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self-host.md

Self-hosting Ptorx

Hosting Ptorx yourself gives you a greater level of control and privacy (assuming you set everything up correctly) but it does come at a cost: it's not a simple process. If you need a self-hosted Ptorx installation you can either follow this tutorial with no support should you get stuck, or you can hire us to do it for you by sending an email to contact@xyfir.com. Some steps will be implied, or vague and generalized, so you'll be expected to know how to fill in the blanks based on your environment and requirements.

Requisites

  • Access to a domain whose DNS records you can configure.
  • A Linux server. We'll use Ubuntu.

Ptorx can run on fairly low-spec servers, but we recommend at least 1GB of RAM with 1-2GB of swap space.

Make sure your server's host allows you to send mail.

Step 1: General Server Configuration

For this tutorial, we'll assume you're using a non-root user with sudo access.

Step 1A: Set Hostname

We'll use example.com as a placeholder for your domain and ptorx.example.com as a placeholder for your hostname/subdomain. Even if you plan to send and receive mail and access Ptorx from example.com you still need a matching hostname/subdomain which the underlying mail servers will communicate on.

hostnamectl # get current hostname
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname ptorx.example.com
sudo nano /etc/hosts

In /etc/hosts, replace the old hostname with ptorx.example.com and add 127.0.0.1 ptorx.example.com if it's missing. If /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg exists, set preserve_hostname to true.

Step 1B: Install Dependencies

Nginx:

sudo apt install nginx
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' # assuming your firewall is on

Node.js / nvm:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/vX.X.X/install.sh | bash
# run command it prints to console
nvm install X.X.X

Get the latest nvm version number from their repo and the latest Node version that was available upon last server/package.json update.

Sendmail:

sudo apt install sendmail

Step 1C: Enable Swap

If you're running on a small server with RAM under ~2GB, you should allocate some swap space. The build process often fails on low-memory systems without it.

sudo fallocate -l 4G /swapfile # 1-2GB is probably good enough
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

In the configuration file, edit or add the following values:

vm.swappiness=30
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

Step 2: Clone the Repo

First change to the directory where you wish to keep Ptorx.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/xyfir/ptorx.git
cd ptorx

From now on we'll assume commands are run from ptorx/.

Step 3: Download npm Dependencies

Install npm depencies for each module:

cd server
npm install
cd ../web
npm install
cd ../accownt/server
npm install
cd ../web
npm install
cd ../../ccashcow/server
npm install
cd ../web
npm install
cd ../../yalcs/loader
npm install
cd ../server
npm install
cd ../web
npm install
cd ../../ # back to ptorx/

Then install pm2 to manage our API servers:

npm install -g pm2

Technically pm2 is not required, but it's what we'll use for this tutorial.

Step 4: Configure Database

sudo apt install mariadb-server
sudo systemctl enable mysql
sudo mysql_secure_installation
sudo mysql -u root
-- user, pass, and database name are of course all configurable
CREATE USER 'ptorx'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD_123';
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON *.* TO 'ptorx'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
CREATE DATABASE 'ptorx';

Next we'll build the database:

sudo mysql -u root -p ptorx < server/db/build/structure.sql
sudo mysql -u root -p ptorx < server/db/build/data.sql

Step 5: Create Data Directories

Now we need to create the data directories where Ptorx and its submodules will write both temporary and permanent data to the disk. You can put them wherever you'd like (just remember it for Step 4), but for now we'll put them alongside ptorx/.

mkdir ../accownt-db ../mail-cache ../ccashcow-db ../yalcs-db

You can also name the three directories however you'd like.

Step 6: Set Environment Variables

Ptorx and its submodules are configured via environment variables which are loaded into the applications via .env files located in each modules's directory.

To understand the syntax of the .env files, know that they are first loaded via dotenv and then the string values provided by dotenv are parsed by enve.

Step 6A: Create .env Files

First we'll create each file and then we'll work our way through populating them with values.

touch accownt/server/.env accownt/web/.env ccashcow/server/.env ccashcow/web/.env
cp server/example.env server/.env
cp web/example.env web/.env

Step 6B: Configure CCashCow

Note: This is our payment module. You can safely skip it.

See xyfir/ccashcow for instructions.

Use vim or nano or similar to edit the files ccashcow/server/.env and ccashcow/web/.env.

Step 6C: Configure Accownt

See xyfir/accownt for instructions.

Edit the files accownt/server/.env and accownt/web/.env.

Step 6D: Configure Yalcs

Note: This is our live chat module. You can safely skip it.

See xyfir/yalcs for instructions.

Edit the files yalcs/loader/.env, yalcs/server/.env, and yalcs/web/.env.

Step 6E: Configure Ptorx

Now we'll do the same thing for Ptorx. You can find the available environment variables in types/ptorx.d.ts under the Ptorx.Env namespace.

Step 7: Build From Source

cd server
npm run build
cd ../web
npm run build
cd ../accownt/server
npm run build
cd ../web
npm run build
cd ../../ccashcow/server
npm run build
cd ../web
npm run build
cd ../../yalcs/loader
npm run build
cd ../server
npm run build
cd ../web
npm run build
cd ../../

Step 8: Open and Forward Ports

Make sure your firewall allows traffic through the needed ports. If you're using ufw, it'll look something like:

sudo ufw allow smtp # 25
sudo ufw allow submission # 587
sudo ufw allow 2071 # -> 25
sudo ufw allow 2076 # -> 587

Next we'll need to forward incoming traffic from port 25 to the port you set for the MTA server via MTA_PORT in server/.env. We'll also forward 587 to the port for the MSA server, as configured via MSA_PORT. We'll assume the suggested ports for each.

sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 25 -j REDIRECT --to-port 2071
sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 587 -j REDIRECT --to-port 2076
sudo iptables -t nat -nvL # optionally validate your rules
sudo apt install iptables-persistent # save files on prompt

Suggested Ports

Ptorx requires a lot of servers. The suggested local ports are as follows:

Name Port
Ptorx API 2070
Ptorx MTA 2071
Ptorx test MTA 2072
Ptorx client (for dev) 2073
Accownt 2074
CCashCow 2075
Ptorx MSA 2076
Yalcs 2079

Step 9: Set DNS Records

For this step, we'll be using example.com as a placeholder for your domain.

