For installing nodeBB with Nginx reverse proxy you will need to install these components:

1. NodeJS
2. MongoDB
3. Git
4. NodeBB forum software
5. Nginx

We will install them one by one by configuring each one along the way.

For this tutorial, I will be using digitalocean’s 1 GB droplet at their Bangalore datacenter.

1. Installing NodeJS:

At this time the nodeBB team suggests we should install nodejs version 8 for nodeBB. Use these commands to install it

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash - 

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

After installing verify your nodejs and npm version:

node -v  
npm -v

You will get output like this:

2. Installing MongoDB:

We will be installing MongoDB version 3.6 in this tutorial. Use these steps to install:

2.1: Import public key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 2930ADAE8CAF5059EE73BB4B58712A2291FA4AD5

2.2: Create a list file for MongoDB:

echo "deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 ] https://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu xenial/mongodb-org/3.6 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.6.list

2.3: Reload local package database:

sudo apt-get update

2.4: Install MongoDB packages:

sudo apt-get install -y mongodb-org

Verify MongoDB version:

mongod --version

You will get output like this: 

2.5: Configure MongoDB:

2.5.1: Open mongo shell:

mongo

only if it fails to open shell then try this command and try the above command again to enter shell:

sudo service mongod restart

2.5.2: Switch to the built-in admin database:

use admin

2.5.3: Creating users and setting passwords:

Here we will create an administrative user for MongoDB, create a new database for nodeBB and create another user for this newly created database

2.5.3.1: Create an administrative user by using this command:

db.createUser( { user: "admin", pwd: "<Enter a secure password>", roles: [ { role: "readWriteAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }, { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ] } )

*replace <Enter a secure password> with your chosen password.

2.5.3.2: Create new database for nodeBB by using this command:

use nodebb

Now create user and password for this new database. This will be used to install nodebb.

db.createUser( { user: "nodebb", pwd: "<Enter a secure password>", roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "nodebb" }, { role: "clusterMonitor", db: "admin" } ] } )

*again replace <Enter a secure password> with your chosen password.

2.5.4: Exit mongo shell:

quit()

The screen should look like this:

2.5.5: Enable database authorization in the MongoDB configuration file:

Edit MongoDB config file by using nano:

nano /etc/mongod.conf

Move the cursor to the bottom of the file and paste these lines:

security: 
    authorization: enabled

remember indentation in configuration files matter. If indentations are the wrong MongoDB will fail to restart.

Your screen should look like this:

Now

press ctrl + O then enter to save

press ctrl + X to exit nano

2.5.6: Restart MongoDB

sudo systemctl restart mongod

2.5.7: Verify the administrative user created earlier can connect:

mongo -u admin -p your_password --authenticationDatabase=admin

if everything is good you will see a screen like this:

Quit MongoDB shell by using

quit()

3. Install Git:

This is a short and simple step. Just run this command:

sudo apt-get install -y git

There are chances git is already installed on your system. In either case move to the next step.

4. Install NodeBB:

Make a directory for web content:

mkdir /var/www

Go to the newly created directory by using:

cd /var/www

Clone nodeBB in this directory by this command:

git clone -b v1.9.3 https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git nodebb

*replace v1.9.3 with the latest version listed here.

Enter NodeBB directory with

cd nodebb

Initiate the installation by using this command:

./nodebb setup

This will install modules from npm and then enter the setup utility.

You will be asked a few questions regarding the database and the username password. Most of the default options will do. You will need to enter the username and password we set in step 2.5.3.2 that is the name of the username and password for the nodebb database we created.

After the database setup, it will ask for the credentials for the admin user for the new forum.

Don’t get confused. Your setup screen will look like this. I have marked the places where you will need to enter information with arrows. For the rest of the places just hit enter.

This will install the NodeBB.

Now start NodeBB by this command:

./nodebb start

Now you can view your freshly installed nodeBB forum in the browser by going to address:

http://your.server.ip.address:4567

*Replace the red text with your server’s IP address.

Here 4567 is the port number.

