Install LIVCK on a cloud server (Ubuntu 20.04)

Introduction

This article is about the installation of the self-hosted monitoring software LIVCK, which is completely set up and ready for use within 10 minutes.

Prerequisites

The prerequisite for this installation is to have a cloud server that runs on Ubuntu 20.04 or newer.

I recommend the Hetzner cloud server CX21, which offers sufficient performance, the location of the server is up to you. In the tutorial, we will use Falkenstein as location.

The default credentials of the software:

Username: admin (or admin@example.com)
Password: livvck

Step 1 - Update & Upgrade

The very first thing we do is update the package lists and packages on the server so that we are up to date.

apt update && apt upgrade

Step 2 - Install Dependencies

Now we install the necessary dependencies for the software, including Php, Nginx & Supervisor

apt -y install php7.4 php7.4-{cli,gd,mysql,pdo,mbstring,tokenizer,bcmath,xml,fpm,curl,zip} wget unzip nginx supervisor curl

Step 2.1 - Install Composer

Now we install the Package-Manager Composer, which allows the software to obtain more of its necessary packages

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | sudo php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Step 3 - Install LIVCK

We will now create a folder where the software will eventually reside

mkdir -p /var/www/livck

Step 3.1 - Download files from LIVCK

You can find your license on the LIVCK page under your profile, copy it and paste it in the URL (Replace it with REPLACE).

Before you can start the download, you have to enter the IP of the server into the IP Whitelist of LIVCK. You can find the IP in the HCloud panel, but it is enough to whitelist the IPv4.

cd /var/www/livck && wget -4 https://livck.com/dl/self-hosted/REPLACE -O livck.zip

Step 3.2 - Unpack LIVCK files

unzip livck.zip

Step 3.3 - Move LIVCK files to correct folder

mv LIVCK-self-hosted-*/* . && cp LIVCK-self-hosted-*/.env.example .env

Step 3.4 - Delete useless files

rm LIVCK-self-hosted-* -R && rm livck.zip

Step 3.5 - Configure Application

For LIVCK a database like MySQL is needed, for this you can already find a tutorial here.

Create a database and a user (or use the root), which we can specify in the application

nano .env

You will now see this in the editor similar to the one shown below, there you can customize the name (APP_NAME) & under DB_DATABASE will be the database name you created as well as user and a password.

Finally you only have to set your license key under LICENSE_KEY and the configuration would be done.

APP_NAME=LIVCK
APP_URL=http://your-domain.com

LICENSE_KEY="XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX"

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=livck
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD="password"

Step 4 - Configure LIVCK

Now we install the required packages for the software.

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader --ignore-platform-reqs && chmod -R gu+w storage/ && chmod -R guo+w storage/ && chmod -R gu+w bootstrap/cache/ && chmod -R guo+w bootstrap/cache/

Step 4.1 - Configure Supervisor

Now we configure the queue with supervisor.

nano /etc/supervisor/conf.d/livck.conf

Add the following content to the file and save it

[program:livck-queue-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /var/www/livck/artisan queue:work --queue=default,newsletter --timeout=60 --tries=255
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=root
numprocs=1
redirect_stderr=true

Now restart the supervisor service

service supervisor restart

Step 4.2 - Configure Crontab

Now we run the software backend on crontab.

{ crontab -l; echo "* * * * * php /var/www/livck/artisan schedule:run >/dev/null 2>&1"; } | crontab -

The return of the command is no crontab for root and is good!

Step 4.3 - Configure Nginx

Now we configure nginx (webserver).

nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/livck

Edit the content you see below, there replace DOMAIN-NAME to your domain and save it

If your domain is not yet connected to the server, we would recommend you to set an A record in your DNS.

Name: status (or one of your choice) Target: Your Server IP

server {
    listen 80;
    root /var/www/livck/public;

    index index.php;
    server_name DOMAIN-NAME;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Now restart the nginx service

service nginx restart

Step 4.4 - Configure SSL (Optional Step)

Now we configure nginx (webserver).

apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Replace the status.your-domain.de and mail to yours

certbot --nginx --agree-tos -m acme@your-mail.de --domain status.your-domain.de

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access - To Secure your traffic, choose number 2!

Step 4.5 - Migrate Database

Now we can migrate all tables

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed --force

Step 4.6 - Storage Availability

Now we can publish the storage

php artisan storage:link

Conclusion

The software is now fully functional, and you can start adding your services to monitor them.