Step 9A: DKIM

First of all, set the domain key TXT record to <SELECTOR>._domainkey.example.com as provided by the Ptorx app after you've added your domain. Ignore the other records it tells you to set.

Step 9B: MX

Create a single MX record for example.com that points to your server's IP address, which will probably be the same as your domain's A record. The priority doesn't matter with only a single server, but we'll set it to 10.

Step 9C: SPF

This step is optional but highly recommended to prevent your mail from being marked as spam.

Create a TXT record for example.com with something like this:

"v=spf1 +a ~all"

Before you blindly copy and paste, you should understand how SPF works and how best to utilize it according your needs.

Step 9D: DMARC

This step is optional but highly recommended to prevent your mail from being marked as spam.

Create a TXT record for _dmarc.example.com with something like this:

"v=DMARC1; p=reject; fo=1; rua=mailto:aggregate-dmarc-x@example.com; ruf=mailto:fail-dmarc-x@example.com"

Before you blindly copy and paste, you should understand how DMARC works and how best to utilize it according your needs.

Step 9E: Reverse DNS

Go to your server host's control panel and change the reverse DNS to your domain name. By default its value probably looks something like 0.0.0.0.yourhost.com where 0.0.0.0 is your server's IPv4 address and yourhost.com is the name of your server host.

For example with VULTR, it'll look like 140.82.16.198.vultr.com, and it can be found under the Settings > IPv4 tab when viewing your server instance.

Step 10: Generate TLS Certificates

Generate TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt:

sudo apt install letsencrypt
sudo letsencrypt certonly --webroot -w /var/www/html -d example.com

Then we'll enable auto-renewal:

sudo crontab -e

Add something like...

11 4 * * * letsencrypt renew

Finally, we'll need to make sure our Node server can read the certificate. The easiest way to do that is:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/letsencrypt/live/
sudo chmod 755 /etc/letsencrypt/archive/

Step 11: Configure Nginx

Create a config file for your site or edit /etc/nginx/nginx.conf directly, placing the following code within the http { ... } block:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name example.com;
  return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
  listen 443 ssl;
  server_name example.com;

  ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
  ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;

  add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains";
  add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
  add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;

  location / {
    root /path/to/ptorx/web/dist;
    try_files /index.html =404;
  }
  location /api {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:2070;
  }
  location /yalcs {
    root /path/to/ptorx/yalcs/web/dist;
    try_files /index.html =404;
  }
  location /static {
    gzip_static on;
    alias /path/to/ptorx/web/dist;
  }
  location /accownt {
    root /path/to/ptorx/accownt/web/dist;
    try_files /index.html =404;
  }
  location /ccashcow {
    root /path/to/ptorx/ccashcow/web/dist;
    try_files /index.html =404;
  }
  location /icon.png {
    root /path/to/ptorx/mobile;
    try_files /icon.png =404;
  }
  location /.well-known {
    alias /var/www/html/.well-known;
  }
  location /yalcs/api/ {
    proxy_read_timeout 3600;
    proxy_pass http://localhost:2079/api/;
  }
  location /accownt/api/ {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:2074/api/;
  }
  location /yalcs/static {
    gzip_static on;
    alias /path/to/ptorx/yalcs/web/dist;
  }
  location /ccashcow/api/ {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:2075/api/;
  }
  location /accownt/static {
    gzip_static on;
    alias /path/to/ptorx/accownt/web/dist;
  }
  location /ccashcow/static {
    gzip_static on;
    alias /path/to/ptorx/ccashcow/web/dist;
  }
}

As always, replace example.com, the ports you chose, and /path/to. Anything with yalcs or ccashcow is optional.

Test your config and restart Nginx:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 12: Start Servers

Last but not least, start the servers with pm2, which you should have installed earlier:

cd server
pm2 start --name ptorx npm -- run start
cd ../accownt/server
pm2 start --name accownt npm -- run start
cd ../../ccashcow/server
pm2 start --name ccashcow npm -- run start
cd ../../yalcs/server
pm2 start --name yalcs npm -- run start
cd ../../
pm2 startup # then follow instructions

Upgrading Ptorx

This is a general guide for upgrading from one version of Ptorx to another. It's likely there are more specific steps you'll have to follow based on your current version and that of which you wish to upgrade to, but these steps should typically get you at least 90% of the way there.

To begin the process of upgrading Ptorx, let's first reset the repos and pull in changes:

git reset --hard origin/master
git submodule foreach git reset --hard
git pull
git submodule update --recursive

Now we'll once again run through some of the steps above:

  • Go to Step 3 to update dependencies.
  • Go to Step 6 to update any .env files that may require changes.
  • Go to Step 7 to rebuild the apps.

Update your database if needed by running in order the server/db/upgrade/ SQL files for every version after your current installation's. For example, assuming you're on version 1.0.0 and the latest is 1.1.0:

sudo mysql -u root -p ptorx < server/db/upgrade/1.0.1.sql
sudo mysql -u root -p ptorx < server/db/upgrade/1.0.2.sql
sudo mysql -u root -p ptorx < server/db/upgrade/1.1.0.sql

Finally, restart the servers:

pm2 restart all
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