VPS
Linux VPS hosting: what are you responsible for?
A Linux VPS is a virtual machine you can configure for a specific workload. On an unmanaged plan, that flexibility means the customer is responsible for the guest operating system and the services installed inside it.
Secure administrative access first
Use controlled SSH access, appropriate user accounts, protected keys, firewall rules, and a recovery path before deploying the application. A public VPS will receive unsolicited network traffic quickly.
Own the update lifecycle
Track operating-system security updates, package repositories, application runtimes, database versions, and reboots. Automatic security updates can reduce exposure but still need monitoring so failed or disruptive updates are noticed.
Monitor capacity and service health
Disk, inode use, memory, CPU, load, web processes, databases, certificate expiry, backups, and external availability can fail independently. Monitoring should tell you which layer is unhealthy before customers do.
Keep recovery outside the VPS
A snapshot can be useful, but a recoverable backup should not depend solely on the same virtual disk or host. Document how to rebuild the server and restore application data onto another machine.