EasyEngine on AnyStack

How to setup Magento 2.1.7 with EasyEngine - Nginx & Redis-cache

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 20:49:00 +0000

If you have already setup redis-server for object-caching with WordPress, you are maybe looking for something more powerful to setup ? Magento 2 will be the perfect benchmark for your server. It’s an open source e-commerce software and content management system for e-commerce websites based on the PHP Zend Framework. Magento is compatible with the most advanced caching systems including Varnish, Memcached or Redis.

So in this tutorial, we will see how to setup Magento 2.1.7 with Nginx, php7, Mariadb and Redis-server using EasyEngine.

At first, you need a VPS with ubuntu/debian and at least 2GB RAM. In production, 4GB will be the minimum, when 8GB will be better.

Server setup & configuration

## install easyengine
wget -qO ee rt.cx/ee && bash ee

## install Nginx - php5.6 + php7 - Mariadb - phpmyadmin - redis - memcached
ee stack install --web --admin --php7 --redis

## create your domain vhost (--letsencrypt optional)
ee site create yourdomain.com --mysql --php7

## install php-intl for magento and unzip
apt-get update && apt-get install php7.0-intl unzip

Change the php configuration according to magento documentation :

## change php.ini settings for magento
nano /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini

max_execution_time = 1800
max_input_time = 1800
memory_limit = 4096M
post_max_size = 512M

## add the following lines after the extension declaration : [opcache]
opcache.enable=1
opcache.enable_cli=0
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=4
opcache.max_accelerated_files=20000
opcache.max_wasted_percentage=5
opcache.validate_timestamps=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=2
opcache.optimization_level=0xffffffff

## restart php7.0-fpm
service php7.0-fpm restart

Magento installation

We have already done almost all the server configuration. Now we have to download magento and to launch the installer.

Download it from the Magento website : https://magento.com/tech-resources/download

To upload it via sftp, set a password for the user www-data with the command

passwd www-data

Then allow shell access for www-data with the command :

usermod -s /bin/bash www-data

After that you will be able to use the sftp client of your choice and to upload the magento archive in your website folder with the correct permissions. If you are looking for a sftp client for Windows, I recommend you Cyberduck.

Then go into your website folder and unzip the magento archive.

cd /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs
unzip Magento-CE-2.1.6_sample_data-2017-03-29-04-34-51.zip

## set www-data as the owner of the directory and all magento files
cd .. 
chown -R www-data:www-data htdocs

But to be able to launch the installer with nginx, we have to edit the site configuration, for that we will use the nginx.conf.sample file included with magento.

I have edit this file with the correct settings for EasyEngine and you can download it here : magento.conf

You have just to upload this file in /var/www/yourdomain.com/conf/nginx, because with easyengine, all configurations files in this folder are automatically include in your website configuration.

Then edit your website configuration in /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com to look like :

server {

 server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
 set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs;

 access_log /var/log/nginx/yourdomain.com.access.log rt_cache;
 error_log /var/log/nginx/yourdomain.com.error.log;

 include /var/www/yourdomain.com/conf/nginx/*.conf;
}

Check your nginx configuration with the command nginx -t and apply it with service nginx reload

We can now launch the installation by reaching the domain with our browser

Just follow the step, and use the databases user credentials available in the file /var/www/yourdomain.com/ee-config.php

To run properly, Magento require to add some cronjobs. If you are already logged as www-data, you have just to use the command : crontab -e and to add the following lines. Just replace yourdomain.com with your real domain.

* * * * * php /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/bin/magento cron:run | grep -v "Ran jobs by schedule" >> /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/var/log/magento.cron.log
* * * * * php /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/update/cron.php >> /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/var/log/update.cron.log
* * * * * php /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/bin/magento setup:cron:run >> /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs/var/log/setup.cron.log

Some other useful command to get started with the magento cli

## deploy the magento sample data
php bin/magento sampledata:deploy

## upgrade your magento install
php bin/magento setup:upgrade

## Generates DI configuration after setup:upgrade
php bin/magento setup:di:compile

## clean magento cache
php bin/magento cache:clean

## backup magento
php bin/magento setup:backup

Your Magento instance is now running properly, but we want to make it faster. For that we will use redis for session storage and full-page caching. I let you read the Magento DevDocs to understand why Redis is better.

