Etherpad is a free, open-source, web-based file editing application that allows you to collaborate on a file in actual time. It is written in Nodejs and supports thousands of simultaneous real-time users. It has data export capabilities and runs on your server, under your control. It allows authors and editors to see all of the participants’ edits in real-time.
In this post, we will show you how to install Etherpad on Rocky Linux 8.
Prerequisites
- A server running Rocky Linux 8 on the Atlantic.Net Cloud Platform
- A root password configured on your server
Step 1 – Create Atlantic.Net Cloud Server
First, log in to your Atlantic.Net Cloud Server. Create a new server, choosing Rocky Linux 8 as the operating system with at least 2GB RAM. Connect to your Cloud Server via SSH and log in using the credentials highlighted at the top of the page.
Once you are logged in to your server, run the following command to update your base system with the latest available packages.
dnf update -y
Step 2 – Install and Configure Database
First, enable the MariaDB version 10.04 repository using the following command:
dnf module enable mariadb:10.5
Next, install MariaDB 10.5 with the following command:
dnf install mariadb-server -y
After the installation, start and enable the MariaDB service using the command below:
systemctl start mariadb systemctl enable mariadb
Next, log in to the MariaDB shell with the following command:
mysql
Once you are connected, create a database and user for Etherpad:
create database `etherpaddb`; create user 'etherpaduser'@'localhost' identified by 'yourpassword';
Next, grant all the privileges to the etherpad database:
grant CREATE,ALTER,SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE on `etherpaddb`.* to 'etherpaduser'@'localhost';
Next, flush the privileges and exit from MariaDB with the following command:
flush privileges; exit;
Step 3 – Install Node.js
Etherpad is written in Node.js, so it must be installed on your server.
First, enable the Node.js repository using the following command:
dnf module enable nodejs:14
Next, install the Node.js with the following command:
dnf install nodejs git -y
Once Node.js is installed, verify the Node.js version using the following command:
node --version
You will get the following output:
v14.17.5
Step 4 – Install Etherpad on Rocky Linux 8
First, create a dedicated user to run Etherpad:
adduser --system --home /opt/etherpad --create-home --user-group etherpad
Next, switch the user to etherpad and download the latest version of Etherpad with the following command:
su - etherpad cd /opt/etherpad git clone --branch master git://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite.git
Next, change the directory to the downloaded directory and run Etherpad with the following command:
cd etherpad-lite ./src/bin/run.sh
If everything is fine, you will get the following output:
[2021-12-05 11:19:21.804] [INFO] server - Installed plugins: [2021-12-05 11:19:21.805] [INFO] console - Report bugs at https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/issues [2021-12-05 11:19:21.806] [INFO] console - Your Etherpad version is 1.8.16 (142a47c) [2021-12-05 11:19:23.514] [INFO] http - HTTP server listening for connections [2021-12-05 11:19:23.514] [INFO] console - You can access your Etherpad instance at http://0.0.0.0:9001/ [2021-12-05 11:19:23.514] [WARN] console - Admin username and password not set in settings.json. To access admin please uncomment and edit "users" in settings.json [2021-12-05 11:19:23.514] [WARN] console - Etherpad is running in Development mode. This mode is slower for users and less secure than production mode. You should set the NODE_ENV environment variable to production by using: export NODE_ENV=production [2021-12-05 11:19:23.514] [INFO] server - Etherpad is running
Press CTRL+C to stop the Etherpad.
Next, edit the settings.json file and define your database settings:
nano settings.json
Comment out the following lines:
// "dbType": "dirty",
// "dbSettings": {
// "filename": "var/dirty.db"
// },
Change the following lines:
"dbType" : "mysql",
"dbSettings" : {
"user": "etherpaduser",
"host": "localhost",
"port": 3306,
"password": "yourpassword",
"database": "etherpaddb",
"charset": "utf8mb4"
},
"trustProxy": true,
Save and close the file, then exit from the Etherpad user:
exit
Step 5 – Create a Systemd Service File for Etherpad
Next, create a systemd service file to manage the Etherpad service:
nano /etc/systemd/system/etherpad.service
Add the following lines:
[Unit] Description=Etherpad, a collaborative web editor. After=syslog.target network.target [Service] Type=simple User=etherpad Group=etherpad WorkingDirectory=/opt/etherpad Environment=NODE_ENV=production ExecStart=/usr/bin/node --experimental-worker /opt/etherpad/etherpad-lite/node_modules/ep_etherpad-lite/node/server.js Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Save and close the file, then reload the systemd daemon using the command below:
systemctl daemon-reload
Next, start and enable the Etherpad service using the following command:
systemctl start etherpad systemctl enable etherpad
You can check the status of Etherpad using the following command:
systemctl status etherpad
You should see the following output:
● etherpad.service - Etherpad, a collaborative web editor.
