NestJS Boilerplate Deployment with Ansible

This project provides an Ansible playbook for deploying a NestJS boilerplate application with PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, and Nginx.

Prerequisites

• Ansible installed on the control machine
• SSH access to the target host(s)
• Git installed on the control machine

Setup

1. Generate an SSH key pair on the control machine:

ssh-keygen

2. Install Ansible:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt install ansible -y

3. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Rob-in-son/hng_boilerplate_nestjs.git
cd hng_boilerplate_nestjs
git checkout devops
cd ansible

4. Configure the inventory file: Create or edit inventory.yml with the following structure in the ansible dir

all:
  hosts:
    <host_name>:
      ansible_host: <host_ip>
      ansible_user: <username>
      ansible_ssh_private_key_file: <private_key_path>

Playbook Structure

• main.yml: The main Ansible playbook
• nginx.conf.j2: Nginx configuration template
• nestjs.service.j2: Systemd service configuration template

Deployment

To deploy the application, run:

ansible-playbook main.yml -i inventory.yml -v

What the Playbook Does

• Sets up a new user for the application
• Installs necessary dependencies (Node.js, PostgreSQL, Nginx, RabbitMQ)
• Clones the application repository
• Sets up the PostgreSQL database
• Configures the application environment
• Sets up Nginx as a reverse proxy
• Configures UFW firewall
• Sets up the application as a systemd service

Configuration

The playbook uses several variables that can be customized in the vars section of main.yml, including:

Database credentials

• Application port
• JWT settings
• And more

Logging

Application logs are stored in:

• /var/log/stage_5b/out.log
• /var/log/stage_5b/error.log

Nginx logs are stored in:

/var/log/nginx/stage_5b_access.log /var/log/nginx/stage_5b_error.log

Security

• UFW is configured to allow only SSH (port 22) and HTTP (port 80) traffic
• The application runs on port 3000, which is not directly accessible from outside
• PostgreSQL credentials are stored in /var/secrets/pg_pw.txt

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues with the deployment:

• Check the Ansible output for error messages
• Review the application and Nginx log files
• Ensure all required ports are open and services are running