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Deploy a site to your server

Put a website on a server you run yourself, through a gateway: from an empty folder to a page that answers.

On this page

Deploying a site to your server means Ysra builds the site on a gateway, deploys it to a machine, configures nginx and checks the page answers — started by one sentence such as serve our landing page on web-01. Before you start you need:

You need Where to set it up
A gateway: an always-on computer in the network, with Ysra installed and ysra serve running Machines and gateways
The web server added as a machine on that gateway, in change mode, with nginx installed Add a machine
The desktop app on your own computer, to sign an approval Sign an approval

Steps#

  1. On the gateway, share a folder where sites are built:

    ysra serve --folder /srv/sites

  2. On the gateway, add the web server and allow changes there. Name it web-01, kind linux, via ssh, and confirm its host key:

    ysra machines add
ysra machines mode web-01 change

    Many servers at once: Add many machines at once.

  3. On the gateway, trust your approval key and turn on approved runs (your public key is under Settings → Approvals, with Copy the commands):

    ysra approvers add <your public key> --name "My laptop"
ysra approvers runs on

  4. Start a thread on the gateway’s folder (New thread on… → the gateway → sites) and ask:

    serve our landing page on web-01

  5. Answer Ysra’s questions. If there is nothing to serve yet, it asks what to build; if the destination isn’t clear, it offers only ones that exist. The thread shows Needs your input until you reply.

  6. Sign the approval when asked: “I need your signed approval to go on: …”. On the card Approve changes on web-01: …, choose Approve with this computer’s key and confirm. It covers config (the files) and service (reloading nginx), never delete, power, SSH access or shells.

Ysra then builds and deploys without asking again:

Step What Ysra does
Build Into the gateway’s folder
Deploy the folder To /var/www/sites/<name> on web-01, keeping the previous version as a backup
Write nginx’s site file The real file; it won’t write through a symbolic link
Test nginx -t
Reload nginx -s reload
Check That the site answers

The thread ends with what was done and where the site is. Each command is under What ran when you open the machine in the Machines panel, and in the gateway’s log under the signed approval.

Where Ysra deploys#

Ysra chooses from what you said, then from what the project already has. It never asks for passwords or makes up credentials.

The project has Ysra deploys by
A machine you named, on your own server Building into a folder on the gateway, then deploying it to the machine
A CI file A git push that your pipeline deploys
A hosting provider’s configuration That provider’s command-line tool, if it is installed and signed in
None of these It asks, offering only destinations that exist now (your machines, signed-in tools, your git remote), or says what is missing and the simplest way to add it

nginx and approval kinds#

Command Kind
nginx -t, nginx -T, nginx -v, nginx -V read
nginx -s reload, starting nginx service

An approval with config and service covers a typical site deploy.

If it doesn’t work#

Symptom What happens / what to do
The deploy fails before the switch The old site stays exactly as it was
The new site is wrong Move the backup folder back into place, or ask Ysra to; it asks first
nginx -t fails Ysra doesn’t reload, and shows what the test said
The approval doesn’t cover a step Ysra stops and asks for one that does; see Approvals
“… isn’t connected right now. Run ysra serve there.” The gateway is offline; start ysra serve on it
web-01 is in observe mode … ysra machines mode web-01 change on the gateway
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