How to host Invoice Ninja on AWS EC2 VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Invoice Ninja is a robust open-source platform designed to simplify invoicing and financial management processes for businesses. It offers a user-friendly interface for creating and sending professional invoices, managing expenses, and tracking payments. The application supports customizable templates, recurring invoices, and online payment integrations, making it easier to streamline financial operations. When selecting a hosting solution for Invoice Ninja, AWS EC2 stands out as a reliable option with scalable infrastructure and simple deployment solutions. ServerAvatar makes the deployment of the Invoice Ninja application on the AWS EC2 platform straightforward through a simplified process.

Create an AWS EC2 Instance

Getting Started with AWS EC2:

In the dynamic landscape of cloud computing, Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) stands as a cornerstone service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), offering a flexible and scalable solution for hosting virtual servers in the cloud. Designed to cater to a diverse range of computing needs, EC2 allows businesses and developers to deploy virtual machines quickly and securely, enabling them to run various applications and manage workloads with ease.

From startups seeking cost-effective computing power to enterprises requiring robust, scalable infrastructure, EC2 provides a vast array of instance types optimized for different use cases. These instances offer customizable configurations, including computing power, memory, storage, and networking capabilities, empowering users to tailor their virtual environments precisely to their application requirements.

Whether it's launching a single instance for a small-scale project or orchestrating a complex network of instances across multiple regions, EC2 simplifies the process with its intuitive management console and comprehensive APIs. This versatility makes it a preferred choice for businesses looking to leverage the scalability and reliability of cloud computing without the overhead of managing physical hardware.

Using AWS EC2 instances offers a multitude of benefits that cater to diverse business needs and technical requirements. Here are some key advantages:

• Scalability: EC2 enables swift adjustments to your computing capacity according to demand, offering elasticity that efficiently manages fluctuating workloads for businesses, preventing resource over-provisioning.
• Cost-Effectiveness: With EC2, you pay only for the compute capacity you use. This pay-as-you-go pricing model eliminates the need for upfront investments in hardware and allows for cost optimization by scaling resources as needed.
• Flexibility: EC2 provides a diverse range of instance types tailored for various use cases, including compute-optimized, memory-optimized, storage-optimized, and GPU instances. This versatility allows you to select the ideal instance type that best suits your specific application needs.
• Security: AWS offers a secure environment for hosting EC2 instances, incorporating features such as security groups, network access control lists (ACLs), and Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) to manage network access effectively. Integration with other AWS services, such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), further enhances security by providing detailed access control capabilities.
• Ease of Use: EC2 instances can be easily launched, managed, and configured using the AWS Management Console, Command Line Interface (CLI), or SDKs/APIs. Automation tools like AWS CloudFormation and AWS Elastic Beanstalk further simplify deployment and management tasks.
• Reliability: AWS ensures a high level of reliability for EC2 instances with SLAs that guarantee a specific level of uptime. Additionally, EC2 instances can be configured to automatically recover from failures using features like Auto Scaling and Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) snapshots.

Let’s Get started with Creating a Virtual Machine on AWS EC2:

To create a server in Amazon. First log in to Amazon web service. Once you are there, Follow the steps given below.

Step 1: Search for the EC2 service in the AWS search bar

• The first step is to search for EC2 services, as Amazon provides multiple web services. Then click on the EC2 with virtual servers in the cloud option which is shown in the image below.

Step 2: Launching Instances from the EC2 Dashboard

• Now you are in the EC2 Dashboard, navigate to the running instances section. After that new tab for instances will be displayed there you have to click on the Launch Instances button as shown in the images below.

Step 3: Naming and Tagging Your EC2 Instance

• The next step is to name the instance of your choice and you can also add tags to your instance which can help organize, manage, and track resources.

Step 4: Select the OS for your Instance

• After following the steps, proceed to select the operating system for your instance. Generally, the Invoice Ninja application requires Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or a newer version for compatibility and support.
• In this case, First, click on Ubuntu and then select the Amazon Machine Image of Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS as an operating system. In addition to this, select the architecture to 64-bit(x64/86) as shown in the image below.

Step 5: Select the Instance type

• In this step, select the size of your VM instance. AWS EC2 provides lots of different options when it comes to plans and pricing. The selection of instances completely depends on the requirements. So, select the instance based on the complexity and traffic of your sites.

Step 6: Select SSH Key pair or create one

• Here you can select the Key pair name for SSH. If you don't have any key pair stored, you can also create a new key pair by clicking on the Create new key pair option as shown in the following image.

Step 7: Configuring Network Settings

• In this step, you have to configure the network by simply clicking on the Edit button as shown in the following image.

• Then you have to create a new security group by selecting the create security group radio button. You can enter the security group name of your choice and can also add a description for your security group for that you can refer to the image below.

Step 8: Add Inbound Security Group Rules

• The next step is to add inbound security group rules which are necessary to configure for connecting your instance to ServerAvatar. Click on the button shown in the image below to add security group rules.

• ServerAvatar requires 43210 port to be 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 understand and proceed further, please take the reference of the image depicted below.

Step 9: Configure the storage for your instance

• The final step is to configure the storage. You can select the size of the storage according to your needs. However, it is recommended to select at least 25GB disk volume, and in AWS EC2 there is also an option to select the root volume which you can choose as per your requirements. Now click on the Launch Instance button, as shown in the image below.

• Congratulations! You have successfully created your AWS EC2 Instance which is now ready to connect with ServerAvatar.

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 Invoice Ninja on Cloud Using ServerAvatar

Step 1: Create Database

Access the Databases tab on the ServerAvatar server panel to create a MySQL Database.

Enter the credentials and click on the Create Database button.

Step 2: Change PHP-CLI Version

Deploying InvoiceNinja on the server requires PHP-CLI Version 8.1 or above at the server level. To configure the PHP-CLI version, follow the Snapshot.

Step 3: Create a PHP Application

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

Fill up the required information, including the Application Name, Domain Name, and Advanced Options for more PHP settings.

Proceed to next by clicking on the Next Step.

Now select method and service provider Git and GitHub, respectively (follow according to Snapshot)

Enter the required information as given below:

Repository Type: Public
Clone HTTPS URL: https://github.com/invoiceninja/invoiceninja.git
Branch: v5-stable
Deployment script:

git checkout v5-stable;
cp .env.example .env;
composer i -o --no-dev
php artisan key:generate

Move further by clicking on the Next Step.

Create a System User or choose a system user from an existing One.

Then choose PHP version 8.1 or above; the custom webroot should be Public as in the given Snapshot.

Custom Webroot: Public

Then, click on the Create Application button.

Step 4: Connect Database

Go to the File Manager tab from the sidebar of the application. And access the public_html folder

Now check the Show Hidden Files box to access the .env file to change to the original database credentials.

Change the following configuration to establish a connection with the database.

DB_DATABASE= Database_Name
DB_USERNAME= Database_Username
DB_PASSWORD=Database_Password

To access database credentials, go to the Database tab from the sidebar of the server panel and click the database that we created in the first step.

That's all, open your application URL in the web browser to access the Invoice Ninja setup page.

Tip: ServerAvatar provides a one-click solution for installing an SSL certificate on your domain. To install SSL, go to the application panel and click the SSL Certificate button to install automatic SSL in your application domain.