Fly.io
This is a step-by-step guide for deploying a Strapi project on Fly.io, using the Postgres on Fly integration as persistent storage.
In this guide you are going to:
- Create a Strapi project
- Create a Fly project
- Setup and deploy a Postgres app on Fly
- Deploy the Strapi project on Fly
- Change the Strapi project and re-deploy on Fly
Pre-requirements
Caution
To follow this guide, you will need an existing Fly.io account. For the first sign-up, Fly will require you to register your credit card. This guide will use only free-tier features of Fly, so your card is not going to be charged by following this.
Install the Fly CLI
Download and install the Fly CLI for your operating system. For more configuration and information, follow Introducing Flyctl • Fly Docs.
MacOS:
brew install flyctl
Linux
curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh
Windows
curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh
The flyctl installation will create the symlink to fly, so in terminal both flyctl and fly are interchangeable.
Login to Fly
Login to your Fly account. Follow the instructions and return to the command line.
fly auth login
Create the Strapi project
Generate the project
Create a new Strapi project using create-strapi-app.
NPM
npx create-strapi-app@latest strapi-fly --quickstart
yarn
yarn create strapi-app strapi-fly --quickstart
Tip
When you use --quickstart to create a Strapi project, a SQLite database will be used locally in the development environment. We will configure the production environment to use Postgres later in this guide.
:::
Create the Dockerfile
Fly uses Dockerfiles to deploy its projects. Since Strapi doesn’t generate a Dockerfile for the project, you will have to create it. Create a new file Dockerfile in the root of your project.
YARN
# Dockerfile
FROM node:16
# Installing libvips-dev for sharp Compatability
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install libvips-dev -y
# Set environment to production
ENV NODE_ENV=production
# Copy the configuration files
WORKDIR /opt/
COPY ./package.json ./yarn.lock ./
ENV PATH /opt/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
# Install dependencies
RUN yarn install
# Copy the application files
WORKDIR /opt/app
COPY ./ .
# Build the Strapi application
RUN yarn build
# Expose the Strapi port
EXPOSE 1337
# Start the Strapi application
CMD ["yarn", "start"]
NPM
# Dockerfile
FROM node:16
# Installing libvips-dev for sharp Compatability
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install libvips-dev -y
# Set environment to production
ENV NODE_ENV=production
# Copy the configuration files
WORKDIR /opt/
COPY ./package.json ./package-lock.json ./
ENV PATH /opt/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
# Install dependencies
RUN npm install
# Copy the application files
WORKDIR /opt/app
COPY ./ .
# Build the Strapi application
RUN yarn build
# Expose the Strapi port
EXPOSE 1337
# Start the Strapi application
CMD ["npm", "start"]
Simen Daehlin wrote a full guide on using Strapi with Docker at Docker with Strapi V4.
Create the .dockerignore file
One the root of your project, create another file called .dockerignore. This will indicate what files should be ignored during the Docker build.
# .dockerignore
.tmp/
.cache/
.git/
build/
node_modules/
data/
Create the Fly project
Time to create a new Fly project inside of the Strapi root folder.
fly launch
Follow the instructions on the screen, until the Would you like to setup a Postgresql database now? is prompted.
? App Name (leave blank to use an auto-generated name):
Automatically selected personal organization
? Select region: ams (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Created app bold-haze-733 in organization personal
Wrote config file fly.toml
Setup the Postgres project
You will be prompted Would you like to setup a Postgresql database now?. If you select Yes, Fly will create a separate Postgres project and attach it to your Strapi project. If you have a separate Postgres instance or you want to configure it later, select No and read further Postgres on Fly • Fly Docs.
Once you select Yes and select your preferred configuration, the Postgres app is being deployed.
