NodeBB is a Node.js based forum. It utilizes web sockets for instant interactions and real-time notifications. NodeBB source code is publicly hosted on Github. This guide will walk you through the NodeBB installation process on a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Vultr instance using Node.js, MongoDB as a database, Nginx as a reverse proxy and Acme.sh for SSL certificates.
Requirements
NodeBB requires the following software to be installed:
- Git
- Node.js version 6.9.0 or later
- MongoDB version 2.6 or later
- Nginx
- Minimum of 1024MB RAM
- Domain name with
A
/AAAA
records set up
Before you begin
Check the Ubuntu version.
lsb_release -ds
# Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Create a new non-root
user account with sudo
access and switch to it.
adduser johndoe --gecos "John Doe"
usermod -aG sudo johndoe
su - johndoe
NOTE: Replace johndoe
with your username.
Set up the timezone.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
Ensure that your system is up to date.
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Install necessary packages.
sudo apt install -y git build-essential apt-transport-https
Install Node.js
NodeBB is driven by Node.js, and so it needs to be installed. The installation of the current LTS version of Node.js is recommended.
Install Node.js from the NodeSource repository.
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs
Verify installation of Node.js and npm.
node -v && npm -v
# v10.15.0
# 5.6.0
MongoDB is the default database for NodeBB.
Install MongoDB.
sudo apt install -y mongodb
Check the version.
mongo --version | head -n 1 && mongod --version | head -n 1
# MongoDB shell version v3.6.3
# db version v3.6.3
Create a MongoDB database and user for NodeBB.
Connect to MongoDB server first.
mongo
Switch to the built-in admin
database.
> use admin
Create an administrative user.
> db.createUser( { user: "admin", pwd: "<Enter a secure password>", roles: [ { role: "readWriteAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }, { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ] } )
NOTE: Replace the placeholder <Enter a secure password>
with your own selected password.
Add a new database called nodebb
.
> use nodebb
The database will be created and context switched to nodebb
. Next create the nodebb
user with the appropriate privileges.
> db.createUser( { user: "nodebb", pwd: "<Enter a secure password>", roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "nodebb" }, { role: "clusterMonitor", db: "admin" } ] } )
NOTE: Again, replace the placeholder <Enter a secure password>
with your own selected password.
Exit the Mongo shell.
> quit()
Restart MongoDB and verify that the administrative user created earlier can connect.
sudo systemctl restart mongodb.service
mongo -u admin -p your_password --authenticationDatabase=admin
Install the latest mainline version of Nginx from the official Nginx repository.
wget https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
sudo apt-key add nginx_signing.key
rm nginx_signing.key
sudo -s
printf "deb https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -sc) nginx\ndeb-src https://nginx.org/packages/mainline/ubuntu/ $(lsb_release -sc) nginx\n" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nginx_mainline.list
exit
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y nginx
Check the version.
sudo nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.15.0
Enable and start Nginx.
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service
sudo systemctl start nginx.service
NodeBB by default runs on port 4567
. To avoid have to type http://example.com:4567
, we will configure Nginx as a reverse proxy for the NodeBB application. Every request on port 80
or 443
(if SSL is used) will be forwarded to port 4567
.
Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/nodebb.conf
and populate it with the basic reverse proxy configuration below.
server {
listen [::]:80;
listen 80;
server_name forum.example.com;
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
client_max_body_size 50M;
location /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {
allow all;
}
location / {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_hide_header X-Powered-By;
proxy_set_header X-Nginx-Proxy true;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567;
proxy_redirect off;
# Socket.IO Support
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
}
}
Note: Update the server_name
directive with your domain/hostname.
Check the configuration.
sudo nginx -t
Reload Nginx.
sudo systemctl reload nginx.service
Install the Acme.sh client and obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate (optional)
Securing your forum with HTTPS is not necessary, but it will secure your site's traffic. Acme.sh is a pure unix shell software for obtaining SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt with zero dependencies.
Download and install Acme.sh.
sudo mkdir /etc/letsencrypt
git clone https://github.com/Neilpang/acme.sh.git
cd acme.sh
sudo ./acme.sh --install --home /etc/letsencrypt --accountemail [email protected]
cd ~
source ~/.bashrc
Check the version.
acme.sh --version
# v2.7.9
Obtain RSA and ECDSA certificates for forum.example.com
.
# RSA 2048
sudo /etc/letsencrypt/acme.sh --issue --home /etc/letsencrypt -d forum.example.com --webroot /usr/share/nginx/html --reloadcmd "sudo systemctl reload nginx.service" --accountemail [email protected] --ocsp-must-staple --keylength 2048
# ECDSA/ECC P-256
sudo /etc/letsencrypt/acme.sh --issue --home /etc/letsencrypt -d forum.example.com --webroot /usr/share/nginx/html --reloadcmd "sudo systemctl reload nginx.service" --accountemail [email protected] --ocsp-must-staple --keylength ec-256
After running the above commands, your certificates and keys will be in the following directories:
- RSA:
/etc/letsencrypt/forum.example.com
- ECC/ECDSA:
/etc/letsencrypt/forum.example.com_ecc
After obtaining certificates from Let's Encrypt, we need to configure Nginx to use them.
Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/nodebb.conf
again and configure Nginx as an HTTPS reverse proxy.
server {
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:80;
listen 80;
server_name forum.example.com;
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
client_max_body_size 50M;
location /.well-known/acme-challenge/ {
allow all;
}
# RSA
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/forum.example.com/fullchain.cer;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/forum.example.com/forum.example.com.key;
# ECDSA
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/forum.example.com_ecc/fullchain.cer;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/forum.example.com_ecc/forum.example.com.key;
location / {
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567;
proxy_redirect off;
# Socket.IO Support
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
}
}
Check the configuration.
sudo nginx -t
Reload Nginx.
sudo systemctl reload nginx.service
Install NodeBB
Create a document root directory.
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/nodebb
Change ownership of the /var/www/nodebb
directory to johndoe
.
sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /var/www/nodebb
Navigate to the document root folder.
cd /var/www/nodebb
Clone the latest version of NodeBB into the document root folder.
git clone -b v1.10.x https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB.git .
Run the NodeBB setup command and answer each question when prompted.
./nodebb setup
After NodeBB setup is completed, run ./nodebb start
to manually start your NodeBB server.
./nodebb start
After this command, you will be able to access your forum in your web browser.
Run NodeBB as a System Service
When started via ./nodebb start
, NodeBB will not automatically start up again when the system reboots. To avoid that, we will need to setup NodeBB as a system service.
If running, stop NodeBB.
./nodebb stop
Create a new unprivileged nodebb
user.
sudo adduser nodebb
Change the ownership of the /var/www/nodebb
directory to nodebb
user.
sudo chown -R nodebb:nodebb /var/www/nodebb
Create the nodebb.service
systemd unit config file. This unit file will handle startup of the NodeBB deamon. Run sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/nodebb.service
and fill the file with the following content:
[Unit]
Description=NodeBB
Documentation=https://docs.nodebb.org
After=system.slice multi-user.target mongod.service
[Service]
Type=forking
User=nodebb
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=nodebb
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/nodebb
PIDFile=/var/www/nodebb/pidfile
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env node loader.js
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
NOTE: Set username and directory paths according to your chosen names.
Enable nodebb.service
on reboot and immediately start nodebb.service
.
sudo systemctl enable nodebb.service
sudo systemctl start nodebb.service
Check the nodebb.service
status.
sudo systemctl status nodebb.service
sudo systemctl is-enabled nodebb.service
That's it. Your NodeBB instance is now up and running.