit or pull request: Run unit, integration, lint and security checks in CI.
- Build: Produce one immutable container image or release archive and tag it with a unique commit identifier. Push that artifact to a registry accessible by the VPS.
- Deploy staging: Update only the staging Compose project to the exact tag. Do not rebuild on the server.
- Migrate safely: Run database migrations using a dedicated migration identity. Prefer expand/contract migrations when the old and new application versions must coexist during a rollout.
- Check health: Wait for container health checks, verify the staging hostname, exercise critical user flows and inspect application, proxy and database logs.
- Gate promotion: Require an explicit approval or an automated policy gate that confirms tests, health and change authorization.
- Promote production: Deploy the same image digest or immutable tag to production, apply the compatible migration, and verify production health.
- Record the release: Store the artifact identifier, migration version, operator, time and rollback target with the deployment record.
Keep Compose files, proxy configuration, infrastructure definitions, migration scripts and deployment automation in version control. The deployment workflow described in the VPS runbook builds once per merge, deploys staging, gates on health and promotes the same tag (deployment runbook).
Design migrations and rollback before release day
A rollback is not simply starting an older container. If a migration removed or transformed data, the previous application may not understand the new schema. Use an expand/contract approach:
- Expand: Add backward-compatible tables or columns while the current version still runs.
- Deploy: Release code that can read the old and new representation, then backfill in controlled batches.
- Contract: After the new version is proven and the rollback window has passed, remove obsolete fields in a separate change.
Keep a known-good image tag and document the exact command or automation that returns traffic to it. Test rollback in staging with a representative database backup, including the case where a migration has already run. If rollback cannot safely reverse a data change, the recovery plan must be forward-fix, restore or both.
Backups, monitoring and recovery
Back up persistent state
Identify every persistent volume and external dependency: databases, uploaded files, object-storage metadata, certificates, encryption keys and deployment configuration. Back up databases and volumes on a schedule chosen from your recovery-point objective. Keep at least one copy outside the VPS and protect it with encryption and separate credentials. A backup that remains on the same disk as production does not protect against disk loss or host compromise.
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Define retention, encryption, access and deletion policies. Monitor backup jobs and alert on failure, missing files or unusual size changes. A successful backup job is not proof that the data can be restored.
Run restoration drills
Periodically restore into an isolated environment, verify database consistency, start the application against the restored data and measure how long the procedure takes. Record any manual steps, credentials, DNS changes and certificate actions. Update the runbook after every drill.
Monitor capacity and service health
Collect and retain application and reverse-proxy logs. Alert on:
- CPU, memory and disk pressure.
- Container restarts and failed health checks.
- Database connection saturation, replication or storage errors where applicable.
- Certificate expiry and failed renewal.
- Backup success and restore-test results.
- HTTP error rates, latency and unavailable upstream services.
Set disk alerts early enough to leave room for logs, database growth and a safe deployment. Rotate or ship logs to retained storage so an incident does not consume the same disk that the application needs.
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Keep the provider image choice, firewall rules, DNS records, package installation, proxy configuration, secret bootstrap, database restore and deployment commands in a rebuild runbook. Store it outside the VPS. A rebuild should start from a clean image and recover from version-controlled configuration and tested backups, not from undocumented shell history.
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- Ubuntu LTS is patched and automatic security updates or a defined patch window is active.
- SSH keys work for named sudo users; password authentication and direct root login are disabled.
- The provider firewall and host firewall expose only administration SSH, HTTP and HTTPS.
- Database, cache, Docker and internal admin ports are private.
- Each environment has separate networks, Compose projects, directories, databases and credentials.
- Production secrets and data are inaccessible to development and staging.
- Debug mode, verbose error pages and development dashboards are disabled outside development.
- TLS certificates renew automatically and expiry is monitored.
- Backups are encrypted, retained outside the VPS and periodically restored.
- Logs, health checks, capacity metrics and backup failures generate actionable alerts.
- A known-good artifact, migration strategy and rebuild procedure are documented and tested.
Common failure modes and fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to check and change |
|---|---|---|
| One environment can reach another database | Shared Docker network, published database port or reused credentials. | Inspect network attachments and port mappings, create separate networks, remove public bindings and rotate credentials. |
| Staging works but production fails immediately | Different image, secret, migration state or external dependency. | Compare the immutable image digest, environment variable names, migration version and health checks. Promote the exact tested artifact rather than rebuilding. |
| SSH access disappears after hardening | Incorrect key path, user permissions, firewall source range or SSH syntax. | Use the provider console, inspect SSH logs and firewall rules, restore the last known-good configuration, then test a second key-based session before closing the console. |
| HTTPS shows the wrong certificate | DNS points elsewhere, the proxy host rule is wrong or renewal served an old certificate. | Resolve each hostname, inspect proxy virtual-host matching and verify the certificate chain and renewal logs. |
| Deployments fill the disk | Old images, unbounded logs, database growth or forgotten volumes. | Measure disk usage, configure log rotation and image cleanup, retain required rollback artifacts, and expand storage before capacity becomes critical. |
| Rollback starts but data is incompatible | A destructive or non-backward-compatible migration ran. | Use the documented expand/contract plan, restore a tested backup when necessary, or forward-fix with a compatible release. Do not improvise a schema reversal during an outage. |
A repeatable operating workflow
- Open a change and run CI checks.
- Build one immutable artifact and record its identifier.
- Deploy that identifier to staging with environment-specific secrets.
- Run migrations, health checks and critical-flow tests.
- Review logs, resource use and database behavior.
- Approve or automatically gate promotion.
- Deploy the same artifact to production and verify service health.
- Monitor the release, retain the previous artifact and update the deployment record.
- After significant changes, perform or schedule a restore and rollback exercise.
Frequently asked questions
Can development, staging and production share one VPS?
Yes, for a small team that accepts a shared failure domain. Use separate projects, networks, databases, credentials and secrets, and move production to another VPS when capacity, compliance or recovery requirements make shared hosting unacceptable.
Should staging use its own database?
Yes. A separate database prevents tests and migrations from touching live data. Populate it with synthetic or carefully anonymized data rather than unrestricted production copies.
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A public reverse proxy centralizes HTTPS, hostname routing, security headers, limits and access controls. Keep application services private and expose only the proxy whenever practical.
What must be tested before calling the VPS production-ready?
Test key-only SSH access, firewall behavior, TLS renewal, staging-to-production promotion, database migrations, rollback, backup restoration, monitoring alerts and a clean rebuild from documented automation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much capacity should one VPS have for all three environments?
No universal CPU, memory or storage size is established. Measure real application, database and build workloads, leave headroom for backups and deployments, and separate production when contention appears.
Can I expose the development hostname publicly?
Only if there is a clear need. Prefer an allowlist or VPN, disable debugging outside development, and protect every development endpoint with authentication.
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All environments on that host are affected. Keep recoverable backups outside the VPS and document a rebuild or migration path; independent production hosting reduces this shared failure domain.
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