VPS Guide: Your Go-To for VPS, Ubuntu & Command Line Success

Install Fail2ban with SSH Port Change on Ubuntu

Category: VPS Setup

Secure a custom SSH port with Fail2ban on Ubuntu—change port to 2222 in /etc/ssh/sshd_config with

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

setting Port 2222 then restart SSH with

systemctl restart sshd

Install Fail2ban with

apt install fail2ban

edit /etc/fail2ban/jail local:

[sshd]\nenabled = true\nport = 2222\nfilter = sshd\nlogpath = /var/log/auth.log\nmaxretry = 5\nbantime = 3600

Restart with

systemctl restart fail2ban

open port with

ufw allow 2222

On Linode test with

ssh -p 2222 user@ip

—check bans with

fail2ban-client status sshd

ensuring MySQL and FTP uptime with custom port security