Discussion on "Link a domain to Ubuntu VPS"

Dima Knivets

19:41

I'm here

The Lord of Time

hiya!

Dima Knivets

hi :)

The Lord of Time

sorry i don't want to ask a billion questions via comments, the mods will hate me

Dima Knivets

no problems :)

The Lord of Time

Did you ever get a domain for the server? If so, did you actually make a DNS entry that points that domain to the IP address?

because if that doesn't exist and resolve, then that needs to be in place first

Dima Knivets

19:43

What do you mean? Have I registered a domain? Yes, I've registered it at GoDaddy. Then I changed the nameservers to point to my hosting nameservers

The Lord of Time

the "hosting nameservers" are owned by your VPS provider?

hiya @jrg

Dima Knivets

yes

what, sorry?

The Lord of Time

@DimaKnivets ignore me saying hello, one of the mods hopped in :)

like they always do :)

Dima Knivets

ah, ok :)

jrg

@TheLordofTime waves to everyone, then leaves

The Lord of Time

19:45

Mind sharing the domain name? I only want to poll my DNS servers to see if they actually correctly set up the records.

Dima Knivets

yes, of course — applehearted.me

The Lord of Time

just pointing your domain to your provider's nameservers won't help if they don't have a record that points the domain actually to an IP

opens his command line

Dima Knivets

yes, i've also added the domain at hosting panel

one sec

The Lord of Time

applehearted.me. NS dns1.stabletransit.com.
applehearted.me. NS dns2.stabletransit.com.

^ those are your provider's DNS nameservers?

Dima Knivets

right, those NS

The Lord of Time

19:46

okay, just to let you know, I use a more advanced DNS tool that shows me the raw output from the DNS lookup.

this is what those nameservers have for your domain:

$ dnsget -t ANY -n dns1.stabletransit.com applehearted.me
applehearted.me. SOA ns.rackspace.com. knivets.gmail.com. 1370027032 21600 3600 1814400 300
applehearted.me. NS dns1.stabletransit.com.
applehearted.me. NS dns2.stabletransit.com.

Dima Knivets

so? :)

The Lord of Time

what that tells me is that it's missing a record that says domain -> IP

lemme show you an example from one of my domains

$ dnsget -t ANY -n ns6.zoneedit.co.uk trekweb.org
trekweb.org. SOA ns2.zoneedit.com. soacontact.zoneedit.com. 2013219478 300 300 300 300
trekweb.org. A 107.21.233.123
trekweb.org. NS ns2.zoneedit.com.
trekweb.org. NS ns6.zoneedit.co.uk.
trekweb.org. NS imogen.hotellite.net.
trekweb.org. NS ns1.linode.com.
trekweb.org. NS ns2.linode.com.
trekweb.org. NS ns3.linode.com.
trekweb.org. NS ns4.linode.com.
trekweb.org. NS ns5.linode.com.

firstly, ignore the billions of NS lines

i just use a lot of nameservers.

Dima Knivets

you mean A line?

The Lord of Time

mhm

that needs to be added

Dima Knivets

how and where?

The Lord of Time

19:49

in your hosting provider's DNS servers

i don't know your hosting provider, but they should have a guide for how to add to their DNS

but they need to add an A record.

Dima Knivets

IP adress of my server, right?

The Lord of Time

mhm

that's the first part

Dima Knivets

done

The Lord of Time

that will allow the domain name to correctly point to the server

OK now we can set up your nginx configuration file

do you only have that one application on your webserver?

or do you have more than one site there?

Dima Knivets

yes, i have one, but i would like to have the ability to host more

can we do this?

The Lord of Time

19:51

yeah we can do that, it's not hard, but it requires additional configuration on nginx's side.

as well as each other domain or subdomain pointing correctly in DNS to the server.

like the A record we added for your domain.

Dima Knivets

can you please look if i added A record?

with your tool?

The Lord of Time

yeah, but i will point out most providers only update their nameservers once every few hours

which is why domain resolution takes so long to reach the internet.

i'll check now though

Dima Knivets

I have configured TTL to 5 minutes (i hope this helps)

The Lord of Time

$ dnsget -t ANY -n dns1.stabletransit.com applehearted.me
applehearted.me. SOA ns.rackspace.com. knivets.gmail.com. 1370202607 21600 3600 1814400 300
applehearted.me. NS dns1.stabletransit.com.
applehearted.me. NS dns2.stabletransit.com.
applehearted.me. A 162.209.57.188

yep but that only helps your nameservers.

all the other DNS servers need to pull the data

like, i use google dns (8.8.8.8)...

