In this tutorial we’ll see how to install CachetHQ on a Debian 7 (Wheezy) VPS with MariaDB, PHP-FPM and Nginx. CachetHQ makes it simple to create a status page for your application, service or network and it’s based on Laravel 4.2 framework. This guide should work on other Linux VPS systems as well but was tested and written for Debian 7 VPS.
Login to your VPS via SSH
ssh user@myVPS
Update the system and install necessary packages
user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-get install python-software-properties git curl openssl vim build-essential
Install MariaDB 10.0
user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xcbcb082a1bb943db user@myVPS:~# sudo add-apt-repository 'deb http://mirror.jmu.edu/pub/mariadb/repo/10.0/debian wheezy main' user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-get update user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-get install mariadb-server
When installation is complete, run the following command to secure your installation:
mysql_secure_installation
Next, we need to create a database for our CachetHQ instance.
mysql -uroot -p MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE cachet; MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cachet.* TO 'cachetuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'cachetuser_passwd'; MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; MariaDB [(none)]> \q
Install and configure PHP and Nginx
The latest version of Nginx 1.6.2 and PHP 5.6 are not available via the default Debian repositories, so we will add the Dotdeb repository. Open the /etc/apt/sources.list file and append the following lines:
user@myVPS:~# sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy all deb http://packages.dotdeb.org wheezy-php56 all
Next, fetch and install the GnuPG key:
user@myVPS:~# wget -qO - http://www.dotdeb.org/dotdeb.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
Update the system and install Nginx, PHP and all necessary extensions:
user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-get update user@myVPS:~# sudo apt-get install nginx php5-fpm php5-cli php5-mbstring php5-mcrypt php5-apcu
Install Composer
Composer is a dependency manager for PHP with which you can install packages. Composer will pull in all the required libraries and dependencies you need for your project.
user@myVPS:~# curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php user@myVPS:~# sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer
Install Node Gulp and Bower
user@myVPS:~# sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | bash - user@myVPS:~# apt-get install -y nodejs user@myVPS:~# npm install -g bower user@myVPS:~# npm install -g gulp
Install CachetHQ
Create a root directory for your application.
user@myVPS:~# mkdir -p ~/your_cachet_site
Clone the project repository from GitHub:
user@myVPS:~# git clone https://github.com/cachethq/Cachet.git ~/your_cachet_site user@myVPS:~# cd ~/your_cachet_site
Create a new production environment file:
user@myVPS:~# vim .env.php <?php return [ 'DB_DRIVER' => 'mysql', 'DB_HOST' => 'localhost', 'DB_DATABASE' => 'cachet', 'DB_USERNAME' => 'cachetuser', 'DB_PASSWORD' => 'cachetuser_passwd', ];
Install all dependencies:
user@myVPS:~# export ENV=production
user@myVPS:~# composer install --no-dev -o
Run database migrations and seed the database with sample data:
user@myVPS:~# php artisan migrate user@myVPS:~# php artisan db:seed
Build assets:
user@myVPS:~# npm install user@myVPS:~# bower install user@myVPS:~# gulp
Configure Nginx and PHP
Create a new PHP-FPM pool for your user:
user@myVPS:~# sudo nano /etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/your_user.conf
[your_user] user = your_user group = your_user listen = /var/run/php5-fpm-your_user.sock listen.owner = your_user listen.group = your_user listen.mode = 0666 pm = ondemand pm.max_children = 5 pm.process_idle_timeout = 10s; pm.max_requests = 200 chdir = /
Do not forget to change your_user with your username.
Restart PHP-FPM
user@myVPS:~# sudo service php5-fpm restart
Generate ssl certificate:
user@myVPS:~# sudo mkdir -p /etc/nginx/ssl user@myVPS:~# cd /etc/nginx/ssl user@myVPS:~# sudo openssl genrsa -des3 -passout pass:x -out cachet.pass.key 2048 user@myVPS:~# sudo openssl rsa -passin pass:x -in cachet.pass.key -out cachet.key user@myVPS:~# sudo rm cachet.pass.key user@myVPS:~# sudo openssl req -new -key cachet.key -out cachet.csr user@myVPS:~# sudo openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in cachet.csr -signkey cachet.key -out cachet.crt
Next, create a new Nginx server block:
user@myVPS:~# sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_cachet_site
server {
listen 443 default;
server_name your_cachet_site;
ssl on;
ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/cachet.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/cachet.key;
ssl_session_timeout 5m;
ssl_ciphers 'AES128+EECDH:AES128+EDH:!aNULL';
ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
root /home/your_user/your_cachet_site/public;
index index.html index.htm index.php;
charset utf-8;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
location = /robots.txt { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
access_log /var/log/nginx/cachet.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/cachet.error.log;
sendfile off;
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm-your_user.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_intercept_errors off;
fastcgi_buffer_size 16k;
fastcgi_buffers 4 16k;
fastcgi_param ENV "production";
}
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
}
server {
listen 80;
server_name your_cachet_site;
add_header Strict-Transport-Security max-age=2592000;
rewrite ^ https://$server_name$request_uri? permanent;
}
Do not forget to change your_user with your username.
Activate the server block by creating a symbolic link and restart nginx:
user@myVPS:~# sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/your_cachet_site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/your_cachet_site user@myVPS:~# sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
That’s it. You have successfully installed CachetHQ on your Debian Wheezy VPS. For more information about CachetHQ ,please refer to the CachetHQ website.
Of course you don’t have to do any of this if you use one of our Linux VPS Hosting services, in which case you can simply ask our expert Linux admins to setup this for you. They are available 24×7 and will take care of your request immediately.
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