How to host Flarum on AWS Lightsail VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Flarum is an open-source forum software designed to serve communities of all sizes, providing essential functionalities for discussions, user interaction, and customization. Hosting Flarum on AWS Lightsail provides a dependable and scalable solution. AWS Lightsail provides a wide range of instance types and configurations to match various performances with flexible deployment options. ServerAvatar simplifies the process by providing a clear, step-by-step guide to setting up your Flarum application on AWS Lightsail VPS.

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).

To host Flarum, the basic requirements are 1GB or more of RAM for better performance and 1GB or more of disk space based on your data, backups, and additional files. 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.

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

Install and Setup Flarum on Cloud using ServerAvatar

Step1: Create Flarum Database

The Flarum installation process requires database Credentials. So, to create a MySQL database for Flarum, Access the Database tab on the ServerAvatar server panel to create a Database.

To create a Database, Enter the details, such as the Database Name, in the database creation form like the image below.

Successfully Created a Database.

Steps 2: Create a PHP Application

Access the Applications tab from the server panel to create a new PHP application for Flarum.

Now fill up the required details in the application form, as seen in the image below.

Note that:

If you want to host Flarum on your domain, then make sure to point your domain to the current IP address of your server, and for that:

1. Log in to your domain provider site, where you buy your domain. Click here for more info about your domain name.
2. Access DNS Manager to edit your DNS records (contact the support team if you don’t find them)
3. Change the IP address of A Record of your website to the > current server’s IP address.

To host Flarum on your subdomain, for example, flarum.yourdomain.com, create a new application with the subdomain as your primary domain and follow the same procedure. For accessing Flarum on the subdomain, you need to add your subdomain on A Record that points to the current IP address of your server. To point to an IPV6 address, you would need to use an AAAA record.

Click the Create Next Step.

Now, choose the method and service provider: Git and GitHub (follow as per the snapshot).

Continue the process by entering the necessary information as provided below:
Repository Type: Public
Clone HTTPS URL: https://github.com/flarum/flarum.git
Branch: master
Deployment script:

composer install

Proceed by clicking the "Next Step".

You can either create a new System User or select an existing one.

Next, choose PHP version 7.3 or above. For the custom Webroot should be public shown in the provided snapshot, as we're specifically seeking "index.php" or "index.html" within the custom setup.

Custom Webroot: public

Proceed to the next steps and ensure your details and requirements are accurately entered.

After confirming, click on "Create Application" to initiate the application creation process.

Step 3: Install and setup Flarum

Now access the site URL from the Application panel to install and set up Flarum.

We have already created a database for Flarum in step 1. To establish a connection between the database and the application, enter the database credential we have already made. You can access all your database credentials, like database name, username, and password, by accessing the database tab from the server panel.

1. Enter the following database credential we have already created in ServerAvatar:
   Forum Title: Any Name
   MySQL Host: localhost
   MySQL Database: Database name
   MySQL Username: Username of database
   MySQL Password: Database password
   Table Prefix: Change the database table prefix as you want

2. To create administrator enter the following details:
   Admin Username: any username
   Admin Email: any email
   Password: your password
   Confirm Password: Confirm your Password

NOTE: Please remember the credentials you entered above for logging into Flarum. Click Install Flarum.

You will directly login to Flarum or log in as admin with an admin username and password on the next page to access the admin panel.

Successfully install and setup Flarum on the server through the ServerAvatar.