How to create a user on your Ubuntu instance

Create users that have access to a Ubuntu instance with optional permissions and SSH capabilities.

Begin creation

# on ubuntu
sudo adduser username

OPTIONAL: Give sudo power

# on ubuntu
sudo usermod -aG sudo username

OPTIONAL: Expire password

Next time the user logs in, they will be prompted to create a new password.

# on ubuntu
sudo passwd --expire username

OPTIONAL: add SSH access

If your user needs to SSH into the Ubuntu instance, you will want to add their SSH public key

If the user doesn't already have an SSH key generated, they can do so on their local machine:

# on user's local machine
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub # or whatever you chose as the file path

Copy, paste, and save their public SSH key on the Ubuntu instance.

# on ubuntu
sudo mkdir /home/username/.ssh
sudo vi /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys

They can add this to their local machine ~/.ssh/config.

# on user's local machine
vi ~/.ssh/config

Host ubuntu_name
        HostName <IP ADDRESS>
        User username
        IdentityFile "~/.ssh/id_ed25519" # or whatever path that was chosen

They can now access the Ubuntu instance by running this on their local machine.

# on user's local machine
ssh ubuntu_name