I used DigitalOcean for my VM and Gandi for my DNS, but you could use something else.
- Create a Project (a collection of Droplets. Droplets are individual machines, each machine has to live in a project.). Mine is called "coauthor"
- Create a new Droplet. a. Use Ubuntu. * The first time I tried to do this I tried to be cool and use Fedora and had weird compatibility issues. Just use ubuntu. b. Under "Regular with SSD" I picked the $5/mo 1 GB, 1CPU, 25 GB total disk, literally the cheapest option. * NOTE: You can UPgrade CPU/SSD/etc size, but you cannot DOWNgrade. So err on the side of too small. * Pick a region vaguely close to you. I used NY3.
- Note from after this process is done: it looks like I'm going to have about 7GB of space to use for the Coauthor database, with the option to upgrade via DigitalOcean at any time (without rebooting, I think?). My current coauthor usage over the 2ish years I've used it is 0.0