OpenCart Deployment Overview¶

Prerequisites¶

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

Operating System: Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Rocky Linux, or AlmaLinux.
Access Rights: Full root access is required to perform the installation.
Ports:
80/tcp — HTTP (used for certificate validation).
443/tcp — HTTPS (main traffic).
8080 — Internal Apache web server port.

FQDN of the final panel on hostkey.in domain¶

A dynamic subdomain template is used to access the application:

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

File and Directory Structure¶

Main paths to files and directories in the system:

/var/www/html/opencart — OpenCart application root directory.
/root/opencart — Temporary directory containing source code from the repository.
/root/nginx — Docker Compose configuration files for Nginx.
/data/nginx/user_conf.d — Custom Nginx configurations (including proxying).
/data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env — Environment variables file for the Nginx container.

Application Installation Process¶

Deployment is performed by cloning the OpenCart repository (branch 3.0.x.x) and configuring the web server.

Main stages:

Installation of system dependencies (PHP, MySQL, Apache/httpd, Git).
Cloning 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 Apache web server to run on internal port 8080.

Access Rights and Security¶

Security is provided by the following mechanisms:

Firewall: Only necessary ports 80 and 443 are open. firewalld is used in RedHat-family systems.
File Ownership:
For Debian/Ubuntu: user www-data.
For RHEL/CentOS/AlmaLinux: user apache.
Directory Permissions: Mode 0755 is set for application directories.

Databases¶

A database and a user with limited privileges are created for OpenCart operation:

Parameter	Value
Database Name	`opencart`
Username	`opencart`
Access Rights	All privileges (`ALL`) on database `opencart.*`

Docker Containers and Execution¶

The Nginx container with the Certbot module is used to manage SSL certificates.

Container: nginx

Image: jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest
Network Mode: host
Ports: Uses host ports (80, 443).
Volumes:
nginx_secrets:/etc/letsencrypt — Certificate storage.
/data/nginx/user_conf.d:/etc/nginx/user_conf.d — Proxy configurations.
Environment Variables:
CERTBOT_EMAIL: Email for Let's Encrypt registration.
Restart Policy: unless-stopped.

Application Update Instructions¶

Updates are performed by updating the configuration and restarting containers: docker compose pull && docker compose up -d (in directory /root/nginx).

Permission Settings¶

File permissions are set as follows:

The system web server user (www-data or apache) is the owner of directories /var/www/html/opencart and /var/www.
Ownership is applied recursively to ensure the web server has access to application files.

Configuration Files and Data Location¶

OpenCart configuration includes:

Main file: /var/www/html/opencart/config.php.
Admin file: /var/www/html/opencart/admin/config.php.

Available Connection Ports¶

Port	Protocol	Purpose
`80`	TCP	HTTP (for certificate validation)
`443`	TCP	HTTPS (main site access)
`8080`	TCP	Internal Apache port (local)

Starting and Stopping the Application¶

Managing the Nginx-Certbot container:

Start: docker compose up -d (from /root/nginx).
Reload Nginx Configuration: docker compose exec -T nginx nginx -s reload.
Stop: docker compose down.

Proxy Servers¶

The nginx-certbot container is used as a reverse proxy.

Proxy settings:

The Host header is passed for correct OpenCart redirects.
The X-Forwarded-Proto header is passed with the value $scheme so that PHP understands the request arrived via HTTPS.