Installation

Before we start

This guide is tailored towards Supertools installations on DigitalOcean droplets. If you would like to install Supertools on another platform, please use the installation script as a template and adjust it to your needs.

If you run into any problems during this installation, please create an issue on GitHub and we'll help you out!

1. Create your Ubuntu droplet

Log into your control panel on digitalocean.com and create a new droplet.

Select the Ubuntu 16.04 x64 distribution with at least 2GB of RAM.

While your droplet is being created, head over to the networking tab and configure the DNS records of your Supertools-domain.

2. Setup DNS for your domain

Your domain can either be a top-level domain like example.com or a subdomain like supertools.example.com. In both cases, you need to create an A record for the main domain and an A record for wildcard subdomains.

Example – Supertools on top-level domain

A example.com
A *.example.com

Example – Supertools on subdomain

A supertools.example.com
A *.supertools.example.com

Make sure both A records are pointing to your newly created droplet.

3. Grab a DigitalOcean API key

The installation script for Supertools on DigitalOcean will automatically configure HTTPS for your Supertools server. It does this by leveraging acme.sh and LetsEncrypt. The DigitalOcean API key is used to automatically setup DNS records to verify your ownership of your domain.

You can create a new API key on DigitalOcean by clicking "API" in the sidebar and then the "Generate New Token" button. Copy this API key to a secure location, you'll need it in just a minute.

4. Install Supertools

Now that we have everything ready and configured, it's time to install Supertools. We've made it as easy as possible for you and created a comprehensive install-script that will get your production-ready Supertools instance setup in just a few minutes.

Here is what the install-script does on your server:

1. Create a user on the system called "git". This user does not have root access and will be running Supertools.
2. Disable root access via SSH
3. Create a user on the system called "stadmin". This user has root access and can be used by you to administer the system.
4. Install Node.js (Supertools is a Node.js app)
5. Install pm2 which will manage the Supertools process and the process of every app you deploy to Supertools
6. Setup git and Gitolite. Gitolite is used to enable secure deployments of apps via git push for authorized developers on your Supertools instance.
7. Install and configure NGINX with SSL
8. Configure the ufw firewall to allow OpenSSH and NGINX
9. Install and configure Supertools
10. Setup the system to auto-start Supertools in case of a reboot

Log into your server via SSH and execute the install script:

$ ssh root@supertools.example.com
$ bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maximilianschmitt/supertools/master/install.sh)

The script will ask you to provide a few things:

• Your domain (e.g. example.com)
• Your DigitalOcean API key
• Your desired Supertools username, email and password
• Your team's name

Once you've entered those details, let the script run. After it's finished, you're ready to use Supertools. 🎉

In the next article you'll learn how to create your first app on Supertools and add SSH keys so you can deploy apps via git push.