You will see your new forum like this:

5. Installing Nginx

In this step, we will install the Nginx web server and configure it so that you can access the forum using your domain name.

5.1: Add Nginx repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nginx/stable

Hit enter when it asks.

5.2: Update the local package database and install Nginx:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y nginx

Nginx is now installed. Verify it by using the command:

nginx -v

it will give something like this:

Start Nginx by using this command:

sudo systemctl start nginx

5.3: Configure Nginx:

Go to Nginx sites-available directory

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available

create a new configuration file using this command:

sudo nano forum.example.com

*Change forum.example.com with your domain name.

Paste this configuration

server {
    listen 80;

    server_name forum.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;

        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567;
        proxy_redirect off;

        # Socket.IO Support
         proxy_http_version 1.1;
         proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
         proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

*Again change the forum.example.com with your domain name. Your configuration file should look like this:

press ctrl + O then enter to save

press ctrl + X to exit nano

Now enter this command to go to sites-enabled directory:

cd ../sites-enabled

now link the configuration file from here:

sudo ln -s ../sites-available/forum.example.com

Reload Nginx by this:

sudo systemctl reload nginx

Now you can see your forum by entering your domain in a browser.

Just one last little thing to do to fix frequent disconnection error.

Go to nodebb directory:

cd /var/www/nodebb

Open config.json in nano

nano config.json

Change the localhost:4567 with your domain name. It should look like this:

Enter your domain name where I have put http://forum.installing.in. Do not delete the parentheses(“”)

press ctrl + O then enter to save

press ctrl + X to exit nano

restart nodeBB by:

./nodebb restart

If all went well you will now have a fully functional ubuntu + nodeBB + Nginx setup. Visit your forum by entering your domain in a browser and you can log in as administrator by using the username password we set in the setup process.

Enjoy your new nodeBB forum 🙂

If you have any questions do let me know in the comments below.

The post How to install nodeBB on Ubuntu 16.04 appeared first on Installing.in.

In this series:

• How to Install NodeBB on Ubuntu 14.04  (Previous)
• How to install Letsencrypt with NobeBB and Nginx (This tutorial)
• How to Set up Letsencrypt Auto Renewal (Later)

Steps you need to follow:

1. Install nodeBB forum
2. Install nginx server
3. Install letsencrypt client
4. Obtain letsencrypt SSL certificate
5. Configure nginx to to use the SSL certificate

For first and second steps see this tutorial –>How to Install NodeBB on Ubuntu 14.04.

Install Letsencrypt client:

Currently best way to install letsencrypt on ubuntu is to clone letsencrypt repository from github. So we will first install git and bc on our system.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y install git bc

Now clone letsencrypt repository

sudo git clone https://github.com/letsencrypt/letsencrypt /opt/letsencrypt

You can find copy of letsencrypt repository in the /opt/letsencrypt folder.

You have successfully installed letsencrypt client on your system.

Obtain letsencrypt SSL certificate:

We will be using Webroot plugin to obtain SSL certificate.

Webroot plugin works by placing a special file in the /.well-known directory within your document root, which letsencrypt will open for validation. You need to allow access to this /.well-known directory.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

inside the nodebb server block we created in last tutorial add this location block:

 location ~ /.well-known {
          allow all;
 }

press ctrl+O then enter to save

press ctrl+x to exit

Reload nginx to load the new configuration.

sudo service nginx reload

Now that we have done the initial setup it’s time to obtain the actual certificate.

Go to letsencrypt  client directory by entering this command:

cd /opt/letsencrypt

Run this command to obtain certificate for your domain  (replace red text with your domain):

./letsencrypt-auto certonly -a webroot --webroot-path=/usr/share/nginx/html -d example.com -d www.example.com

You will be prompted for some information. Exact prompts depends on whether you have used letsencrypt earlier on your system or not.

It will ask for your email address which will be used for notices and lost key recovery.

You will need to agree to Letsencrypt terms of service.

if everything goes successfully you will see something like this:

Note the path of your certificate. this is needed in next step.

