How to install a nodejs cms like pencilblue on uberspace

Question

I would like to have the pencilblue nodejs cms with mongodb installed on my uberspace account. Which steps do I have to take?

Answer 1

As I found it hard figuring out how to do it, here is how I finally succeeded. Most of it is relevant for nodeJS installations other than pencilblue as well.

First you need to create an account on uberspace.de.

Open your terminal and login into your uberspace console with ssh:

ssh {account}@{server}.uberspace.de

Enter the password you created with the creation of the account.

Create the service directory:

uberspace-setup-svscan

Create the mongo database:

uberspace-setup-mongodb

Create folder for database data:

mkdir data
cd data
mkdir db

Start db:

mongod --dbpath data/db/

You will get some login data. I suggest you write it down somewhere:

Hostname: localhost
Portnum#: {dbPort}
Username: {account}_mongoadmin
Password: {dbPassword}

To connect to the db via shell you may use:

mongo admin --port {dbPort} -u {account}_mongoadmin -p)

Configure npm:

cat > ~/.npmrc <<__EOF__
prefix = $HOME
umask = 077
__EOF__

Install pencilblue-cli:

npm install pencilblue-cli

Change to html-folder and create a .htaccess file (you could do this with your ftp-client as well):

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://localhost:8080/$1 [P]

Now if you want to use github: Create a new repository on github.

Open a new terminal window and clone pencilblue cms in a local folder on your machine:

git clone git@github.com:pencilblue/pencilblue.git pencilblue
cd pencilblue
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:{yourGitName}/{yourRepoName}.git
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit."

Setup ssh on uberspace: Go back to your uberspace console.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "{yourEmailAddress}"
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Copy the whole key that is printed out and paste it in github under settings/SSH keys.

Clone the new repo in uberspace console:

git clone git@github.com:{yourGitName}/{yourRepoName}.git cms
cd cms

Create a config.js either with vim config.js or upload it with ftp:

module.exports = {
    "siteName": "{yourSiteName}",
    "siteRoot": "http://{account}.{server}.uberspace.de/",
    "sitePort": {
        8080
    },
    "logging": {
        "level": "info"
    },
    "db": {
        "type": "mongo",
        "servers": [
            "mongodb://{account}_mongoadmin:{dbPassword}@127.0.0.1:{dbPort}/"
        ],
        "name": "admin",
        "writeConcern": 1
    },
    "cache": {
        "fake": false,
        "host": "localhost",
        "port": 6379
    },
    "settings": {
        "use_memory": false,
        "use_cache": false
    },
    "templates": {
        "use_memory": true,
        "use_cache": false
    },
    "plugins": {
        "caching": {
            "use_memory": false,
            "use_cache": false
        }
    },
    "registry": {
        "type": "mongo"
    },
    "session": {
        "storage": "mongo"
    },
    "media": {
        "provider": "mongo",
        "max_upload_size": 6291456
    },
    "cluster": {
        "workers": 1,
        "self_managed": true
    },
    "siteIP": "0.0.0.0"
};

Install node_modules:

npm install

Create a service that starts the server:

uberspace-setup-service pbservice node ~/cms/pencilblue.js

Start the service:

svc -u ~/service/pbservice

Now you can go to the page on http://{account}.{server}.uberspace.de

(To start the service (hint: u = up):

svc -u ~/service/pbservice

To stop the service (hint: d = down):

svc -d ~/service/pbservice

To reload the service (hint: h = HUP):

svc -h ~/service/pbservice

To restart the service (hint: du = down, up):

svc -du ~/service/pbservice

To remove the service:

cd ~/service/pbservice
rm ~/service/pbservice
svc -dx . log
rm -rf ~/etc/run-pbservice)