Ackee is an open-source analytics platform designed to improve collaboration and communication within organizations. It features a clean and user-friendly interface, displaying real-time data such as visitor metrics, traffic sources, and page views. When choosing a hosting platform for Ackee, opting for AWS Lightsail ensures reliability with its scalable infrastructure and straightforward deployment options. ServerAvatar makes the deployment of the Ackee application on the AWS Lightsail platform an easy step-by-step process.
Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail
To create a server in AWS Lightsail, First log in to the AWS Lightsail console. Once you are there, Follow the steps given below.
Step 1: Go to the Instance Creation Form
To access the instance creation form, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the orange button with the Create Instance text. See the following image for reference.
Step 2: Select the Location of your Instance
First of all, You have to select the location for your instance. It is always better to select a location closest to your major traffic source. It will decrease the latency for the majority of your website visitors.
If you want to change the location of your server, You can simply update the current region in your AWS account.
Step 3: Select the OS for your Instance
After selecting the location, Select the operating system for your instance. In this case, First, click on OS Only and then select Ubuntu 20.04 as an operating system just like the following image.
Step 4: Select SSH Key and Launch Script (Optional/Advanced)
This is an optional step. Here you can set the Launch script and the main SSH key for your server. If you don't understand the launch script and SSH keys, Just ignore this step.
Step 5: Select the Plan
In this step, select the size of your VM instance. AWS Lightsail provides lots of different options when it comes to plans and pricing. The plan and pricing selection completely depend on the requirements of your site(s).
The minimum requirement is 2GB or more of RAM for better performance, especially if handling high traffic volumes, and a minimum of 10GB of free disk space depending on the volume of analytics data. So, select the plan based on the complexity and traffic of your sites.
Step 6: Verify and Create the Instance
Finally, Enter the name of your instance, and the number of instances you want to create and assign the tags accordingly for identification. Once done, click on the Create Instance button to start the instance creation process.
It might take a few minutes to deploy the instance. Once done, follow the below-given step to update the firewall rules for the VM instance.
Step 7: Update Firewall Rules
ServerAvatar requires 43210 port open. In total, You need to keep the following ports open on the instance.
- 22 (SSH): To access your server via SSH.
- 80 (HTTP): To access your sites on HTTP.
- 443 (HTTPS): To access your sites on HTTPS.
- 43210 (ServerAvatar): To allow communication between ServerAvatar and your instance.
To update the firewall rules for a specific instance, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the name of the instance you want to update. Then go to the Networking section and add the missing firewall rules. After updating the firewall rules, the networking section of your Instance should look like the following image.
Initial Server Configuration
The Initial server configuration includes the installation and configuration of various packages required to host your website. Usually, You have to write commands and modify configuration files. Luckily, With ServerAvatar, Your full server configuration and optimization can be automated.
Here are the three ways to automatically configure your server with ServerAvatar.
Connect a server using a direct method
- Login/Register to ServerAvatar account, click the Create button from the right side of the screen, and select Server from the dropdown.
- Select Direct Method in the serve connecting method section.
- Type the Server Name as per your choice.
- Select a Tech Stack as per your need. You can either select Apache, Nginx, OpenLiteSpeed or Node Stack.
- Select a Database: MySQL, MariaDB or MongoDB.
- Enable the toggle if you want to install the latest LTS version of node.js on your server.
- Select a Management plan and click the Connect Now button.
- You’ll see the command on your screen. Login to your server using an ssh connection and execute that command as a root user.
- The server connection process will be started on your ServerAvatar account after executing the command.
Connect a server using integration
- Login/Register to your ServerAvatar account, navigate to the Integration tab from the sidebar of the panel, and access Cloud Platform from the dropdown.
- Now Select a cloud platform you want to link with ServerAvatar.
- The popup form will appear on your screen. Enter details to link your cloud provider account. The integration method is different based on the cloud provider you select.
- You can integrate five different cloud provider platforms with ServerAvatar, which is-
Check the above link of cloud platforms to know more about integrating cloud platforms with ServeAvatar.
Connect a server using commands
Step 1. Login to your server using root user
Once you create a server as per your requirements, connect to your server using an ssh connection and execute the below three commands as a root user in your server console area.
wget https://srvr.so/install
chmod +x install
./install
Step 2. Select a web server
It will ask you which web server you would like to install on your server: Apache, Nginx, OpenLiteSpeed or Node Stack. Type anyone that you would like to install on your server and hit the enter button.
Step 3. Claim your server
Completing the process will give you a link to claim your server.
Open the link on your browser to access the ServerAvatar server panel.
Install and Setup Ackee on Cloud using ServerAvatar
Ackee Application: Step-by-Step Guide
Introduction:
Ackee is a self-hosted, open-source analytics tool that offers privacy-focused insights into website and application usage. It provides features comparable to traditional analytics platforms while prioritizing user privacy.
Here are Some Key Features of Ackee Analytics include:
- Privacy-Focused
- Self-Hosted
- Dashboard and Reporting
- Customizable
- Open Source
Prerequisites:
- Node.js (v14 or higher)
- MongoDB (v4.4 or higher)
- Nginx
Installation:
Step 1: Create an Application
Go to the Applications tab on the ServerAvatar server panel and click on the Create button as shown in the image below.
To proceed with the installation and deployment of Ackee, ensure you have met the prerequisites.
- Enter an Application Name of your choice.
- Specify a Domain (choose between a Test Domain or a Primary Domain).
- Note: If you're hosting Ackee on your domain, make sure your domain is correctly pointed to your server's current IP address.
Now, Clone Ackee from the available public repository in Github.
- Method: Git
- Service Provider: Github
- Repository Type: Public
- Clone HTTPS URL: https://github.com/electerious/Ackee.git
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Branch:
master
To proceed further, provide additional information.
- Select a Rendering Type: Server Side Rendering
- Port: 3000 (Choose an available port to avoid conflicts)
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Package Installation Command:
npm install
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Start App Command:
npm start
Click on the Create Application button. You will be redirected to the Application Installation Status page, where you can monitor the installation process and view command outputs.
Once, all of your entered commands run successfully you will be redirected to the Application Dashboard.
Step 2: Create Ackee Database
Go to the server panel, navigate to the Databases tab, and click on the Create button as shown in the following image.
On the following screen, complete the database details, including:
- Database Name
- Database Username
- Database Password
Step 3: Setup .env file
- Navigate to the Application Panel tab by clicking on the icon next to the application as shown in the below image.
- Now, go to the FIle Manager option and open the public_html folder.
- Create a new file and name it .env
- Now, open the .env file by clicking on it.
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Add the following configurations into the .env file, replacing placeholders with actual values:
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ACKEE_MONGODB=mongodb://db_username:db_password@localhost:27017/db_name
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ACKEE_USERNAME=username
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ACKEE_PASSWORD=password
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PORT=port number
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- Now, visit your configured domain name and enter the username and password you entered in .env
Congratulations! You have successfully installed and deployed Ackee through ServerAvatar.