How to deploy a simple phoenix app on a single server using distillery

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2. Setup the server

We’ll be running our server under the user called slugex. So, we first need to create that user.

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## commands to be executed on our server
APP_USER=slugex

# create prent dir for our home
sudo mkdir -p /opt/www
# create the user
sudo useradd --home "/opt/www/$APP_USER" --create-home --shell /bin/bash $APP_USER
# create the postgresql role for our user
sudo -u postgres createuser --echo --no-createrole --no-superuser --createdb $APP_USER

3. Install the git-deploy rubygem on our local computer

We’ll be using the git-deploy rubygem to do deploys. This allows deploys similar to Heroku. You just need to push to your production git repository to start a deployment.

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## commands to be executed on our local computer
# install the gem
# you need ruby installed on your computer for this
gem install git-deploy

4. Setup distillery in our phoenix app (on local computer)

We’ll be using distillery to manage our releases.

Add the distillery dependency to our mix.exs

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defp deps do
  [{:distillery, "~> 0.10"}]
end

Init the distillery config 

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# get dependencies
mix deps.get
# init distillery
mix release.init

Change rel/config.ex to look like below

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...
environment :prod do
  set include_erts: false
  set include_src: false
  # cookie info ...
end
...

5. Setup git deploy (local computer)

Let us setup the remote and the deploy hooks

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## commands to be executed on our local computer

# setup the git remote pointing to our prod server
git remote add prod slugex@slugex.com:/opt/www/slugex

# init
git deploy setup -r "prod"
# create the deploy files
git deploy init
# push to production
git push prod master

TODO: release this as a book

6. Setup postgresql access

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## commands to be executed on the server as the slugex user

# create the database
createdb slugex_prod

# set the password for the slugex user
psql slugex_prod
> slugex_prod=> \password slugex
> Enter new password: enter the password
> Enter it again: repeat the password

6. Setup the prod.secret.exs

Copy the config/prod.secret.exs file from your local computer to /opt/www/slugex/config/prod.secret.exs

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## on local computer from our phoenix app directory
scp config/prod.secret.exs slugex@slugex.com:config/

create a new secret on your local computer using mix phoenix.gen.secret and paste it in the server’s config/prod.secret.exs secret

It should look something like below:

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# on the server
# /opt/www/slugex/config/prod.secret.exs
use Mix.Config

config :simple, Simple.Endpoint,
  secret_key_base: "RgeM4Dt8kl3yyf47K1DXWr8mgANzOL9TNOOiCknZM8LLDeSdS1ia5Vc2HkmKhy68"
  http: [port: 4010],
  server: true, # <=== this is very important
  root: "/opt/www/slugex",
  url: [host: "slugex.com", port: 443],
  cache_static_manifest: "priv/static/manifest.json"

# Do not print debug messages in production
config :logger, level: :info

# Configure your database
config :simple, Simple.Repo,
  adapter: Ecto.Adapters.Postgres,
  username: "slugex",
  password: "another brick in the wall",
  database: "slugex_prod",
  pool_size: 20

6. Tweak the deploy scripts

7. One time setup on the server

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## commands to be executed on server as slugex
MIX_ENV=prod mix do compile, ecto.create
MIX_ENV=prod ./deploy/after_push

Logger

Exception notifications

Setup systemd

6. One time setup on server (on server as slugex user)

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## commands to be run on the server as the slugex user
cd /opt/www/slugex

# create the secrets config
echo 'use Mix.Config' > config/prod.secrets.exs
# add your configuration to this file

# update hex
export MIX_ENV=prod
mix local.hex --force
mix deps.get
mix ecto.create

6. Nginx configuration

7. Letsencrypt setup and configuration

9. TODO: Configuration using conform

10. TODO: database backups to S3

10. TODO: uptime monitoring of websites using uptime monitor

10. TODO: email via SES

10. TODO: db seeds

10. TODO: nginx caching basics, static assets large expirations

10. TODO: remote console for debugging

sudo letsencrypt certonly –webroot -w /opt/www/webmonitor/public/ -d webmonitorhq.com –webroot -w /opt/www/webmonitor/public/ -d www.webmonitorhq.com

11. Check SSL certificate: https://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html

Common mistakes/errors

  1. SSH errors

Improvements

  1. Automate all of these using a hex package?
  2. Remove dependencies on git-deploy if possible
  3. Hot upgrades
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