Dima Knivets

ah, understand

The Lord of Time

19:56

and they pull very quickly

so does Level3

but others might take a little

Dima Knivets

oh, it works

applehearted.me

The Lord of Time

indeed :)

Your site works now :)

Dima Knivets

great! thank you! :)

The Lord of Time

yep, but one second :)

Dima Knivets

will you help with that multiple-site configuration?

The Lord of Time

19:57

yeah, sure! But give me a bit, my internet's lagging so I have to reboot my modem.

Dima Knivets

ok, no problem

The Lord of Time

and we're back.

Dima Knivets

i'm here

The Lord of Time

so yeah, if you want, you can pastebin your current config on paste.ubuntu.com and I can tell you what to tweak to make that be one listener for your one domain, and can give you a template to use for other sites you might host.

all you'll have to do is tweak those templates for whatever you're running, ruby, python, some PHP in the backend, whatever :)

Dima Knivets

ok, one sec

The Lord of Time

20:04

just, share the link to the pastebin so I can give you a tidbit of advice :)

Dima Knivets

paste.ubuntu.com/5727240

I use Ruby on Rails + Unicorn as "bridge" (or what) between Rails and nginx

The Lord of Time

right, that's expected

because nginx doesn't speak Rails, Unicorn does

Dima Knivets

this config example was on the Unicorn project

i have a question

The Lord of Time

we have the same happen with PHP :)

sure!

Dima Knivets

from this config it looks like the server is setup only for one site

The Lord of Time

20:07

it is.

Dima Knivets

it seems to me that it must be something universal in this config

The Lord of Time

there is, but only sorta

Dima Knivets

and something special in children configs

right?

The Lord of Time

nope

Dima Knivets

or I'm speaking to cryptical? :)

The Lord of Time

20:08

because here's the problem, they have everything sitting in one location

in the nginx.conf

Dima Knivets

yes, i've also read about sites-available folder

The Lord of Time

in every Ubuntu nginx.conf deployment that the nginx team has worked with has the server { blocks in a different folder.

in THIS config file they remove the include that includes the sites-available folder.

Dima Knivets

ok, i have a small understanding of what is happening, just tell me what should I do :)

The Lord of Time

mmm, this would require me to dig around in nginx

because there's a lot i see wrong on this config.

(sorry, not your fault, but you're really using a sample file that has way too many comments for my liking xD)

Dima Knivets

i was in a hurry :)

The Lord of Time

20:13

no problem

but i'm going to tweak your config slightly

and i'll explain the tweaks when i'm done

Dima Knivets

ok, no problem

The Lord of Time

note i haven't tested this so i have a backup of your original config :)

@DimaKnivets they had you put that in nginx.conf right?

Dima Knivets

what, sorry?

The Lord of Time

the configuration file

the one they provided.

they had you put that in nginx.conf right?

replacing the default nginx.conf?

Dima Knivets

'they' who?

The Lord of Time

20:16

their site

their samples.

Dima Knivets

ah, right

yes

The Lord of Time

OK

we're going to have to reinclude some of the lines they had you remove...

Dima Knivets

you can delete all the comments, by the way :)

The Lord of Time

i'm leaving them

they're helpful :)

BUT

paste.ubuntu.com/5727268 <-- this goes into nginx.conf

pase.ubuntu.com/5727269 <-- this goes into a new file in /etc/nginx/sites-available

doesn't matter what you name the file, just that you remember it

i normally name by what the config file contains, like the domain name it works with

so, you could name it applehearted.me or whatever

Dima Knivets

ok

one sec

The Lord of Time

20:21

yep

then there's two more steps

do let me know what you named the file, though

and remember, sudo is needed to edit/create those unless you're root.

Dima Knivets

applehearted.me.conf

done

The Lord of Time

okay.

next step is this:

cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

and

then this, only after you've done the cd command: ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/applehearted.me.conf .

Dima Knivets

done

The Lord of Time

then do: sudo service nginx restart

and make sure your site still runs :P

Dima Knivets

and what about /etc/init.d/nginx restart ?

will it work?