Use redis for session and page cache

So, to use Redis-server, there are no plugins like for WordPress, but we have just to edit the file app/etc/env.php and to set the correct settings to use redis for the session storage and the full page caching instead of files. You can use the following example : env.php

There are two blocks to add to use redis-server, it require to use a database for each block :

session caching

'session' => 
 array (
 'save' => 'redis',
 'redis' => 
 array (
	'host' => '127.0.0.1',
	'port' => '6379',
	'password' => '',
	'timeout' => '2.5',
	'persistent_identifier' => 'magento2:',
	'database' => '1',
	'compression_threshold' => '2048',
	'compression_library' => 'gzip',
	'log_level' => '1',
	'max_concurrency' => '6',
	'break_after_frontend' => '5',
	'break_after_adminhtml' => '30',
	'first_lifetime' => '600',
	'bot_first_lifetime' => '60',
	'bot_lifetime' => '7200',
	'disable_locking' => '0',
	'min_lifetime' => '60',
	'max_lifetime' => '2592000',
 ),

Full-page caching

'cache' =>
array(
 'frontend' =>
 array(
 'default' =>
 array(
 'backend' => 'Cm_Cache_Backend_Redis',
 'backend_options' =>
 array(
 'server' => '127.0.0.1',
 'port' => '6379',
 ),
 ),
 'page_cache' =>
 array(
 'backend' => 'Cm_Cache_Backend_Redis',
 'backend_options' =>
 array(
 'server' => '127.0.0.1',
 'port' => '6379',
 'database' => '3',
 'compress_data' => '0',
 ),
 ),
 ),
),

You can now refresh the Magento cache to make sure you are using Redis. You can also use EasyEngine to install phpRedisAdmin to see the redis databases with ee stack install --phpredisadmin

Multiple stores configuration

That’s one of the main feature of Magento, the ability to host several stores/websites on the same magento instance. At first you have to create a new website, store and store view in the Admin panel. For this part just follow the Magento Guide. Then create your additional nginx vhost with :

ee site create your2domain.com

And edit it to look like :

server {

 server_name your2domain.com www.your2domain.com;
 access_log /var/log/nginx/your2domain.com.access.log ;
 error_log /var/log/nginx/your2domain.com.error.log;

 set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/yourdomain.com/htdocs;

 index index.html index.htm;

 include /var/www/yourdomain.com/conf/nginx/*.conf;
}

You have to make sure you have included the same magento.conf file than for the main website. After that we have to use the Nginx map directive to pass the values of the Magento variables to nginx, so we will create a file map.conf in /etc/nginx/conf.d with the following content :

map $http_host $MAGE_RUN_CODE {
 yourdomain.com yourdomain-code;
 your2domain.com your2domain-code;
}

So if you want to add another store later, you will just have to create another vhost and to add a line in this file with the new domain and the associated website code. Then edit the file /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params and add the following line at the end :

fastcgi_param MAGE_RUN_TYPE website;
fastcgi_param MAGE_RUN_CODE $MAGE_RUN_CODE;

Reload nginx with nginx -t && service nginx reload and you can now check if your two stores are working properly.

If you have any issue to setup Magento with EasyEngine, post a reply on the Magento thread already available. I will answer to your questions.

Good bye WordPress - Welcome Ghost !

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 13:54:29 +0000

I’m using WordPress for few years now, but that’s always the same problem, WordPress require plugins to have some functionalities and plugins make WordPress running slower.

Even with an advanced caching system like redis, that’s always a lot of work to make wordpress running fast and safe.

