Easy VPS for FreshBuilder Store : Vultr Way

I got client who order service for moving his fresh store builder store. He use shared hosting that use cpanel. He don’t want to use cpanel anymore and willing to pay no more than $6/month for his vps server.

I give him two options : using digitalocean or vultr and he choose vultr.

I decide to share experience to hostingformula.net reader on how to build great vps server for freshstore builder user  with minimum hassle 🙂

Create Server on Vultr

Vultr provide vps service start from $5 / month. Fresh Store Builder (FSB) user can use smallest server that Vultr  provide.

1. Login to Vultr and  create an instance

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Click Deploy New Instance

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Choose 64 bit tab and select Ubuntu 12.04 x64.

You may choose Ubuntu 12.04 x64 or Ubuntu 14.04 x64. I prefer to use 12.04 as I believe that version use lower memory consumption.

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System will install everything and you can wait around 5 minutes for complete process.

You can monitor the process from console page. If you see like this picture (login 🙂 then you on the right process.

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2. Login to vps server

Open ssh compatible software like putty (in windows) or terminal (unix/linux os).

I use terminal from my Lubuntu desktop.

Type :

ssh root@ipaddress

ip address and password available from vultr panel.

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If your information is correct you can see # sign.

$ ssh [email protected]
The authenticity of host ‘108.61.197.166 (108.61.197.166)’ can’t be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is 20:30:f6:bc:6f:b5:b8:cf:35:c6:c6:0b:af:55:d4:ec.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added ‘108.61.197.166’ (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
[email protected]’s password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-63-generic x86_64)

* Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

root@108:~#

Update :

Change hostname if your hostname in numeric mode. Here’s how to do that (without restart server).

root@108:~# echo ‘fsb.hostingformula.net’ > /etc/hostname
root@108:~# service hostname start
hostname stop/waiting
root@108:~# hostname
fsb.hostingformula.net

At this stage you have working vps server that run Ubuntu operating system.

3. Install web server, php and database server

This task is handle by server pilot. Here the steps :

Signup and login to server pilot.

– Click Servers link -> + Connect Server

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Enter server name and click “continue with setup”.

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ServPilot will give you command as you see on the page. Copy and paste the command :

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Hit ENTER and follow instruction.

……….

…………….

…………………..

Setting up sp-python3.3 (3.3.2-1) …
Setting up sp-python3.3-mysql-connector (1.0.10-1) …
Setting up sp-python3.3-setproctitle (1.1.6-1) …
Setting up sp-serverpilot-agent (1.0.0-6) …
Adding group `sp-appuser’ (GID 109) …
Done.
initctl: Unknown instance:
serverpilot-agent start/running, process 1076
********************************************************************************
erverPilot is now configuring and securing your server.
o not stop/resize/reboot your server right now.

ou can manage this server at https://manage.serverpilot.io
********************************************************************************
root@108:~#
At this stage serverpilot is ready to work.

Go to serverpilot page and you’ll see this view.

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Good. At this stage you have working vps server that ready to serve. PHP, MySQL and Web Server already configured by ServerPilot.

Install Fresh Store Builder on VPS Server

1. Pointing Domain to VPS Server

You can login to your domain registrar and set ip address of vps server.

I will configure subdomain http://store.hostingformula.net to vps server ip.

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2. Create apps on serverpilot

Apps in serverpilot term is domain you want to use. If you use subdomain enter it on domain name section.

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You can see the result

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You can check for web server by visiting url or ip address.

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Time to grab fsb file.

3. Create database for fsb on serverpilot

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4. Login to Fresh Store Builder and download latest version.

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5. Upload fsb file to vps server.

To upload file you can use software that support sftp like ftpzilla or winscp (windows). I use scp command from my terminal.

To get username and password for scp connection you can login to serverpilot and set the password.

Click Users link.

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Pick user ‘serverpilot’

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Set password for user serverpilot.

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Write down information you get for send the file to server.

Username : serverpilot

Password : password you set

Ip Address : ip address from Vultr

Testing ssh to vps using previous step.

ssh [email protected]

(change 108.61.197.166 to your ip address).

$ ssh [email protected]
[email protected]’s password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-63-generic x86_64)

* Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

serverpilot@108:~$

If you see same view like I got then you good to go 🙂

Continue with checking folder for upload fsb file.

serverpilot@108:~$ pwd
/srv/users/serverpilot
serverpilot@108:~$ cd apps/store/
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store$ pwd
/srv/users/serverpilot/apps/store
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store$

Those command means :

pwd -> checking current directory

cd apps/store -> go to folder apps/store

pwd -> checking new directory

end result from the step is target directory for upload fsb file :

/srv/users/serverpilot/apps/store

Now send the file using scp.

$ scp Downloads/fsb_4.1.0.zip [email protected]:/srv/users/serverpilot/apps/store

That command will target folder /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/store as place for fsb_4.1.0.zip.

Wait for while.

$ scp Downloads/fsb_4.1.0.zip [email protected]:/srv/users/serverpilot/apps/store
[email protected]’s password:
fsb_4.1.0.zip                                                                                                                         100% 6972KB  33.8KB/s   03:26

6. Install Fresh Store Builder on VPS

Login to vps server via ssh

$ ssh [email protected]
The authenticity of host ‘store.hostingformula.net (108.61.197.166)’ can’t be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is 20:30:f6:bc:6f:b5:b8:cf:35:c6:c6:0b:af:55:d4:ec.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added ‘store.hostingformula.net’ (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
[email protected]’s password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-63-generic x86_64)

* Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/
Last login: Tue Jun  3 12:32:01 2014 from 202.67.43.40
serverpilot@108:~$

Extract  zip files :

serverpilot@108:~$ cd apps/store/
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store$ ls -l
total 6988
-rw-r–r– 1 serverpilot serverpilot 7138828 Jun  3 12:53 fsb_4.1.0.zip
drwxr-xr-x 2 serverpilot serverpilot    4096 Jun  3 10:19 public
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store$ mv fsb_4.1.0.zip public/
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store$ cd public/
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store/public$ unzip fsb_4.1.0.zip
…………

extracting: templates/new/styles/.gitkeep
extracting: templates/new/styles/index.php
extracting: templates/new/styles/style.css
inflating: templates/README.md
inflating: .htaccess
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store/public$ ls
ajax  apitester.php  backups  changelog.txt  controllers  files.txt   fsb_4.1.0.zip  image.php  index.php  library      logs  readme.txt  sitemap.xml  start  templates
api   autorun        cache    config         emails       freshadmin  icons          images     install    license.txt  min   robots.txt  sitemaps     temp
serverpilot@108:~/apps/store/public$

Continue by visit url to set FSB in first time.

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Press Save button.

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Create access information.

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Enter all requested information related to Amazon and hit Save Parameters.

I got error message :

Site error: the file /srv/users/serverpilot/apps/store/public/library/amazon.php requires the ionCube PHP Loader ioncube_loader_lin_5.4.so to be installed by the website operator. If you are the website operator please use the ionCube Loader Wizard to assist with installation.

To fix this problem I need to install ionCube loader on Vultr vps, fortunately ServerPilot already give reference for this case.

After run the command refresh the url and you’ll see this page. Yes, administration page is ready now.

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Congratulation. Installation process accomplish successfully.

I will continue with Configuration steps for Fresh Store Builder version 4 on other post.

Stay tune!