DigitalOcean Hosting From the Terminal - Finding the Files

In early 2022 I switch my site hosting to DigitalOcean (DO) but on recommendation from colleagues I also set up Forge to do the server management: add sites, deploy from github.com, manage environment variables, etc. An extra service means there's an extra fee but it's worth it because I'm a web developer (I write code) not sys admin.

Recently a client has asked me to look into the set up of an existing site that hosted on DO. Their previous developer doesn't reply to emails anymore and a site needs to change domain names. I'm not at the end of the process yet but here's what I'm learning as I go.

Finding the Files

First the site owner added me as a team member to their DO account. Clicking around their DO dashboard is showing me nothing; domains aren't listed, MX records aren't listed. To access the server via ssh terminal I need the client's root password. Which they don't remember. Thankfully DO can reset root passwords with a click of the button.

Next I'm going to use that root login to sftp to the server with FileZilla. Yes yes, I know using root for everything isn't great and I should create and upload my own ssh key but for temporary exploring purposes it's what I'm using. And here's my next stumbling block:

The root directory apparently doesn't have any web files.

Time to google for some answers. I found How To Add Domains & Host Multiple Websites On Single DigitalOcean Droplet Nginx on YouTube and at around 28 minutes I found the next piece of the puzzle. In many cases files will be in /var/www/html. In my case it's /var/www/sites.

So I found the files but there's 4 or 5 different site folders listed on this server. There must be a server config file somewhere but it's late and I'm done for the day.