How to host Uptime Kuma on AWS Lightsail VM Instance

Uptime Kuma is an open-source, self-hosted monitoring tool designed to keep track of your services and their availability. It enables organizations to effectively monitor and optimize website uptime, performance metrics, and server health. When selecting a hosting solution for Uptime Kuma, AWS Lightsail stands out as a reliable option with scalable infrastructure and simple deployment solutions. ServerAvatar makes the deployment of the Uptime Kuma application on the AWS Lightsail platform straightforward through a simplified process.

NOTE: To install the Node.js applications (UptimeKuma), you must have the MERN stack installed on your Server.

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.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 1

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.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 2

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.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 3

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.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 4

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 minimum requirements for hosting Uptime Kuma are 1GB or more of RAM for handling more extensive monitoring tasks and 1GB or more of disk space to accommodate the application, logs, and data. The exact amount will depend on your usage and data storage needs. Select the plan based on the complexity and traffic of your sites.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 5

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.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 6

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.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail - Step 7

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.

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, OpenLiteSpeed or Node Stack.
Select a Database: MySQL, MariaDB or MongoDB.
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-
1. AWS Lightsail
2. Vultr
3. Digitalocean
4. Linode
5. Hetzner

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, OpenLiteSpeed or Node Stack. 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.

Deploy Self-Hosted Monitoring Tool Uptime Kuma on Cloud using ServerAvatar

Note: You must have a Server connected in Node Stack.

What is Uptime Kuma?

Uptime Kuma is a tool that helps you keep track of whether your websites or servers are up and running smoothly. It's free and can be hosted on your own servers or in the cloud. With Uptime Kuma, you can monitor things like website responses, specific keywords on pages, or basic network services. If something goes wrong, it can alert you through different channels. In simple terms, it's like having a personal watchdog for your online presence.

This guide will walk you through how to install the self-hosted monitoring tool UptimeKuma with ServerAvatar.

Features Of Uptime Kuma

Monitoring uptime for HTTP(s) / TCP / HTTP(s) Keyword / HTTP(s) Json Query / Ping / DNS Record / Push / Steam Game Server / Docker Containers
Fancy, Reactive, Fast UI/UX
Notifications via Telegram, Discord, Gotify, Slack, Pushover, Email (SMTP), and 90+ notification services, click here for the full list
20-second intervals
Multi Languages
Multiple status pages
Map status pages to specific domains
Ping chart
Certificate info
Proxy support
2FA support

Prerequisites

Node.js (v18 / v20.4)
NPM (v9)
Pm2

Step 1: Create An Application

On the ServerAvatar server panel, navigate to the Applications tab and click the Create button like the following image.