The Lord of Time

20:24

that will work too, but in Ubuntu, service is designied to auto-check /etc/init.d/

so service nginx is the same as /etc/init.d/nginx (in Ubuntu and Debian)

Dima Knivets

ok, done, but site doesn't run

'master failed to start, check stderr log for details'

The Lord of Time

okay, that's what i thought might happen

which is why i said it could break

lemme point out i hate rails/unicorn/passenger/anything_complex

actually wait one second

/me checks something

Dima Knivets

:)

The Lord of Time

@DimaKnivets given that they gave you their conf file i can't easily make other sites work...

give me two seconds to change something

Dima Knivets

ok, no problem

The Lord of Time

20:28

paste.ubuntu.com/5727308 <-- put this into the file we created in sites-available

and then go back to the sites-enabled directory

and paste the output of ln -alshF

because i want to see whether the links are actually in place

:P

Dima Knivets

i don't see YOUR.IP.HERE line

is it ok?

so, i've updated the file, what should I do next?

The Lord of Time

yeah i'm making sure we get their default stuff working first

/etc/init.d/nginx restart

as sudo if need be

then test your site again.

Dima Knivets

and what about 'go back to the sites-enabled directory
and paste the output of ln -alshF'

?

wait

the site works

why does it show error then

are you there? :)

The Lord of Time

sorta

sorry, i do a thousand things at once

including IRC support for nginx :)

Dima Knivets

no problem :)

what do you think?

The Lord of Time

20:37

what was the full error again?

Dima Knivets

here's the command 'unicorn_rails -c /var/www/applehearted.me/config/unicorn.conf.rb -D
'

and here's the error 'master failed to start, check stderr log for details'

but the site works

The Lord of Time

okay that's a unicorn error

i can't help with that one.

you'd have to look through the error logs for unicorn

but if the site works then that's what I say matters.

Dima Knivets

ok

thanks!

The Lord of Time

the only change i did here so far was to add back in the ability to read the sites-enabled folder

so that you can run other sites

but now i have to check one more thing

because the _ command on the server_name in the site conf will match everything i think...

or at least a default server

anyways, what you need to do is make sure that for every site you want to host, that (a) the domain points to your VPS's IP in the DNS configuration

Dima Knivets

yeah, that's clear

The Lord of Time

20:41

(b) that you make sure you have a configuration file in /etc/nginx/sites-available that has the site's configuration data

and...

(c) that you symlink the sites-available file into the sites-enabled directory

Dima Knivets

ok

The Lord of Time

like we did when I said to do cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled; ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/FILENAME .

(replace "FILENAME" with the actual file name)

i can't help with the unicorn side of things, but you can set up multiple sites now.

Dima Knivets

ok, that's great!

The Lord of Time

if you need help you can drop me an email at teward AT ubuntu DOT com

which is my email :)

well, one of them :p

Dima Knivets

is that everything, right?

The Lord of Time

20:43

that should be everything to answer your question, yes :)

Dima Knivets

thank you very much :)

The Lord of Time

you're welcome :)

any time.

Dima Knivets

you saved my life :)

i've got one more question

The Lord of Time

Heh. I answered your question with a brief summary and a link back here. so you can upvote me if you want :)

Dima Knivets

can i?

The Lord of Time

20:44

sure!

Dima Knivets

remember that line with ip address

(your.ip.adress)

you've deleted it

is it ok?

The Lord of Time

yeah it's OK. We'll have to change that later if you want to run multiple sites. but when that happens we have to do some testing to make sure your site works as-is when we change all the configs.

otherwise, you don't have to worry about it. the server_name _; line catches all.

Dima Knivets

what does it do — server_name _; ?

and when i decide to add other sites, it will work out of box or I need to contact you?

The Lord of Time

server_name is a way to narrow down the listener so that it specifically says "This server block pertains to the following domains: [whatever's on server_name]". The extra _ is a special character that acts as a catch-all and listens for everything. regardless of the domain name.

Dima Knivets

understand, thanks!

The Lord of Time

20:47

if you add other sites... we have to modify your only sites-enabled conf for now, otherwise the others won't work.

Dima Knivets

so i should drop you a line?

The Lord of Time

Yeah, just drop me an email at the address I told you, and include a link to your Ask Ubuntu user profile ( askubuntu.com/users/163906/dima-knivets ) so I know it's you :)

Dima Knivets

ok, thank you very much, once again! :)

The Lord of Time

as for "out of the box" i can't tell you if ruby and unicorn will behave right, that's something you'd have to talk to the unicorn support people with :)

you're welcome, any time!

Dima Knivets

i've accepted the answer

but can't upvote, because of the lack of reputation

but definitely will when have one

is it ok? :)

The Lord of Time

20:50

yeah you're good

i get +25 for the accept :)

Dima Knivets

okay, thanks, good luck!

The Lord of Time

same to you! :)

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Discussion on "Link a domain to Ubunt…