Configure nginx to to use the SSL certificate:

Now we need to edit the nginx configuration so nginx uses the freshly generated SSL certificate to serve our nodeBB forum over https connection.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Delete the server block we created in last tutorial and replace it with the code block below.

Replace with your domain where marked red.

server {
listen 80;
 server_name example.com www.example.com;
 return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
server {
 listen 443 ssl;
 server_name example.com www.example.com;
 ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
 ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
 location / {
 proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
 proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
 proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
 proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
 proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567/;
 proxy_redirect off;
 # Socket.IO Support
 proxy_http_version 1.1;
 proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
 proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
 }
 location ~ /.well-known {
 allow all;
 }
}

It should look like this:

Now reload nginx to put changes into effect.

sudo service nginx reload

Check your forum by visiting it using https

https://www.example.com

Thats it. Hope it help

Next in series:

• How to Set up Letsencrypt Auto Renewal

The post How to install Letsencrypt with NobeBB and Nginx appeared first on Installing.in.

NodeBB is a modern style forum software built on latest technologies like NodeJS, Redis and MongoDB. So you will not be able to install it on common cPanel based shared hosting. You will need a VPS or Dedicated server of your own to install it. If you haven’t already got an server I suggest you go to digitalocean(use this link to signup and you will get $10 to test with) and create a VPS.

In this series:

• How to Install NodeBB on Ubuntu 14.04  (This page)
• How to install Letsencrypt with NobeBB and Nginx (Next)
• How to Set up Letsencrypt Auto Renewal (Later)

For this tutorial I am starting with a digitalocean 1 GB RAM server at New york.

Here are the steps:

Install LTS version of Node.js using these command:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -

Above command will add nodejs repository.

Install nodejs by executing this command:

apt-get install nodejs

Install MongoDB database server

Install MongoDB server by issuing this command:

sudo apt-get install -y git nodejs mongodb build-essential

Install NodeBB

You can Install nodeBB anywhere you like. Here we will make a directory in /var/www/ :

mkdir /var/www

Now cd into that directory:

cd /var/www

Clone nodeBB in this directory by this command:

git clone -b v1.9.3 https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git nodebb

replace v1.9.3 with the latest version listed here. Above command will clone the nodebb files in ‘nodebb’ directory. Install all the nodeBB dependencies by this command:

cd nodebb

npm install --production

Start nodeBB web Installer:

npm start

Open the web Installer by going to http://yourip:4567 or http://example.com:4567. For example if you are installing it on local machine your address will be http://127.0.0.1:4567.

Finish the web Installation

When you visit the proper address as shown above you will be presented with web interface with 2 sections. First section is for forum admins credentials. And second section is for database configuration: Enter you Administrator details in first section. In the second section select MongoDB from dropdown menu and leave other fields as it is and press ‘Install NodeBB’ button. I will install NodeBB and tell you when finished. Start your forum by issuing this command:

./nodebb start

Now you can see your website live on the same address i.e. http://yourip:4567 or http://example.com:4567.

By default nodeBB runs on port 4567 and it is generally advised that you should not run nodejs apps on port 80 as it is a security risk.

To get nodeBB running on port 80 or in normal language running it on http://example.com you need to setup nginx as your web proxy.

Configuring nginx

nodeBB requires nginx v1.3.13 or greater. Install nginx using this command:

apt-get install nginx

check your nginx version:

nginx -V

nginx served sites are contained in a server block. Add your server block in nginx configuration file by using this command:

nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

paste below server block at the top

  
 server {
    listen 80;
    server_name forum.example.org;
    location / {
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567/;
        proxy_redirect off;
        # Socket.IO Support
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

Change the server_name from ‘forum.example.org‘ to your domain name or your ip address. it should look like this: Now restart the nginx server:

service nginx restart

Now check your website at http://example.com or http://yourip. Configure and enjoy!

Next in series:

• How to install Letsencrypt with NobeBB and Nginx
• How to Set up Letsencrypt Auto Renewal

The post How to Install NodeBB on Ubuntu 14.04 appeared first on Installing.in.