/dokku-digitalocean-setup

Guide to set up Dokku with Digitalocean from scratch

Set up digitalocean droplet

  1. Select plan eg Ubuntu, basic
  2. Click on 'Add public SSH key'
    1. Create new SSH key with ssh-keygen and save to /Users/USER/.ssh
    2. Paste contents of public key into field and name your key

Set up environment on linux

Follow docs

  1. Install Dokku
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dokku/dokku/v0.24.10/bootstrap.sh;
sudo DOKKU_TAG=v0.24.10 bash bootstrap.sh
  1. Go to server's IP address and finish set up for Dokku
open http://<SERVER_IP>

Set up key on local machine

  1. Open Git Bash and go to ssh folder
cd ~/.ssh
  1. In config file (create one if not found), write:
#account- dokku
Host <SERVER_IP_ADDRESS>
 HostName <SERVER_IP_ADDRESS>
 IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_NAME>

Create Node.js app

  1. Create express app that listens on port 4000

  2. Create Dockerfile

FROM node:15
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json .
RUN npm install
COPY . .
ENV PORT 4000
CMD ["node", "./index.js"]

Set up domain on Namecheap (or another provider)

  1. Purchase domain on namecheap
  2. On digitalocean, go to Networking > your app > Manage
  3. On namecheap, go to Dashboard > your domain > Manage > Nameservers > select Custom DNS
  4. Copy nameservers from digitalocean panel to namecheap's custom DNS
ns1.digitalocean.com.
ns2.digitalocean.com.
ns3.digitalocean.com.
  1. Wait a few hours for it to be set

Create dokku application on server

SSH into server

ssh root@<SERVER_IP>

Create dokku app

dokku apps:create <APP_NAME>

(Optional) Set env vars

dokku config:set <APP_NAME> KEY1=VALUE1 KEY2=VALUE2

Configure dokku application on server

Configure domain

dokku domains:add <APP_NAME> <DOMAIN_NAME>

Check if domain is set

dokku domains:report

Remove old hostname

dokku domains:remove <APP_NAME> <APP_NAME>.dokku-s-1vcpu-1gb-fra1-01

TLS/SSL certificates

dokku plugin:install https://github.com/dokku/dokku-letsencrypt.git

Map container port from 80 to 4000

dokku proxy:ports-add <APP_NAME> http:80:<CONTAINER_PORT>

Config Letsencrypt email

dokku config:set --no-restart <APP_NAME> DOKKU_LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=<EMAIL>

Enable Letsencrypt

dokku letsencrypt:enable <APP_NAME>

Deploy application

On local machine

git remote add dokku dokku@<SERVER_IP>:<APP_NAME>

Push to master

git push dokku master