Monthly Maintenance Checklist for a Linux VPS

What this is

This is a practical monthly checklist to keep a Linux VPS healthy and secure.

What it is for

• Prevent avoidable outages
• Maintain security hygiene
• Confirm backups are actually working

Monthly checklist (do in order)

1) Confirm resource health

uptime
free -h
df -h

2) Install updates

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt autoremove -y

RHEL-based:

sudo dnf update -y

3) Check reboot requirement

if [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ]; then echo "Reboot required"; else echo "No reboot required"; fi

4) Review firewall rules

sudo ufw status numbered || true
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all || true

5) Review users and SSH access

cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd | tail -n 30

6) Check failed services and logs

systemctl --failed
sudo journalctl -p err -n 100 --no-pager

7) Verify backups exist and are recent

ls -la /var/backups || true
ls -la /var/backups/rsync || true

Important: Also confirm off-server copies exist.

8) Test a restore (small test)

Pick a small file and restore it from backup to confirm the process works.

Conclusion

Doing this checklist monthly greatly reduces surprises. Consistency is the goal.