Deployment Overview of Strapi on Server¶

Prerequisites and Basic Requirements¶

To ensure a successful deployment, the following requirements must be met:

• Operating System: Ubuntu.

• Privileges: Root or sudo access is required for installing Docker and managing system directories.

• Network/Ports:

• 1337: Internal application port.

• 5432: Database connection port.

• 80 / 443: Standard HTTP/HTTPS ports (managed via Nginx).

FQDN of the final panel on the hostkey.in domain¶

The access URL for the administration panel is determined by the following template:

File and Directory Structure¶

The application uses the following directory structure for configuration and data persistence:

• /opt/strapi: Main application volume for Strapi data.

• /var/lib/postgresql/data: Persistent storage for the PostgreSQL database.

• /root/nginx: Configuration directory for the Nginx reverse proxy.

• /data/nginx/user_conf.d: Custom Nginx configuration files.

• /data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env: Environment variables for SSL certificate management.

Application Installation Process¶

The application is deployed using a combination of Docker containers and system directory setup:

1. System Preparation: The installer creates the necessary directories on the host, specifically /opt/strapi with ownership set to user 1000.

2. Network Setup: A dedicated Docker network named strapi_network is created to facilitate communication between the application and the database.

3. Database Deployment: A PostgreSQL 15 container is initialized to serve as the backend storage.

4. Application Deployment: The Strapi application is deployed using the vshadbolt/strapi:latest Docker image. During this process, several security secrets (APP_KEYS, JWT_SECRET, etc.) are automatically generated and injected into the environment.

5. Proxy Configuration: An Nginx container is configured via Docker Compose to handle SSL termination and reverse proxying using Certbot for automated certificate management.

Access Rights and Security¶

• File Permissions: The application data directory (/opt/strapi) is restricted to UID/GID 1000.

• Network Isolation: The application and database communicate over a private Docker network (strapi_network).

• Reverse Proxy: Nginx acts as the entry point, securing the connection via SSL.

Databases¶

The application uses PostgreSQL for data persistence.

Docker Containers and Their Deployment¶

The deployment consists of the following containers:

PostgreSQL Container¶

• Image: postgres:15

• Container Name: strapi-db

• Restart Policy: always

• Networks: strapi_network

• Environment Variables:

• POSTGRES_DB: strapi

• POSTGRES_USER: strapi_user

• POSTGRES_PASSWORD: strapi_password

• Volumes: /var/lib/postgresql/data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

Strapi Container¶

• Image: vshadbolt/strapi:latest

• Container Name: strapi

• Restart Policy: always

• Networks: strapi_network

• Environment Variables:

• NODE_ENV: production

• DATABASE_CLIENT: postgres

• DATABASE_HOST: strapi-db

• DATABASE_PORT: 5432

• (Various auto-generated security tokens)

• Volumes: /opt/strapi:/srv/app

Nginx Container¶

• Image: jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest

• Restart Policy: unless-stopped

• Network Mode: host

• Environment Variables:

• CERTBOT_EMAIL: [email protected]

• Volumes:

• nginx_secrets:/etc/letsencrypt

• /data/nginx/user_conf.d:/etc/nginx/user_conf.d

Application Update Instructions¶

To update the Strapi application, perform the following steps:

1. Navigate to the directory containing the deployment files (if applicable).

2. Pull the latest image and restart the service:

   docker compose pull && docker compose up -d