So I have done some tests with Ghost using Docker, and it’s really the perfect blog solution for me, because it already include all the features needed to write an article. No need to look for a plugin to improve SEO or to install a caching system. You can write you articles in markdown, work with slack and use it as a team, and the theme system is really clean and lightweight.

But I can’t post this article without making a tutorial about Ghost.

1) Install NodeJs v4 LTS

wget https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x
chmod +x setup_4.x
./setup_4.x
apt-get install nodejs -y

2) Install Ghost

mkdir /var/www/ghost
cd /var/www/ghost
curl -L https://ghost.org/zip/ghost-latest.zip -o ghost.zip
unzip ghost.zip
npm install --production

3) Starting Ghost

npm start --production

Then you can access to your blog using http://localhost:2368/ghost/signup All the configuration can be found in the file config.js.

But as you can see, we have to use the port 2368 to access to Ghost. To fix that, the easiest is to use Nginx as reverse proxy. Let’s use easyengine !

## install easyengine
wget -qO ee rt.cx/ee && bash ee

## create a proxy with your domain
ee site create anystack.xyz --proxy=127.0.0.1:2368

Then you will be able to use your domain to access to ghost. Don’t forget to change your blog url in config.js. And if you want to run Ghost forever, so use forever …

npm install forever -g
## start ghost
NODE_ENV=production forever start index.js

## stop ghost
forever stop index.js

Last tips ? How to use Ghost with Nginx as reverse proxy with Cloudflare SSL. Go into you Cloudflare account and in the Crypto tabs, create your origin certificate.

Then create a first file yourdomain-pvkey.pem with the private key generated by Cloudflare. And another file yourdomain-crt.pem with the origin certificate from cloudflare but also the Cloudflare root certificate you can find here

Then your nginx conf for you domain should look like

server {

 server_name anystack.xyz;
 listen 443 ssl http2;
 ssl on;
 ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/anystack-crt.pem;
 ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/anystack-key.pem;
 access_log /var/log/nginx/dev.anystack.xyz.access.log rt_cache;
 error_log /var/log/nginx/dev.anystack.xyz.error.log;

 location / {
 proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
 proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
 proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
 proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:2368/;
 }

}

And if you want to add a redirect from http to a https, create a file yourdomain.com-ssl.conf in /etc/nginx/conf.d with

	server {
	listen 80;
	server_name anystack.xyz;
	return 301 https://anystack.xyz$request_uri;
}

How to use Nginx as reverse proxy with Docker

Sun, 04 Sep 2016 06:57:00 +0000

I have already write some articles about EasyEngine, and I’m really in love with this command line tool, because it make Nginx easier to use than Apache. But I haven’t talk about all functionality of EE yet. If it provide you the ability to setup a WordPress website easily, you can also use EasyEngine to create a vhost for a static html website … Or use Nginx as a reverse proxy !

And that make of EE the most complete tool available to use Nginx without having to read thousands of documentation pages to understand how to create a vhost. But don’t worry, this article will not only talk about this awesome tool which is EasyEngine.

I have used docker several times in the past, because it’s the fastest way to test an application without having to setup a VPS especially for that. But to run several Docker containers in a single VPS, it could quickly be a problem because some container provide you the ability to use a domain like WordPress for example. And some other will use directly your VPS IP and the port of your choice, which is not very friendly when your app is running on http://192.168.0.1:3000 …

That’s why we will use Nginx to act as a reverse proxy for our Docker containers, and we will be able to run several containers on the same server and to access them with the domain of our choice. So the first step is to install Docker. Don’t worry you should not need to read the documentation if you are using a VPS with a recent linux distribution and a kernel 3.13+

### install Docker with a single command on debian/ubuntu/centos
wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh

Docker is now running on your server ! So let’s install EasyEngine :

## Install EasyEngine Debian7/8 or Ubuntu 14.04/16.04 LTS
wget -qO ee rt.cx/ee && bash ee

So we have now Docker and EasyEngine installed and we can launch our first Docker App before routing it with Nginx. We will start with Rocket.Chat, a complete live chat solution to build a community or to provide live support.

