How to host Ackee on Linode VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Ackee is a web analytics tool that provides detailed insights into your website’s traffic while prioritizing user privacy. With its customizable modules and themes, Ackee enables businesses to customize their analytics environment to meet specific needs without requiring extensive technical knowledge. When considering hosting Ackee, deploying it on Linode is a dependable choice due to its scalable infrastructure and user-friendly deployment solutions. ServerAvatar assists with Linode VPS and simplifies the deployment of the Ackee application on the Linode platform through easy steps.

Create a server in Linode

First of all, Let's create a VM instance in Linode. It provides a lot of different types of VM instances. You can create shared VM instances, Dedicated Instances, Memory-optimized instances, and GPU instances. To host a simple website, You will need a shared VM instance.

If you think your application uses high CPU or RAM, You can go for a Dedicated CPU VM or Memory Optimised VM respectively. Let's get started with the process.

Step 1: Go to Linode VM Instance Creation Form

When you log in to your Linode account, You will see the "Create Linode" button on the top-right corner of the page. Click on it to go to the Linode creation form.

Step 2: Select the Distribution

In this step, you have to select the operating system for your VPS. Generally, the Ackee application requires Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or a later version for compatibility and support.

ServerAvatar supports Ubuntu 20.04 LTS x64 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS x64. So, it is recommended to select any one of the supported OS.

Step 3: Select the Region

Linode has multiple data centers located in different regions worldwide. It is recommended to choose the region that is closest to your major traffic source to reduce latency and improve the performance of your applications.

Step 4: Select Linode Plan

Linode offers various plans with different configurations of CPU, RAM, and storage. Choose a plan that fits in your budget and meets your application's needs. With ServerAvatar, You can also host multiple applications on a single Linode VM Instance.

Step 5: Set Label and Select Tags

The label is a human-readable name that you can use to identify your instance. Tags are keywords that you can use to categorize and search for your instances. You can also group Linodes by Tags on the dashboard.

Step 6: Set Strong Root Password and Select SSH Key

The root password is the administrator password that you will use to access and manage your VM instance. Make sure to use a strong password that is hard to guess and includes a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.

Next, select an SSH key if you want to authenticate with SSH keys. SSH keys are a more secure way to log in to your VM instance than using passwords. If you have an SSH key, you can upload it to your Linode account and use it to log in to your VM instance.

Step 7: Select VLAN (If Required)

A VLAN is a logical network that separates traffic from different virtual machines or physical servers. It can be used to isolate network traffic and improve security.

Step 8: Select Add-ons - Backups and Private IP

Linode provides an easy way to create and store backups for your VM instances. Backups are highly recommended as they can help you with disaster recovery quickly. In the last step, You can enable the Private IP address for your VM instance if required.

Step 9: Click on "Create Linode"

Finally, Click on the Create Linode button at the end of the form to create a Linode VM instance. It usually takes around 2 minutes to create a new Linode instance. Once done, You can connect it with ServerAvatar for ease of site and server configuration management.

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.

wget https://srvr.so/install
chmod +x install
./install

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
• Branch: master

To proceed further, provide additional information.

• Select a Rendering Type: Server Side Rendering
• Port: 3000 (Choose an available port to avoid conflicts)
• Package Installation Command: npm install
• 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.

• Add the following configurations into the .env file, replacing placeholders with actual values:

  • ACKEE_MONGODB=mongodb://db_username:db_password@localhost:27017/db_name
  • ACKEE_USERNAME=username
  • ACKEE_PASSWORD=password
  • PORT=port number

• 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.