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/etherpad.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sun 2021-12-05 11:22:04 UTC; 5s ago
Main PID: 13518 (node)
Tasks: 13 (limit: 11411)
Memory: 104.9M
CGroup: /system.slice/etherpad.service
└─13518 /usr/bin/node --experimental-worker /opt/etherpad/etherpad-lite/node_modules/ep_etherpad-lite/node/server.js
Dec 05 11:22:04 rockylinux node[13518]: DEFAULT_CHARACTER_SET_NAME: 'latin1',
Dec 05 11:22:04 rockylinux node[13518]: DEFAULT_COLLATION_NAME: 'latin1_swedish_ci'
Dec 05 11:22:04 rockylinux node[13518]: } utf8mb4 latin1_swedish_ci
Dec 05 11:22:04 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:04.915] [INFO] plugins - Running npm to get a list of installed plugins...
Dec 05 11:22:08 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:08.268] [INFO] plugins - Loading plugin ep_etherpad-lite...
Dec 05 11:22:08 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:08.270] [INFO] plugins - Loaded 1 plugins
Dec 05 11:22:08 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:08.932] [INFO] APIHandler - Api key file read from: "/opt/etherpad/etherpad-lite/AP>
Dec 05 11:22:09 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:09.000] [INFO] server - Installed plugins:
Dec 05 11:22:09 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:09.001] [INFO] console - Report bugs at https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/issu>
Dec 05 11:22:09 rockylinux node[13518]: [2021-12-05 11:22:09.002] [INFO] console - Your Etherpad version is 1.8.16 (142a47c)
Step 6 – Configure Nginx as a Reverse Proxy for Etherpad
Next, you will need to install and configure Nginx as a reverse proxy for Etherpad.
First, install Nginx with the following command:
dnf install nginx -y
Once Nginx is installed, start and enable the Nginx service using the command below:
systemctl start nginx systemctl enable nginx
Next, create an Nginx virtual host configuration file:
nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/etherpad.conf
Add the following configuration:
server {
listen 80;
server_name etherpad.example.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/etherpad.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/etherpad.error.log;
location / {
rewrite ^/$ / break;
rewrite ^/locales/(.*) /locales/$1 break;
rewrite ^/locales.json /locales.json break;
rewrite ^/admin(.*) /admin/$1 break;
rewrite ^/p/(.*) /p/$1 break;
rewrite ^/static/(.*) /static/$1 break;
rewrite ^/pluginfw/(.*) /pluginfw/$1 break;
rewrite ^/javascripts/(.*) /javascripts/$1 break;
rewrite ^/socket.io/(.*) /socket.io/$1 break;
rewrite ^/ep/(.*) /ep/$1 break;
rewrite ^/minified/(.*) /minified/$1 break;
rewrite ^/api/(.*) /api/$1 break;
rewrite ^/ro/(.*) /ro/$1 break;
rewrite ^/error/(.*) /error/$1 break;
rewrite ^/jserror(.*) /jserror$1 break;
rewrite ^/redirect(.*) /redirect$1 break;
rewrite /favicon.ico /favicon.ico break;
rewrite /robots.txt /robots.txt break;
rewrite /(.*) /p/$1;
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9001;
proxy_buffering off;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_pass_header Server;
# proxy headers
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
}
}
Save and close the file, then edit the nginx.conf file and define hash_bucket size:
nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Add the following line below the line http {:
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
Save and close the file, then verify Nginx for any syntax errors:
nginx -t
You should see the following output:
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Finally, restart Nginx to apply the configuration changes:
systemctl restart nginx
Step 7 – Access Etherpad Web Interface
Now, open your favorite web browser and access the Etherpad web interface using the URL http://etherpad.example.com. You should see the following page:
Provide your pad name and click on the OK button. You should see the following page:
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Etherpad with Nginx as a reverse proxy on Rocky Linux 8. You can now use Etherpad to manage your content easily from the central location. Try it on dedicated hosting from Atlantic.Net!
