Series: Setting up Oracle Cloud VM - IV

This is a continuation from: [[003 Creating Traefik VM Instance]]

✅ Step 4: Connecting via SSH and setting up Traefik

🛠️ 4.1: SSH into VM Instance

Once the VM is ready and has public IP assigned:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/oci-traefik.pem ubuntu@<public-ip>

✅ Step 4.1.1: Enable Internet access to VM

From your VM's details page, click on Connect under "Connect public subnet to internet" 

This creates a new NSG(Network Security Group) and configures route table to allow internet access. The VM details page now shows the newly configured NSG.

✅ Step 4.1.2: Configure SSH

If you downloaded an SSH key during VM creation but haven’t used or configured it yet, here’s exactly how to set it up and connect.

✅ Step-by-Step: Use the Downloaded SSH Private Key

When you created the VM, if you selected:

Generate a key pair for me

Oracle Cloud provided:

• A .key file (private key, e.g., ssh-key-2025-07-07.key) — you should have downloaded it
• The public key was automatically set up on the VM

🔐 Step 1: Move the Key to .ssh and Secure It

Let’s assume the key was saved to your Downloads folder:

mv ~/Downloads/ssh-key-2025-07-07.key ~/.ssh/traefik.pem
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/traefik.pem

This ensures the key has correct permissions (very important — SSH will reject loose keys).

🔌 Step 2: Connect via SSH

Now SSH into the VM using:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/traefik.pem ubuntu@<your-public-ip>

Replace <your-public-ip> with the IP of your instance The username is ubuntu for Ubuntu images

✅ If It Works:

You’ll get a prompt like:

Welcome to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS...
ubuntu@traefik-gateway:~$

🧠 Optional: Create a Shortcut in ~/.ssh/config

For easier access in the future:

nano ~/.ssh/config

Add:

Host traefik-vm
    HostName <your-public-ip>
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/traefik.pem

Then you can connect with:

ssh traefik-vm

✅ Summary

🔁 4.2: Disable Source/Destination Check

1. In the OCI Console → Go to your Traefik VM
2. Under Resources, click Attached VNICs
3. Click on the VNIC (nic0)
4. Click Edit
5. Check ✅ Skip Source/Destination Check
6. Save

✅ 4.3: Install Docker + Docker Compose

# Update and upgrade packages
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

# Add current user to Docker group so no need for sudo
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

# Install Docker Compose plugin (Compose v2)
sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin -y

# Enable Docker to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

✅ Confirm installation:

docker --version
docker compose version

✅ 4.4: Create Folder for Traefik

mkdir -p ~/traefik
cd ~/traefik

We’ll place:

• docker-compose.yml
• traefik.yml (Traefik config)
• acme.json (for Let's Encrypt certs)
• Any dynamic routing config

🔒 4.5: Setup Basic Firewall (UFW)

If you want to restrict ports early:

sudo apt install ufw -y
sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80
sudo ufw allow 443
sudo ufw enable

✅ Recap

✅ You’re now ready to move into:

🧱 3.5: Setup Folder Structure for Traefik

mkdir -p ~/traefik
cd ~/traefik

See you in next part: [[005 Setting up Traefik and reverse proxy]]