Create Server in Digitalocean
Digitalocean is one of the most popular cloud platform right now. It offers on-demand cloud computing for various use cases as well as some managed solutions. We can deploy any PHP based applications on Digitalocean Droplets. Droplets are the servers or cloud computing instances in Digitalocean. If you want to learn everything about droplet management in Digitalocean in-depth, We recommend you to read our Digitalocean guide.
To deploy any application on Digitalocean, We first need a Droplet. So, we will first create a droplet and perform the initial set up.
Step 1: Go to the Create Droplets page.
Log in to your Digitalocean account and click on the Create button given on the top-right corner of the page. From the drop down menu, click on the Droplets option to see a droplet creation form.
Step 2: Choose Region
On the Droplet creation page, You will see lots of sections to select lots of things. We will go step by step.
The first thing you have to do is select the region for your droplet. Digitalocean provides lots of options when it comes to selecting the location. The general rule is to select the region that is closest to your audience. It means that for majority of your audience, Your sites will load faster due to lower latency.
Step 3: Choose an Image or an OS
In this step, you have to select the operating system for your droplet. We recommend you to use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS x64 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS x64. Ubuntu is easy to configure and manage. If you are using ServerAvatar to manage your droplets, These operating systems are requirement.
Step 4: Choose the size of the Droplet
Here you have to choose the size of your Droplet. As we mentioned above, Digitalocean provides many different types of droplets. Select the one that fits best for your project.
If your site is brand new and does not have much traffic, start with a small plan. Once the project starts getting traction, you can upgrade the plan to handle more visitors on the site.
Step 5: Choose Authentication Method
Now you have to select the authentication method. There are two types of authentication methods. They are:
- Authentication via SSH Keys
- Authentication via Password
If you are using SSH keys for authentication, It is the best option. If you do not know what is SSH keys, You can go with the password method. Make sure to set the strong password for your root user, which is the most powerful user with all the privileges on Linux OS.
Step 6: Selecting Additional Options
There are three additional options you can choose. They are optional but important in different use cases. The additional options are:
- Monitoring: It is a free feature by Digitalocean. It allows you to see additional monitoring data for your server.
- Backups: We recommend you to enable full server backups if you are going to deploy in production environment. The cost of the backups depends on the size of the droplet.
- Managed Database: You do not need a Managed database if you are using ServerAvatar to manage sites on a droplet. A managed database is a pre-configured MySQL Droplet.
Step 7: Finalise Details
In the last step of this process, We have to enter the name of the droplet, number of droplets you want to create, Define any tags, and select the project. Enter all the details and click on the Create Droplet button to create a droplet.
In a few minutes, You will have the Droplet up and running. Now, We have to perform the initial configuration on the Droplet to host PHP based frameworks and software.
Initial Server Configuration
The Initial server configuration includes 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 optimisation 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, or OpenLiteSpeed.
- Select a Database: MySQL or MariaDB.
- 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, or OpenLiteSpeed. 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 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 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:
- Log in to your domain provider site, where you buy your domain. Click here for more info about your domain name.
- Access DNS Manager to edit your DNS records (contact the support team if you don’t find them)
- 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.
-
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 -
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 logged in to Flarum or Login as admin with admin username and password on the next page to access the admin panel.
Successfully install and setup Flarum on the server through the ServerAvatar.