Traditional Installation (VPS)¶

This guide provides assistance for traditional server installation of FormFiller.

Prerequisites¶

Linux server (Ubuntu 20.04+ recommended)
Root or sudo access
Domain name
SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt recommended)

Server Preparation¶

1. Update Packages¶

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install Node.js¶

# Add NodeSource repo
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -

# Install Node.js
sudo apt install -y nodejs

# Verify
node --version  # v18.x.x
npm --version

3. Install MongoDB¶

# MongoDB GPG key
curl -fsSL https://pgp.mongodb.com/server-7.0.asc | \
   sudo gpg -o /usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg --dearmor

# Add repository
echo "deb [ signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mongodb-server-7.0.gpg ] http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/ubuntu jammy/mongodb-org/7.0 multiverse" | \
   sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-7.0.list

# Install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y mongodb-org

# Start and enable
sudo systemctl start mongod
sudo systemctl enable mongod

4. Install Nginx¶

sudo apt install -y nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

5. Install PM2¶

sudo npm install -g pm2

Backend Installation¶

1. Download Code¶

cd /var/www
git clone <repo-url>/formfiller-backend
cd formfiller-backend

2. Install Dependencies¶

npm install

3. Environment Variables¶

cp env.example .env
nano .env

Important settings:

NODE_ENV=production
PORT=3001
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/formfiller
JWT_SECRET=<generated-secret-key>
SESSION_SECRET=<generated-secret-key>
FRONTEND_URL=https://yourdomain.com

Generate secret key:

openssl rand -base64 32

4. Build and Start¶

# Build
npm run build

# Start with PM2
pm2 start ecosystem.config.js

# Setup auto-start
pm2 startup
pm2 save

Frontend Installation¶

1. Download Code¶

cd /var/www
git clone <repo-url>/formfiller-frontend
cd formfiller-frontend

2. Dependencies and Build¶

npm install

# Environment variables
echo "VITE_API_URL=https://api.yourdomain.com" > .env.production

# Build
npm run build

3. Move Build Files¶

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/formfiller
sudo cp -r dist/* /var/www/html/formfiller/

Nginx Configuration¶

Backend (API)¶

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/formfiller-api

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name api.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/api.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/api.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3001;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        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_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Frontend¶

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

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    root /var/www/html/formfiller;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html;
    }

    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg|woff|woff2)$ {
        expires 1y;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Activation¶

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/formfiller /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/formfiller-api /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

SSL Certificate (Let's Encrypt)¶

# Install Certbot
sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Obtain certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d api.yourdomain.com

# Test auto-renewal
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

MongoDB Security¶

Enable Authentication¶

# MongoDB shell
mongosh

# Create admin user
use admin
db.createUser({
  user: "admin",
  pwd: "secure-password",
  roles: ["root"]
})

# Application user
use formfiller
db.createUser({
  user: "formfiller",
  pwd: "secure-password",
  roles: ["readWrite"]
})

# MongoDB configuration
sudo nano /etc/mongod.conf

security:
  authorization: enabled

sudo systemctl restart mongod

Update the .env file:

MONGODB_URI=mongodb://formfiller:secure-password@localhost:27017/formfiller

Firewall Setup¶

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp    # SSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp    # HTTP
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp   # HTTPS
sudo ufw enable

Monitoring¶

PM2 Monitoring¶

# Status
pm2 status

# Logs
pm2 logs

# Monitoring dashboard
pm2 monit

Nginx Logs¶

# Access log
tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log

# Error log
tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

Updates¶

Backend Update¶

cd /var/www/formfiller-backend
git pull
npm install
npm run build
pm2 restart all

Frontend Update¶

cd /var/www/formfiller-frontend
git pull
npm install
npm run build
sudo cp -r dist/* /var/www/html/formfiller/

Backup¶

MongoDB Backup¶

# Create backup
mongodump --uri="mongodb://localhost:27017/formfiller" --out=/backup/$(date +%Y%m%d)

# Cron job for daily backup
echo "0 2 * * * mongodump --uri='mongodb://localhost:27017/formfiller' --out=/backup/\$(date +\%Y\%m\%d)" | sudo crontab -

Restore¶

mongorestore --uri="mongodb://localhost:27017/formfiller" /backup/20240101/formfiller