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Deploy ASP.NET Core to a server you already have

Already have a server? Point DotDeployer at it over SSH -- no cloud account needed.

Custom VPS skips the cloud-account step entirely: any Ubuntu 24.04 server you already have, from any host or hardware you own, becomes a DotDeployer server with its own IP and a temporary root login.

1. Create the account

There’s no provider account to create — you already have the server. Just make sure it’s running Ubuntu 24.04 and that you have its IP address and a root (or sudo) SSH login, temporary or otherwise.

2. Create the API key

Custom VPS has no API token. Instead, in DotDeployer go to Settings → Providers → Custom VPS → Provisioning key → Generate, and copy the public key it shows you — this is the credential DotDeployer will install on the server in the next step.

3. Connect it in DotDeployer

SSH into your server with your existing login and add DotDeployer’s public key from the previous step to root’s authorized_keys (or a sudo user’s, if root login is disabled). Back in DotDeployer, go to Servers → Add server → Custom VPS, paste in the server’s IP, and give it a name. DotDeployer connects with its own key and bootstraps the box: firewall, unattended upgrades, the ASP.NET Core runtime, nginx — everything else it needs to run your app. Your temporary login is never needed again once this finishes.

4. Point your domain at the server

Once bootstrap finishes and DotDeployer shows the server as Active, go to your DNS provider — Cloudflare DNS if that’s where your domain lives — and add an A record for your site’s hostname pointing at the server’s IP. If you’re on Cloudflare, leave the record’s proxy status DNS only (the cloud icon grey, not orange): the Let’s Encrypt certificate request needs to reach your server directly, and Cloudflare’s proxy breaks that handshake. On another DNS host, add the same plain A record. Then add the domain under the site’s Settings tab in DotDeployer, which requests and renews the certificate automatically.