FedWiki Install on 64 bit Ubuntu

Julian Elve

Feb 28, 2020 HowTo

Setting up smallest federated wiki on a new server

I recently had to migrate my wiki to a 64 bit server in order to deploy the most recent updates. These instructions relate to Ubuntu 18.04 64 bit on Digital Ocean.

Backup old wiki files

As this was to support a migration, before setting up anything new I took a local copy of the /home/wiki/.wiki directory on my existing server.

Create SSH key pair for wiki user

These instructions assume that you can run shell locally - e.g. via Git bash if on Windows

local> cd ~
local> mkdir wikiuser
local> mkdir wikiuser/.ssh
local> cd wikiuser
local> ssh-keygen -t rsa

When asked where to store the key enter ~/wikiuser/.ssh/id_rsa

Create new server

Log in to Digital Ocean account and create new droplet. The smallest size is more than enough for a personal wiki farm that gets almost zero traffic. I assume you have got an SSH key uploaded to Digital Ocean and you tell Digital Ocean to install this on the new machine

Make a note of the new machine IP address, I refer to this later as IPADDRESS

Set up server

# copy public key for the new user to temp file on new server
local> rsync -a ~/wikiuser/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@IPADDRESS:~/wiki_id_rsa.pub

# connect to server
local> ssh root@IPADDRESS

# create new user
root@IPADDRESS> useradd -s /bin/bash -d /home/wiki/ -m -G sudo wiki
root@IPADDRESS> mkdir /home/wiki/.ssh
root@IPADDRESS> chmod 700 /home/wiki/.ssh
root@IPADDRESS> cat wiki_id_rsa.pub >>  /home/wiki/.ssh/authorized_keys
root@IPADDRESS> chown -R wiki:wiki /home/wiki
root@IPADDRESS> rm wiki_id_rsa.pub

# set up firewall
root@IPADDRESS> ufw allow OpenSSH
root@IPADDRESS> ufw enable
root@IPADDRESS> exit

Second phase of installation

From now on we will login remotely as the wiki user. Do whatever your local SSH software needs to use the key created for the wiki user, then…

# connect to server
local> ssh wiki@IPADDRESS

# set up time utilities
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo apt-get update
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo apt-get install ntp

# Setup auto upgrades
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades

# Install node
wiki@IPADDRESS> curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo apt-get install -y build-essential

# Install nginx
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo apt update
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo apt install nginx
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
wiki@IPADDRESS> systemctl status nginx # check output to see nginx is running
# check in browser by visiting http://IPADDRESS

#Install wiki
wiki@IPADDRESS>sudo npm install -g wiki

Configure wiki to start and stop correctly

wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo vi /etc/systemd/service/wiki.service  

# In vi enter the following contents to the file

# this is /etc/systemd/system/wiki.service
[Unit]
Description=Federated Wiki

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/sudo -H -u wiki wiki -f

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
# <esc>qw to save

# Test wiki install
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo systemctl start wiki
wiki@IPADDRESS> curl http://127.0.0.1:3000 
# should return  Found. Redirecting to welcome-visitors.html

wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo systemctl stop wiki

Set up nginx proxy

wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/wiki

# In vi enter the following contents to the file

map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
        default upgrade;
        ''      close;
}

server {
  server_name SERVER_IP_ADDRESS ;

    location / {
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
  
      proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
      proxy_redirect off;
  
      proxy_http_version 1.1;
      proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
    }
    listen 80;
}
# <esc>qw to save

wiki@IPADDRESS> ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/wiki /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/wiki
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo systemctl start wiki
wiki@IPADDRESS> sudo systemctl restart nginx
wiki@IPADDRESS> exit

Nest steps

At this point you should have a server running wiki - point your browser at http://IPADDRESS and you should see an empty federated wiki site.

In the next post I will document how to port an existing wiki onto this new server.