Table of Contents
Server Blocks Setup
Purpose and Scope
In this document, we will describe the steps to add server blocks (SB) to a dokku-nginx environment in order to be able to access web application without docker containers. We will not describe here the necessary steps to install REDCap (RC) or Grafana (GF). Nor will we discuss user management, database configuration, rights and data backup related to these web applications.
Prerequisite
- Ubuntu server 18.04
- Nginx 1.14.0
- sudo privileges on the server.
Server Blocks setup
When using nginx server, we need SB (virtual hosts in Apache) to be able to access more than one domain in a single sever. We need to create these directories for each needed sites:
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/redcap sudo mkdir -p /var/www/grafana
Assign the current user and give him right rights on the created folders (do not use root user):
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/redcap sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/grafana sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www
Create a test file for each site:
nano /var/www/{site}/ index.php
Edit each php file with some test content:
<?php phpinfo();
Now, create server Block files for each domain. Create the first SB and use the default template.:
sudo cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /etc/nginx/sites-available/redcap
Edit the new SB:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com
Here is an example of SB file configuration:
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/redcap;
index.php;
server_name redcap.local; // change it with the real host name for your RC
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
Now, copy the file to create the 2nd server block:
sudo cp /etc/nginx/sites-available/grafana /etc/nginx/sites-available/grafana
And edit it:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/grafana
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
root /var/www/grafana;
index.php;
server_name grafana.local; // change it with the real host name for your GF
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
Create links between files:
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/redcap /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/grafana /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
Check if there is no syntax errors in any created files:
sudo nginx -t
If there is no error, you can restart nginx server
sudo systemctl restart nginx
MariaDB Setup
Then, install MariaDB:
sudo apt update sudo apt install mariadb-server
You still need to configure users, rights and server configuration but this will not be described in this document.
PHP processor
Note: x should be replaced with the correct PHP version
Nginx need a php processor to be able to deliver dynamic content:
sudo apt-get install php-fpm php-mysql
Open the php.ini for fpm:
sudo nano etc/php/7.x/fpm/php.ini
Comment out the line with cgi.fix_pathinfo and set it to 0:
cgi.fix_pathinfo=0
Then, we can restart the PHP processor with:
sudo systemctl restart php7.x-fpm.service
We have to specify the php processor to be used for each server blocks. Open both (RC and GF) SB files:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/<name>
And add these lines:
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.x-fpm.sock;
}
location ~ /\.ht {
deny all;
}
Check the nginx configuration:
sudo nginx -t
If no error, reaload it:
systemctl systemctl reload nginx
If you want more information on SB directive, please refer to the official nginx documentation. Both server block php page should be accessible and rendered correctly.
REDCap and Grafana
You can replace your example index.php files with RC and GF installation files. For RC and GF installation, please refer to the official documentation. Note that is possible that some dependencies may be missing for RC and GF.
Ressources
- PHP processing for nginx (resources in French): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-nginx-mysql-php-lemp-stack-on-ubuntu-20-04-fr