Setting Up Fresh Ubuntu Server for Web Hosting

I recently purchased a new Ubuntu server for my startup. Here's a concise guide, taking about 5 minutes, to set it up.

Setting up a new server can be quite rewarding. Following these steps, your server will be ready to host a web app created with Node.js and Nginx, and it can synchronize with your existing repository if necessary.

First, let's update the apt package list by running:

sudo apt update

Enable essential ports

In your provider’s panel, enable these ports:

• 80 for http
• 443 for https
• 22 for ssh

Install Nginx

Execute the command below to install Nginx, a popular web server:

sudo apt install nginx

To verify the Nginx service status, use:

systemctl status nginx

A successful installation will display output similar to this:

nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2023-11-19 10:20:28 CST; 10min ago
       Docs: man:nginx(8)
   Main PID: 17963 (nginx)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 1939)
     Memory: 3.8M
        CPU: 31ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
             ├─17963 "nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -g daemon on; master_process on;"
             ├─17964 "nginx: worker process" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""
             └─17965 "nginx: worker process" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ""

Install Node framework

Run these commands to install Node.js and npm:

sudo apt install nodejs
sudo apt install npm

npm install yarn --global #Optional

Verify the installations with:

node -v
npm -v

To update Node.js (recommended to version 16 or later), execute:

sudo npm install -g n
sudo n stable # This will automatically install the latest stable version of node

Install Git

Run this command if git not installed.

sudo apt install git

Next, let’s generate the ssh key. Skip this step if you do not need to work with your remote repo on this server.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Retrieve the public key with:

cat /root/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# or
vim /root/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Add this key to your GitHub account under SSH keys settings.

Install PM2

To manage our process we can use PM2.

npm install pm2 -g

Now you can start your project. Switch to your projecy directory, and run:

pm2 start yarn --name "ygeeker-website" -- start

Replace “yarn” and second “start” with your actuall command.

Config Nginx & SSL

⚠️ Note: Replace 'ygeeker.com.cn' with your domain.

Create the Nginx configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/ygeeker.com.cn

Type in the website config:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name ygeeker.com.cn;

    root /var/www/ygeeker.com.cn/html;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name www.ygeeker.com.cn;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Create a symbolic link to enable this configuration:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/ygeeker.com.cn /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

It’s not recommended to directly create config file under sites-enabled directory.

To dive deeper about symbolic link on Linux you could read Understanding Linux Kernel.

sudo snap install --classic certbot
sudo certbot --nginx -d <your_domain> # Generate Certificate

Ensure DNS settings are correctly configured to point to your server.

For more on Certbot, visit this page.

Use Github action for automention

We’ll create a github action to let the production always use latest code from master branch. Let’s start with writting github action file.

Create a sync-to-server.yml under .github/workflows

name: Sync to Server

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: SSH and deploy node app
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
            host: ${{ secrets.SSH_HOST }}
            username: ${{ secrets.SSH_USERNAME }}
            password: ${{ secrets.SSH_PASSWORD }}
            port: ${{ secrets.SSH_PORT || '22' }}
            fail_on_stderr: true
            script: |
                cd /home/app/YGeeker_Website
                rm -rf yarn.lock
                git pull origin main
                yarn --production
                yarn run build
                kill $(lsof -t -i:3000)
                pm2 restart 0 || pm2 start yarn --name "ygeeker-website" -- start

Then enable action for your github repo on this page.

In your github repo, create three environemnt varibles for SSH connection at this page:

Further

To maximize your server’s capabilities, consider:

• Hosting a Jitsi Meet video conference service
• Running a Minecraft server
• Setting up a media streaming service with Jellyfin or Plex
• And more…