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Rank and Rent Part 6 Transfer Domain Records from Namecheap to Linode, add Website on NGINX Web Server and Generate Letsencrypt SSL Certificate

Published: Updated: Seo en
Table of Content
  1. Introduction
  2. Transfer domain record management from registrar to cloud hosting Linode
  3. Serve a new website from a setup (i.e. pre-setup, already set up, running) NGINX web server
  4. Step 1: Clone the Node.JS and Express.js project from GitHub and run the app under PM2
  5. Step 2: Setting Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy Server
  6. Step 3: Generate the letsencrypt certificates, adjust the server block file, re-run the PM2 instance
  7. Next steps
  8. Appendice

Introduction

After registering the domain and linking it to my hosting provider's server, Linode, we can now proceed and finish the settings on my Linode server.

We are going to transfer the management of the domain records from Namecheap, where we bought the domain, to Linode.

Transfer domain record management from registrar to cloud hosting Linode

To do so, first we click on the "Domains" on the left nav bar:

Linode dashboard showing the sidebar with various options including Linodes, Volumes, NodeBalancers, VPC, Firewalls, StackScripts, Images, Placement Groups, and Domains. The main screen displays CPU usage analytics over the last 24 hours, and a red arrow points to the 'Domains' option in the sidebar. Linode dashboard showing the sidebar with various options including Linodes, Volumes, NodeBalancers, VPC, Firewalls, StackScripts, Images, Placement Groups, and Domains. The main screen displays CPU usage analytics over the last 24 hours, and a red arrow points to the 'Domains' option in the sidebar.

Then, on the top right, click "Create Domain".

Linode dashboard displaying the 'Linodes' section with a running Linode labeled 'ubuntu' under the 'Nanode 1 GB' plan. A red arrow points to the 'Create Linode' button on the right side of the screen. Linode dashboard displaying the 'Linodes' section with a running Linode labeled 'ubuntu' under the 'Nanode 1 GB' plan. A red arrow points to the 'Create Linode' button on the right side of the screen.

We then filled out the form with the new domain name we had just bought "drywallkingston.com".

We added an associated email that we used when we purchased the domain from Namecheap.

If you want to learn how to buy a domain off Namecheap and how to associate the Linode server hosting with the new domain, you can read this article: Rank And Rent Part 3 Buying Domain From Namecheap And Linode Hosting.

Under the "Insert Default Records," make sure to select the "Insert default records from one of my Linodes."

Then, select the "Linode" on which you want the domain to be running.

Linode dashboard showing the 'Create Domain' screen. The form fields include Domain (drywallkingston.com), SOA Email Address (drywallkingston@outlook.com), and Linode (ubuntu). Red arrows point to the 'Create Domain' button and the Linode selection dropdown. Linode dashboard showing the 'Create Domain' screen. The form fields include Domain (drywallkingston.com), SOA Email Address (drywallkingston@outlook.com), and Linode (ubuntu). Red arrows point to the 'Create Domain' button and the Linode selection dropdown.

Once the form is filled, just click "Create Domain".

On the page allowing access to editing the domain's records, please ensure the IPv6 record is set and present under the A/AAAA Record in its standard and www version.

Linode dashboard displaying the DNS records for the domain 'drywallkingston.com'. The screen shows A/AAAA Records for 'drywallkingston.com' and 'www', both with IPv6 addresses. Red arrows point to the IPv6 addresses for these records. Linode dashboard displaying the DNS records for the domain 'drywallkingston.com'. The screen shows A/AAAA Records for 'drywallkingston.com' and 'www', both with IPv6 addresses. Red arrows point to the IPv6 addresses for these records.

Serve a new website from a setup (i.e. pre-setup, already set up, running) NGINX web server

Now that our domain is set up, we can SSH into our server instance and set up the NGINX web server to serve a new node and express process under PM2.

If you did not understand the phrase above, you can read more on the topic (i.e. Node.JS, express.js, web servers, NGINX) in this blog article: Projet Node JS. Translate the article into English before reading it using your browser settings.

To understand this tutorial from where I am operating, these are all the things I have already done on the server instance:

  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04
  • I have a non-root user with sudo privileges and an active firewall.
  • A domain name pointed at your server’s public IP.
  • Nginx installed on Ubuntu 20.04
  • Node.JS installed
  • PM2 installed
  • certbot python3-certbot-nginx installed
  • HTTPS firewall setup
  • MySQL is installed on the server with a database created

You can read more on how to set everything from scratch from these 2 blog articles:

All I am required to do to serve my new website "drywallkingston.com," is to:

  • Clone in the Node.js and express.js code from a remote repo hosted on GitHub.
  • Setting Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy Server through a new "server block"
  • Generate new letsencrypt certificates to serve the website under the HTTPS protocol
  • Edit the website's config file to redirect HTTP and serve the HTTPS version of the website.
  • Ensure the Node.js and express.js instance is running and managed under PM2.

