OpenCart Server Deployment Overview¶

Prerequisites¶

The following system parameters and settings are required for the application to function correctly:

Operating System: Debian, Ubuntu, or RedHat family distributions (CentOS, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux).
Access Rights: Superuser (root) privileges to install system packages and manage services.
Ports:
80 — used by the Certbot Docker container for domain ownership validation.
443 — external port for HTTPS traffic.
8080 — internal web server port (Apache/httpd), which receives proxied traffic.

FQDN of the final panel on hostkey.in domain¶

The domain template is formed as follows:

Parameter	Value
Prefix	`opencart`
Domain	`hostkey.in`
Full Template	`opencart{Server_ID_from_Invapi}.hostkey.in/opencart`

File and Directory Structure¶

The following directories are created and used during the deployment process:

/root/opencart/ — application source files downloaded from the GitHub repository.
/var/www/html/opencart/ — web application working directory.
/root/nginx/ — Docker Compose configuration files for the proxy server.
/data/nginx/user_conf.d/ — custom Nginx configurations.
/data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env — environment variables file for the Certbot container.

Application Installation Process¶

Deployment is performed by cloning the OpenCart repository (branch 3.0.x.x) and configuring the web server. The main stages include:

Installing system dependencies (PHP, MySQL, Apache/httpd).
Cloning the source code from GitHub to /root/opencart/.
Copying application files to /var/www/html/opencart/.
Renaming configuration files from config-dist.php to config.php (including the admin directory).
Configuring the web server to listen on the internal port to ensure SSL operation via proxy.

Access Rights and Security¶

Web Server User: All files in /var/www/html/opencart belong to the www-data user (in Debian/Ubuntu) or apache (in RedHat).
Firewall:
In RedHat-based systems, ports 80/tcp and 443/tcp are opened automatically.
Network Security: The IPv6 protocol is disabled (net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1) to prevent network interaction conflicts.

Databases¶

The application uses a local MySQL database management system:

Database Name: opencart
DB User: opencart
Access Rights: Full privileges (ALL) on the opencart database.
Storage Location: Local MySQL/MariaDB instance installed in the operating system.

Docker Containers and Execution¶

A container with automatic Let's Encrypt certificate renewal is used to ensure HTTPS operation.

Nginx Certbot Container:

Image Name: jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest
Ports: Uses network_mode: host.
Volumes:
nginx_secrets:/etc/letsencrypt — certificate storage.
/data/nginx/user_conf.d:/etc/nginx/user_conf.d — custom proxy configurations.
Environment Variables:
CERTBOT_EMAIL: email address for Let's Encrypt notifications (default is [email protected]).
Restart Policy: unless-stopped.

Application Update Instructions¶

Updates are performed by updating the configuration and restarting containers:

docker compose up -d --build

(Note: If changes involve system packages, standard OS update commands must be executed).

Permissions Settings¶

The following directory permissions are set to ensure correct web server operation:

/var/www — owner www-data/apache, recursive.
/var/www/html/opencart — access mode 0755.

Available Connection Ports¶

Port	Purpose
`443` (HTTPS)	Primary application access via secure connection
`80` (HTTP)	Used only within the system for certificate validation
`8080`	Internal Apache web server port

Starting and Stopping the Application¶

The proxy server container is managed from the /root/nginx directory:

Start:
```
docker compose up -d
```
Stop:
```
docker compose down
```

Proxy Servers¶

An nginx-certbot container is used as a Reverse Proxy. It accepts incoming HTTPS traffic on port 443 and forwards it to the local web server (Apache/httpd) running on port 8080 via HTTP protocol.