sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install curl
- Enable Node source (Execute 1st command for latest version or 2nd for lts version)
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -
OR
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
- Install node and npm
sudo apt-get install nodejs
Then check installed node version by node -v and npm -v
sudo apt-get install nginx
Check the installed version
nginx -v
Now if you browse with the public IP of the VPS, you can see the default static nginx page. Now enable Nginx so that it automatically starts if the server restarts.
sudo systemctl enable nginx
You also can check the status of nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx
You can upload the project files through remote server git or by cloning the github repo or upload files directly with the help of Cyberduck or Filezilla. You can also build the react app into the server and then deploy that or also you can build the react app into your local machine and then upload that build files into server.
Create a folder inside your home/username directory and clone from your github repository.
The best thing about react application is that, after Build the project, it is similar to the static websites created with just vanilla javascript. So can use that to the nginx static website.
Now copy the contents of the build folder into var/www/html. It’s optional. you can put your files anywhere you like. you can create your own separate folder for each project and keep the generated assets there. For simplicity, we are keeping them under var/www/html/build. So it will be our root.
sudo cp -r /home/ubuntu/your-project-folder/build/. /var/www/html
- Open default site provider by the nginx to your editor. Here I am using vim.
sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
Now change the commands of the file. Final result will look like this
server {
# Listen the http request coming from the user client
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
# Directory where the files this server can get
root /var/www/html;
# Tell server which file is the root file to serve first
index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
# You can add your domain name here
server_name <Your Public IP>;
# inside location we can serve our static contents like image or pdf etc.
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}Now save this file by pressing :wq. We changed the default configuration of nginx. To test that the changes is successful run below command
sudo nginx -t
If there is successful message then go further. Otherwise check and find-out the error. Restart the nginx.
sudo service nginx restart
Now you can browser your public server's public IP address and you can see the website.
You can deploy the react application without doing build process. E.g. If you run the react app as the development time. If you want to host like that, then have to configure a little different way because user will never search like http://yourPublicIP:3000. 3000 is the port number. SO we will receive the http://yourPublicIP and then redirect to the port. To start deployment, first download the dependencies via npm or yarn
First open the default configuration file of nginx
sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
After changing the commands, the final look should like this
server {
# Listen the http request coming from the user client
listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server;
# Directory where the files this server can get
root /var/www/html;
# Tell server which file is the root file to serve first
index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
# You can add your domain name here
server_name <Your Public IP>;
# inside location we can serve our static contents like image or pdf etc.
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3000
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}If you want to leave like this, then there will be problem because you run your project with the help of npm or yarn. Then this will run in development mode. So if there will some users visit your site, it will crash. To run and automatically restart the application inside your VPS, have to install pm2 or forever. Here I will show pm2. Install that first
sudo npm i pm2 -g
Start the pm2.
pm2 start node_modules/react-scripts/scripts/start.js --name "your-project-name"
Other comments offered by pm2:
# Other pm2 commands
pm2 show app
pm2 status
pm2 restart app
pm2 stop app
pm2 logs (Show log stream)
pm2 flush (Clear logs)
# To make sure app starts when reboot
pm2 startup ubuntu
This is the security layer to your VPS. You can allow which can enter and which can go.
sudo ufw allow ssh // Allow to connect to your vps with ssh.
sudo ufw enable // Enable the UFW Firewall
sudo ufw allow http // Allow http port
sudo ufw allow https // Allow https connection
sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' // to allow full nginx
sudo ufw allow 21 // If you using Cyberduck or filezilla then run this command
For more defails about firewall, click here
If there is no green lock of your website, then users do not want to visit the site. You can enable without any cost. To enable this, fist add A Record to your domain. You can do it by going to the domain provider's dashboard from where you can buy the domain. Add the vps local ip as a A Record and then execute the following commands.
sudo apt-add-repository -r ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
It will ask for your email and you are done. This certificate will be valid for 90 days. You have to run the following command to update your certificate.
certbot renew --dry-run