## Launch MongoDB container 
docker run --name db -d mongo:3.0 --smallfiles

## Run Rocket.Chat linked to the db and expose port 3000
docker run --name rocketchat -p 3000:3000 --env ROOT_URL=http://localhost --link db -d rocket.chat

So you should be able to access to Rocket.Chat using http://YOUR-VPS-IP:3000. And to use Nginx as reverse proxy with your domain :

ee site create yourdomain.com --proxy=127.0.0.1:3000

That’s it ! You can now use http://yourdomain.com to access to Rocket.Chat

Some other apps to run with Nginx as reverse proxy :

## Hastebin
docker run --name redis -d redis
docker run --name hastebin -d -p 7777:7777 --link redis:redis -e STORAGE_HOST=redis rlister/hastebin

## Pasteboard
docker run --name pasteboard -e ORIGIN=mydomain.tld -e MAX=7 -v /srv/pasteboard/images:/pasteboard/public/storage -p 4000:4000 anthodingo/docker-pasteboard

New VPS for the Blog - Setup Guide

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 18:59:00 +0000

I was using a VPS with Plesk Onyx to host the Blog, but even with Redis in a Docker container to make it faster, it wasn’t enough …

So I have setup a small VPS on my dedicated server with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS using VMware vSphere 6. I will make another post about virtualization but in this post, we will talk only about the VPS setup with easyengine, which is really my favorite tool for WordPress setup. You can also read my first post about easyengine : Here

First step, easyengine install :

 wget -qO ee rt.cx/ee && bash ee

Then WordPress setup :

 ee site create anystack.xyz --wpredis --php7 --letsencrypt

And it’s already good for the server setup with nginx, php7, mariadb, redis-cache and let’s encrypt for the SSL. Check your DNS are pointing to your server before launching let’s encrypt or it will fail to setup the SSL certificate.

But the work is not finished yet, because I have to upload my database and my files to get my content back. For that i will need to have access to the database, so let’s do that with phpmyadmin :

 ee stack install --phpmyadmin

phpmyadmin is now available at http://my-server-ip:22222

Butt protected by an ACL, and to change the user and the password, you just have to use :

 ee secure --auth

And to have your login details for phpmyadmin :

 ee site info anystack.xyz

So I have now uploaded my database, and I need my files. But it’s not needed to install ftp. The easiest way to do, is to add a password to www-data and to allow sftp access :

 passwd www-data

And you will just have to replace /usr/sbin/nologin by /bin/bash in the file /etc/passwd. As FTP/SFTP client, I use Cyberduck which is the fastest client I have found, and you can use it for almost all protocol, including S3 storage at AWS or Google Drive.

After uploading my files, just have to purge the redis cache, and that’s already over.

Ubuntu - Blazing fast WordPress with Nginx php7 redis

Sun, 26 Jun 2016 00:37:00 +0000

You have buy a VPS to speed up WordPress, but you are using a control panel and it's not faster than before ? In this tutorial, you will learn how to setup a Blazing fast WordPress with Nginx php7 and redis cache.

This will require to use the the command linux via SSH. Yes I know, it's less user friendly than a control panel. But it will not require any resources after the install and we have an amazing tools to help us : EasyEngine

So, first we will talk about what we are going to install and why it will make WordPress faster.

Nginx : To pronounce "Engine X", it's the web server created in 2002, created to handle high traffic with a low memory footprint. And this is the reason which explain why Nginx is so popular at the moment. It can also be used as a reverse proxy or as a load-balancer, which means if you have few small VPS, you will be able to create a stable and reliable platform to host your website.

php7 : I will not explain what is the php but more about the difference between the 5.6 and the 7. It's the performance and there is nothing better than a small graphic to compare them. And WordPress is fully compatible with the latest version of php.

