Deploy on Linode running Ubuntu

In the following instructions I used the name demo, axum-demo, and axum-demo.code-maven.com. You’ll probably have to replace those values.

• Create a Linode:
  • Region: does not matter
  • Linux Distribution: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
  • Shared CPU: Nanode 1GB ($5 / month)
  • Linode Label: axum-demo
  • Root Password: Pick something good!
  • SSH Keys: I selectec the one I already have on file.
  • Public Interface Firewall: No firewall

Click in “Create Linode”

It will take about a minute to create the Linode and you’ll see your IP there.

• ssh root@IP

# apt update
# apt upgrade -y
# apt install -y nginx

• Create user

# adduser demo --gecos ''
# cp -r /root/.ssh/ /home/demo/
# chown -R demo:demo /home/demo/.ssh/

# reboot

ssh demo@IP

As user demo:

$ mkdir app

Release the application

e.g. go to the echo-get example and run

cargo build --release

This will create a binary in the target/release folder. In the case of the echo-get example this binary is called echo-get.

Because for me both my desktop and the server runs Ubuntu, this makes sense, but if you have different Operating Systems or different distributions then you might need to either setup cross-compilation, or use a Docker container to build the executable.

An alternatively could be this command:

docker run --rm -it -v "$PWD:/src" --user ubuntu -w /src szabgab/rust:latest /home/ubuntu/.cargo/bin/cargo build --release

Upload to the server

scp target/release/echo-get demo@IP:app/axum-demo

Verify that the application runs

ssh demo@IP

cd app
./demo

This should run the server

In another terminal ssh demo@IP again and try:

curl http://localhost:3000

That should show the main page

Set it up as a service

In the service configuration file search for the word demo and axum and replace them with the values appropriate to your setup.

[Unit]
Description=Axum Demo Service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=demo
Group=demo
Restart=always
WorkingDirectory=/home/demo/app/
ExecStart=/home/demo/app/axum-demo
Nice=19
LimitNOFILE=16384

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Upload the axum-demo.service file to /etc/systemd/system/axum-demo.service

$ scp axum-demo.service root@IP:/etc/systemd/system/axum-demo.service

Connect again to the server as user root and set up the service.

$ ssh root@IP

# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl enable axum-demo.service
# systemctl start axum-demo.service

Verify that the application runs as a service:

Running curl http://localhost:3000 again (on the server) should return the page again.

nginx

After replacing demo in the file, upload the nginx configuration file:

scp axum-demo.code-maven.com     root@IP:/etc/nginx/sites-available/

# cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
# ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/axum-demo.code-maven.com
# systemctl restart nginx

server {
  server_name axum-demo.code-maven.com;
  listen    [::]:80;
  listen    80;

  try_files $uri.html $uri $uri/ =404;

  location / {
      proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $http_host;
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_pass  http://port3000;
  }


  access_log  /var/log/nginx/axum-demo.log;
  error_log /var/log/nginx/axum-demo.error.log;

}

upstream port3000  {
   server 127.0.0.1:3000;
}

DNS name resolving

If you have a domain you can map any hostname to this IP. I use the iwantmyname service to register domain names and handle DNS configuration. So I mapped axum-demo.code-maven.com to the IP addresses Linode gave me. (Both IPv4 and IPv6.)

Then waited a minute to allow for their service to be updated and then checked with whatsmydns service if the new name already resolves by a large chunk of the Internet.

HTTPS Certificate

• Install certbot for Let’s Encode certificate following the instructions in that link.

# snap install --classic certbot
# ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
# certbot --nginx

Domain name to certify: axum-demo.code-maven.com

Done

At this point your service should be up and running. I’d recommend rebooting the server to verify that after a reboot the service runs again.

Upgrade

After a while you will probably make some changes to the application and will want to upgrade it on the server.

• Build a new release
• Create a copy of the old executable so you can easily switch back if necessary.
• Upload the executable to the server replacing the old executable.
• Restart the service:

systemctl restart axum-demo

That’s it.