Syscon

Deployment

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Note: For subdomain (backend.syscon.io) create A recrod in r53 for www.backend.syscon.io and a alias of A record for backend.syscon.io

Server (Apache 2)

• Install apache2 by running sudo apt install apache2
• Start server by running sudo systemctl start apache2
• Getting LetsEncrypt certificate using certbot (help)

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt-get update 

###!--- Stop apache to run the following commands

sudo apt-get install certbot python-certbot-apache
certbot certonly --standalone -d syscon.com -d backend.syscon.com

• Create seperate directory for frontend mkdir -p /var/www/syscon/public_html
• Create separate directory for backend directory too, it wont be used however, why? idk just do it mkdir -p /var/www/syscon-backend/public_html
• Set folder permissions chmod -R 755 /var/www
• Copy the default configuration file for each site, this will also ensure that you always have a default copy for future site creation. cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/syscon.conf
• Paste the following code inside the syscon.conf file. You may have to change according to the needs.

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerAdmin [email protected]
	DocumentRoot /var/www/syscon/public_html
        ServerName syscon.io
	ServerAlias www.syscon.io

	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

	<Directory /var/www/syscon/public_html>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
		AllowOverride All
		Require all granted
	</Directory>

</VirtualHost>


<VirtualHost *:443>
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/syscon.io/cert.pem
	SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/syscon.io/privkey.pem

	ServerAdmin [email protected]
	ServerName syscon.io
	ServerAlias www.syscon.io
	DocumentRoot /var/www/syscon/public_html/
	
	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

	<Directory /var/www/syscon/public_html>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
		AllowOverride All
		Require all granted
	</Directory>

</VirtualHost>





<VirtualHost *:80>
 	ServerName backend.syscon.io
	ServerAlias www.backend.syscon.io
 	ServerAdmin [email protected]

 	DocumentRoot /var/www/syscon-backend/public_html/

	<Directory /var/www/syscon-backend/public_html>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		allow from all
	</Directory>

	ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/subdomain.example.com.error.log
	CustomLog /var/log/apache2/subdomain.example.com.access.log combined

	ProxyPreserveHost On
	ProxyRequests Off
	ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
	ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
	SSLEngine On
	SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/backend.syscon.io/cert.pem
	SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/backend.syscon.io/privkey.pem

	ServerAdmin [email protected]
	ServerName backend.syscon.io
	ServerAlias www.backend.syscon.io
	DocumentRoot /var/www/syscon-backend/public_html/
	
	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

	ProxyPreserveHost On
	ProxyRequests Off
	ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/ retry=1 acquire=3000 timeout=600 Keepalive=On
	ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/ 
</VirtualHost>

• Enable apache modules

sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo a2ensite syscon.conf
sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http
sudo a2enmod rewrite

• Reload apache server by running sudo systemctl reload apache2

Frontend

• Place the distribution inside server directory that is being served
• Make sure the connection is established over HTTPS (Apache or Nginx config)
• Before producing any build, make sure the url for backend is updated in services present inside src/app/services directory

Backend

• Clone the repo
• Run npm install to install dependencies
• Use HTTP in var protocol = 'http'; inside bin/www
• Make sure tmux is installed to keep server alive after closing ssh session to with server. Start tmux by running tmux or join a session by running tmux attach -t <session_id>
• Use npm start ./bin/www or node start ./bin/www to start the server
• To de-attach from tmux, press ctrl+b d

Useful Links

Following tutorials were used when deploying for the first time

• Multiple virtual host on apache2: https://www.liquidweb.com/kb/configure-apache-virtual-hosts-ubuntu-18-04/
• Getting letsencrypt certificate: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/going-https-on-amazon-ec2-ubuntu-14-04-with-lets-encrypt-certbot-on-nginx-696770649e76/
• Use proxy for apache: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/34865193/proxypass-apache-https-to-a-node-server
• Enable proxy for apache: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-apache-as-a-reverse-proxy-with-mod_proxy-on-ubuntu-16-04
• Node server over https: https://blog.cloudboost.io/setting-up-an-https-sever-with-node-amazon-ec2-nginx-and-lets-encrypt-46f869159469