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cs4140 Notes: 10 Simple Deployment

··2 mins

Let’s deploy our Joke apps to a VPS.

Basic Overview:

  • Get the app running on the server
    • In production mode, with any build step completed
    • As a system service, so it starts when the server boots
  • Make sure you have an appropriate DNS record pointed at the server.
  • Configure your reverse proxy to point to your app

Deploying jokes-next #

ref: NextJS Deployment Docs

First, let’s confirm that we’re set up with an “npm run start” command:

  • Look in package.json
  • The line should say: “start”: “next start”
  • Also having a build line is good.

Now let’s create a user on the remote server:

laptop$ pwgen -s 16 1
[...]
laptop$ ssh goblin.homework.quest
server$ sudo su -
server# adduser jokes-next
password: [...]
server# visudo
jokes-next goblin=(root) NOPASSWD: /sbin/service
^D^D
laptop$ ssh-copy-id jokes-next@goblin.homework.quest

Carefully consider the security implications of allowing the service command to be run with sudo. Maybe add a restart-nginx script instead.

Second, let’s write a deploy script.

# deploy.sh

export HOST=goblin.homework.quest
export USER=jokes-next

export DIR=$(basename $(pwd))

npm run build

rsync -avz --delete ../"$DIR" $USER@$HOST:~

ssh $USER@$HOST sudo service nginx restart

Note: nodejs and npm are installed on this server from the Debian packages.

Let’s try the app:

  • Log in
  • Run npm run start
  • Visit server:3000

Now let’s make it a service:

  • The config file goes in /etc/systemd/system/jokes-next.service
[Unit]
Description=Jokes Next

[Service]
Type=simple
User=jokes-next
Group=jokes-next
Restart=on-failure
Environment=LANG=en_US.UTF-8

WorkingDirectory=/home/jokes-next/jokes-next
ExecStart=npm run start

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

And set up Nginx reverse proxy:

  • The config file goes in /etc/nginx/sites-available/jokes-next
  • Is symlinked into /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
  • Then we restart nginx: service nginx restart
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name jokes-next.homework.quest;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
    }
}

Deploying jokes-rails #

Setup a user:

laptop$ pwgen -s 16 1
[...]
laptop$ ssh goblin.homework.quest
server$ sudo su -
server# adduser jokes-rails
password: [...]
server# visudo
jokes-rails goblin=(root) NOPASSWD: /sbin/service
^D^D
laptop$ ssh-copy-id jokes-rails@goblin.homework.quest

Setup a service file

[Unit]
Description=Jokes Rails

[Service]
Type=simple
User=jokes-rails
Group=jokes-rails
Restart=on-failure
Environemnt=RAILS_ENV=production
Environment=LANG=en_US.UTF-8

WorkingDirectory=/home/jokes-rails/jokes-rails
ExecStart=bash bin/rails server -p 4000

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Some deploy scripts:

export HOST=goblin.homework.quest
export USER=jokes-rails

export DIR=$(basename $(pwd))

export RAILS_ENV=production
# If there's a JS or CSS build command, run it here.
bin/rails assets:precompile

rsync -avz --delete ../"$DIR" $USER@$HOST:~

ssh $USER@$HOST bash -c "(cd /home/$USER/jokes-rails && bash bin/prep.sh)"
ssh $USER@$HOST sudo service nginx restart

export RAILS_ENV=production
bin/rails db migrate

And our nginx config, note that each separate app we run on the same server needs its own port:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name jokes-rails.homework.quest;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:4000;
    }
}