MariaDB : If you haven't already used it, MariaDB is a fork of Mysql from his creator, and it's an open-source solution which is currently faster than Mysql with a lower memory and processor footprint. So no need to hesitate, if you are still using msql, even in 5.7, it's time to move !

Redis : What is Redis ? It's a remote dictionary server, which will manage your database and store the values in the memory. It's a "NoSQL" solution as Redis can be used as a database by writing data on your ~~hard drive~~ SSD. For WordPress there is no faster solution as it will eliminate the queries to your database, and even if you are using Mariadb, it will be faster and using less resources.

But you are maybe thinking it will be very hard to configure all that stuff properly. No, you will be able to do it in less than 10 minutes ! Because we are going to use EasyEngine, the most powerful tools to create an optimized WordPress website.

It's a command line tool to create install and configure a complete web server with Nginx, PHP, MariaDB and Postfix in a single command. It also provide you the ability to manage properly your virtualhosts with Nginx and make it easy with simple command to use.

So to start you need a VPS with Ubuntu 14.04. EasyEngine is also compatible with debian 7/8 and Ubuntu 16.04. But as EE has been build at first for ubuntu, it's the most stable solution.

At first we need to install EasyEngine.

wget -qO ee rt.cx/ee && sudo bash ee

Done, EasyEngine is now ready to install what we need. So we are looking for WordPress with nginx, php7, redis and as it will not be harder, a SSL with let's encrypt. But you have the choice with EE :

A simple website for html :

ee site create example.com --html

A website with php :

ee site create example.com --php

A website with mysql :

ee site create example.com --mysql

A website with SSL by let's encrypt

ee site create example.com --letsencrypt

And for WordPress ? You just have to choose :

ee site create example.com --wp # install wordpress without any page caching

ee site create example.com --w3tc # install wordpress with w3-total-cache plugin

ee site create example.com --wpsc # install wordpress with whisp-super-cache plugin

ee site create example.com --wpfc # install wordpress + nginx fastcgi_cache

ee site create example.com --wpredis # install wordpress + nginx redis_cache

So for my example, I will use :

ee site create yourwebsite.com --wpredis --letsencrypt --php7

You will have to enter Yes to the EE questions, and yes your wordpress with redis php7 and SSL is already installed and configured. You also have two plugins in WordPress :

Nginx Helper to clear the cache
Redis Cache : To connect WordPress with Redis and to clear the cache

But you will maybe ask how you can connect to the database, what is the user of mysql and wordpress ? You can use a custom user during the install process by using

--user=admin and -pass=password to set WordPress login details.

But you can also look at the install log to find them as EE display it in the console :

nano /var/log/ee/install.log

To see all the commands available with the websites :

ee site

If you want to edit some default configuration (database, user etc) :

nano /etc/ee/ee.conf

By default EasyEngine create a backend access with all tools you can install with it (phpmyadmin, cache, php infos) at the address : http://yourserverIP:22222

To secure it properly just use :

ee secure --auth

It will ask you for a user and a password. You can edit it at anytime.

To edit the default port :

ee secure --port

And to get the mysql user of a website :

ee site info yoursite.com

So I recommend you to change the port of admin tools, and to install what you need in the following :

Adminer (phpmyadmin alternative )

ee stack install --adminer

phpMyAdmin :

ee stack install --phpmyadmin

phpAdminRedis (to manage data in cache) :

ee stack install --phpredisadmin

All the Admin tools (Adminer, phpMyAdmin, phpMemcachedAdmin, FastCGI cleanup script, OPcache, Webgrind, Anemometer) :

ee stack install --admin

You have to agree this tool is really awesome. And if you look to your memory usage using htop, you will see the difference with a control panel. Your website will be faster and you have the ability to edit your configuration or to add module when you want.

So to conclude this tutorial here the links you will need to understand perfectly EasyEngine and to use it for all your setup :

Leave a comment if you have any question !