12 - Ubuntu Server Installation

Overview

This guide covers deploying OpenAlgo on an Ubuntu server (20.04/22.04 LTS) with Nginx reverse proxy, systemd services, and SSL configuration for production use.

Architecture Diagram

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Ubuntu Server Architecture                            │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

                         Internet
                            │
                            ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                          Nginx (Reverse Proxy)                               │
│                          Port 80/443                                         │
│                                                                              │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  - SSL termination (Let's Encrypt)                                   │   │
│  │  - HTTP → HTTPS redirect                                             │   │
│  │  - WebSocket upgrade support                                         │   │
│  │  - Static file serving                                               │   │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                    │                       │
                    ▼                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           OpenAlgo (Gunicorn + WebSocket)           │
│                                                     │
│  Flask App ─────────── localhost:5000               │
│  WebSocket Thread ──── localhost:8765               │
│                                                     │
│  systemd: openalgo                                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                           │
                           ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                          File System                                         │
│                                                                              │
│  /opt/openalgo/                                                             │
│  ├── .venv/              # Virtual environment                              │
│  ├── db/                 # SQLite databases                                 │
│  ├── log/                # Application logs                                 │
│  ├── strategies/         # User strategies                                  │
│  ├── .env                # Configuration                                    │
│  └── app.py              # Main application                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Prerequisites

# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install required packages
sudo apt install -y python3.12 python3.12-venv python3-pip \
                    nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx \
                    git curl build-essential

# Install Node.js (for frontend build)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

Installation Steps

1. Clone Repository

# Create application directory
sudo mkdir -p /opt/openalgo
sudo chown $USER:$USER /opt/openalgo

# Clone repository
cd /opt/openalgo
git clone https://github.com/marketcalls/openalgo.git .

2. Setup Python Environment

# Install uv package manager
pip install uv

# Create virtual environment and install dependencies
uv venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync

# Install production dependencies
uv pip install gunicorn eventlet==0.35.2

3. Configure Environment

# Copy sample environment file
cp .sample.env .env

# Generate secure keys
python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))"
# Copy output to APP_KEY and API_KEY_PEPPER in .env

# Edit configuration
nano .env

4. Build Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

5. Create Systemd Service

Note: The WebSocket server runs as a thread inside the main app (port 8765), so only ONE systemd service is needed.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/openalgo.service

[Unit]
Description=OpenAlgo Trading Platform
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
Group=www-data
WorkingDirectory=/opt/openalgo
Environment="PATH=/opt/openalgo/.venv/bin"
ExecStart=/opt/openalgo/.venv/bin/gunicorn \
    --worker-class eventlet \
    -w 1 \
    --bind 127.0.0.1:5000 \
    --timeout 120 \
    app:app
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Important: Use -w 1 (single worker) for WebSocket compatibility.

6. Set Permissions

# Set ownership
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/openalgo

# Set permissions
sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/openalgo
sudo chmod 700 /opt/openalgo/keys
sudo chmod 600 /opt/openalgo/.env

7. Configure Nginx

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/openalgo

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    # Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name your-domain.com;

    # SSL certificates (Let's Encrypt)
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/your-domain.com/privkey.pem;

    # SSL configuration
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256;

    # Main application
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

        # WebSocket support for Socket.IO
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }

    # WebSocket proxy
    location /ws {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_read_timeout 86400;
    }

    # Static files
    location /static {
        alias /opt/openalgo/static;
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

8. Enable Service

# Enable Nginx site
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/openalgo /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

# Enable and start OpenAlgo service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable openalgo
sudo systemctl start openalgo

9. Setup SSL (Let's Encrypt)

sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com

Service Management

# Check status
sudo systemctl status openalgo

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u openalgo -f

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart openalgo

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop openalgo

Firewall Configuration

# Enable firewall
sudo ufw enable

# Allow required ports
sudo ufw allow 22/tcp     # SSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp     # HTTP
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp    # HTTPS

# Check status
sudo ufw status

Update Procedure

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop openalgo

# Pull updates
cd /opt/openalgo
git pull origin main

# Update dependencies
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync

# Rebuild frontend
cd frontend
npm install
npm run build
cd ..

# Start service
sudo systemctl start openalgo

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
502 Bad Gateway	Check if OpenAlgo service is running: systemctl status openalgo
WebSocket fails	Check Nginx /ws proxy config and service logs
Permission denied	Verify www-data ownership: chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/openalgo
SSL error	Renew certificates: sudo certbot renew

Key Files Reference

File	Purpose
/etc/systemd/system/openalgo.service	Main service (includes WebSocket)
/etc/nginx/sites-available/openalgo	Nginx config
/opt/openalgo/.env	Application config
/var/log/nginx/	Nginx logs

Note: There is no separate openalgo-ws.service. The WebSocket server runs as a thread inside the main Flask application on port 8765.