Step 1: Clone the Node.JS and Express.js project from GitHub and run the app under PM2

We need the node express project running on localhost from our server.

Let's say we created a local project from our home computer. Follow this tutorial (Projet Node JS) to create a node express instance from barebone template code.

Let's say we edited the barebone node express home project to be capable of serving the "dryallkingston" website.

The "dryallkingston" website project has some particularities to keep in mind from its barebone template state:

  • A GitHub Actions CI/CD process script
  • .gitignore files and folders
  • A .env file with variables in it and set up on the development and production environment
  • A bunch of dependencies specified in the package.json file
  • Github actions secret variables are set up so the Github action CI/CD process script can work.
  • A connection to a local and remote MySQL database is specified.
  • A pre-commit that generates the dump file from the local database and adds it to the commit.
  • A robot.txt file

The CI/CD process does the following.

  • Deletes the package-lock.json, node_modules, and sequelize models
  • Pulls the fresh code out of the GitHub origin that was just pushed.
  • Re-install all the needed dependencies.
  • Loads the dump file and edits (i.e. from the local home computer) onto the remote database (i.e. local to remote migration)
  • Generation of new models from the refreshed database schema and data.
  • PM2 restart of the node express instance.

We then push the code onto a GitHub repository.

From the Linode server that we SSH to, we can then clone this repository using the flowing command:

git clone https://github.com/ZouhirBensm/[name].git

Once the project is cloned and .env prod variables are set up, we can now run the localhost instance on the server under PM2.

pm2 start drywallkingston.js

Step 2: Setting Up Nginx as a Reverse Proxy Server

Under

/etc/nginx/sites-available/

On the server, we can create the website file "server block." To do so, run this:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/[domain].com sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/[domain].com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

You can place this temporary content within this file to serve the website on the Internet under HTTP.

server { listen 80 default_server; listen [::]:80 default_server; server_name your_domain.com www.your_domain.com; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:[port]; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade'; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade; } # Optional: Serve static files location /static/ { alias /path/to/static/files/; } }

When we generate the letsencrypt certificates, this file will automatically change so that the NGINX web server can serve the website over HTTPS.

Upon generating the certificates, we need to ensure the config file specifies serving the website under an IPv6 address; otherwise, the generation of the letsencrypt certificate will not work for the new website. With this temporary content, IPv6 is specified (see line below), so we are set to proceed.

listen [::]:80 default_server;

Step 3: Generate the letsencrypt certificates, adjust the server block file, re-run the PM2 instance

Now that the website is hosted over HTTP, we can generate the certificates on the server to enable the server to serve the website pages over HTTPS.

To do so, run the command below:

sudo certbot -v --nginx -d [domain].com 1 -d www.[domain].com

After your certifications are generated for the new domain, we can check whether the certificates can auto-renew before their expiry date.

To check if the auto-renew process is set up, run the command below:

sudo systemctl status snap.certbot.renew.timer

To test the renewal process, you can do a dry run with certbot:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

You can check this query and the answers on the letsencrypt : community.letsencrypt.org for more troubleshooting information.

At this point, the website should be all set and live online.

Next steps

Thanks for reading this blog from the series Building My First Rank And Rent Asset In Public

The next piece of this series can be accessed here: Rank and Rent Part 7 Writing the Website's SEO Blogs, Services, and Other Pages.

Appendice

In case you are wondering how the final config file should look like, you can have a look below:

server { if ($host = www.[domain].com) { return 301 https://$host$request_uri; } # managed by Certbot if ($host = [domain].com) { return 301 https://$host$request_uri; } # managed by Certbot listen [port1]; listen [::]:[port1]; server_name [domain].com www.[domain].com; return 404; # managed by Certbot } server { root /var/www/[domain].com/html; index index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html; server_name [domain].com www.[domain].com; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:[port]; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade'; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade; } listen [::]:[port2] ssl; # managed by Certbot listen [port2] ssl; # managed by Certbot ssl_certificate /etc/1/letsencrypt/live/[domain].com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot ssl_certificate_key /etc/1/letsencrypt/live/[domain].com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot include /etc/1/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot ssl_dhparam /etc/1/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot }

Mahdi Furry

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