How to host Mautic on Linode VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Mautic is a premier open-source marketing automation platform suitable for businesses of any scale. It provides essential tools for managing leads, emails, and campaigns, allowing users to automate and customize their marketing strategies. When considering hosting Mautic, deploying it on Linode is a dependable choice due to its scalable infrastructure with straightforward deployment options. ServerAvatar simplifies the deployment of the Mautic 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

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.

To host Mautic, a minimum configuration of 2-4 GB of RAM and 20-40 GB of disk space is required.

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

Auto-install Mautic with ServerAvatar

Step 1: Create a PHP application

Once you are on the server panel, access the Application tab from the sidebar.

Now by clicking the Create button, you’ll see the application creation form as the below image. Fill in the required details to create an application, including the Application Name, Primary Domain, and other PHP Settings.

Click the Create Application button.

Note that:

If you want to host Mautic CRM 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 hosting provider site, where you buy your domain. You can check your domain information with one click.

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.

Step 2: Auto-install Mautic application

From your application panel, access the Auto deploy tab from the sidebar. Now click the Mautic Auto install card like the below image.

It asks to enter Mautic application details in the form. The details include the following-

Admin credential

These details are used for logging in to your Mautic panel as an admin.

• First Name: Enter admin first name
• Last Name: Enter admin last name
• Username: Enter admin username
• Email:You will use this email if you forget your password or want to reset the password.
• Password: Enter admin password

PHP Settings

PHP Version: You can here change the PHP version for your Mautic installation.

Email Configuration

Mail from Name: The name seen when you send an email. Mail from email: The email address from which you send an email. Mail Username: Username of chosen SMTP credential Mail password: Password of chosen SMTP credential Mail port: 25 or 465, or 587 would be recommended for sending an email. Mail Host: Chosen SMTP hostname. For example, smtp.pepipost.com.

After filling up all the details, click the Install Now button.

Step 3: Install SSL Certificate

You can install SSL for your website using just one click. On the application panel, click on the SSL Certificates tab from the sidebar.

You can also use a custom installation method to install SSL certificates. After installing the SSL, check the box Force HTTP to HTTPS to secure the communication between your browser and the website.

Once you are done, access the Application URL on your browser. It redirects to the admin login page. Enter admin credentials to log in to your Mautic admin panel.

And that’s it. You can now use Mautic to create a strong marketing strategy for your business.