? Would you like to setup a Postgresql database now? Yes
For pricing information visit: https://fly.io/docs/about/pricing/#postgresql-clusters
? Select configuration: Development - Single node, 1x shared CPU, 256MB RAM, 1GB disk
Creating postgres cluster bold-haze-733-db in organization personal
Postgres cluster bold-haze-733-db created
Tip
Explore how you can use the free resources on Fly at About Free Postgres on Fly • Fly Docs
Once the Postgres cluster is deployed, you will be prompted with the configuration details. Make sure to save these, since you won’t be able to revisit them.
Username: postgres
Password: 9904f659e488d9bb0572491ef3693c8c5df4345b8e136aed
Hostname: bold-haze-733-db.internal
Proxy Port: 5432
PG Port: 5433
Save your credentials in a secure place, you won't be able to see them again!
Moreover, Fly will provide you with the credentials that can be used internally in your app. Read more about connecting to Postgres within Fly vs. outside Fly in Connecting to Postgres • Fly Docs.
Attach Postgres to the Strapi app
Fly will automatically attach the Postgres cluster to the Strapi that you just created.
Postgres cluster bold-haze-733-db is now attached to bold-haze-733
The following secret was added to bold-haze-733:
DATABASE_URL=postgres://bold_haze_733:ppx33flwj9JyM81@top2.nearest.of.bold-haze-733-db.internal:5432/bold_haze_733
Postgres cluster bold-haze-733-db is now attached to bold-haze-733
Fly automatically adds the DATABASE_URL in the environment secrets of the app. The Fly secrets are available to the app when it’s running, but to deploy it from your machine, you need to make it available locally first. Edit the .env file of your Strapi project to include the exact same variable.
# .env
DATABASE_URL=postgres://bold_haze_733:ppx33flwj9JyM81@top2.nearest.of.bold-haze-733-db.internal:5432/bold_haze_733
Tip
If you connect to your Strapi database externally, read more about managing Postgres or connecting from outside Fly at Postgres on Fly • Fly Docs.
When prompted Would you like to deploy now?, select No. You need to configure the production environment first.
Configure the production environment
Before deploying the Strapi app, you will need to configure it to be production-ready.
Configure Fly
The Fly CLI generated the configuration file fly.toml. This file should point the port that Strapi is using. Go to the fly.toml file and change the internal_port row (line 17) to 1337.
[[services]]
http_checks = []
internal_port = 1337
processes = ["app"]
protocol = "tcp"
script_checks = []
Configure Strapi
Because you are using Postgres, you will need to install the pg-connection-string package to split DATABASE_URL and pg as a client.
YARN
yarn add pg-connection-string pg
NPM
npm i pg-connection-string pg
Inside of the ./config directory, you need to setup a database config file for the production environment. Create a new file ./config/env/production/database.js. This will connect Strapi to the production Postgres database you just created.
// ./config/env/production/database.js
const parse = require("pg-connection-string").parse;
const config = parse(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
module.exports = () => ({
connection: {
client: "postgres",
connection: {
host: config.host,
port: config.port,
database: config.database,
user: config.user,
password: config.password,
ssl: false,
},
debug: false,
},
});
Caution
This will configure the production environment to use Postgres. The local development config will remain SQLite and can be found in ./config/database.js. If you want to configure it, read more about Database configuration - Strapi Developer Docs.
Deploy to fly
Time to deploy your Strapi application to Fly.
fly deploy
This will build the Dockerfile with your project and deploy it to Fly. Follow the URL generated by Fly to get to your admin dashboard.
From here, continue using Strapi as you would normally do, or follow the Quick Start Guide - Strapi Developer Docs.
Caution
Strapi does not allow you to use the Content-type Builder in production. To update the content types, you will have to make the changes locally and re-deploy them to Fly.
Update the Strapi project
Even if you deployed your Strapi app to production, you can still use your local environment as development environment. In order to make the local changes available to production you will need to re-deploy the Fly app.
Following Quick Start Guide - Strapi Developer Docs, start by running Strapi in development mode.
YARN
yarn develop
NPM
npm run develop
After you make the changes and you are sure they work, re-deploy your app.
fly deploy
.
, go to the administration
, go to: