Project Demo

In this article, we demonstrate how to deploy the KodeKloud ecommerce application manually on a CentOS machine—without using automation tools like Ansible. You can use any available CentOS machine or quickly access a CentOS playground online.

The application's source code is hosted on GitHub in the learning-app-ecommerce repository maintained by the KodeKloud organization. The repository includes all necessary deployment files along with a detailed README file divided into three sections:

• Deploying prerequisites
• Deploying and configuring the database
• Deploying and configuring the web server

Follow the steps below sequentially to complete the manual deployment.

1. Deploying Prerequisites

Installing and Configuring firewalld

Begin by installing firewalld, then start and enable the service to run on system boot:

sudo yum install -y firewalld
sudo systemctl start firewalld
sudo systemctl enable firewalld

If you need to troubleshoot, verify the service status with:

sudo systemctl status firewalld

When adding firewall rules later in the process, you can list all active rules with:

sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

A sample troubleshooting session might resemble:

[root@eb29eab4499 ~]# sudo systemctl start firewalld
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start firewalld.service
[root@eb29eab4499 ~]# sudo systemctl enable firewalld
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.fedoraproject.FirewallD1.service
    to /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/firewalld.service
    to /usr/lib/systemd/system/firewalld.service.

2. Deploying and Configuring the Database

Installing MariaDB Server

Install the MariaDB server package using the following command:

sudo yum install -y mariadb-server

After installation, you can review or modify default settings in the configuration file /etc/my.cnf. Below is an example configuration; unless you need to change the default port or other settings, the provided configuration remains suitable:

[mysqld]
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
# Disabling symbolic-links is recommended to prevent assorted security risks
symbolic-links=0
# Settings user and group are ignored when systemd is used.
# If you need to run mysqld under a different user or group,
# customize your systemd unit file for mariadb according to the
[mysqld_safe]
log-error=/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log
pid-file=/var/run/mariadb/mariadb.pid
#
# include all files from the config directory
#
!includedir /etc/my.cnf.d

Start and enable MariaDB:

sudo systemctl start mariadb
sudo systemctl enable mariadb

A sample session to verify these steps:

[root@eb29eab44d99 ~]# vi /etc/my.cnf
[root@eb29eab44d99 ~]# sudo systemctl start mariadb
Redirecting to /bin/systemctl start mariadb.service
[root@eb29eab44d99 ~]# sudo systemctl enable mariadb
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service
    to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.

Adding the Firewall Rule for MariaDB

Open port 3306 (the default MySQL port) by executing:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=3306/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Confirm that the new rule is active:

sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

Configuring the Database

Access the MariaDB monitor to create the database, add a new user, and grant the necessary privileges.

:::note Database Setup In this example, we create a database named ecomdb and a user ecomuser with the password ecompassword. :::

1. Create the Database:

   MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE ecomdb;
   Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
   

2. Verify the Database:

   If a typo occurs, such as show database;, correct it using:

   MariaDB [(none)]> SHOW DATABASES;
   +--------------------+
   | Database           |
   +--------------------+
   | information_schema |
   | ecomdb             |
   | mysql              |
   | performance_schema |
   | test               |
   +--------------------+
   5 rows in set (0.00 sec)
   

3. Create a Database User and Grant Privileges:

   MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'ecomuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'ecompassword';
   Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
   
   MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'ecomuser'@'localhost';
   Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
   
   MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   

Loading Inventory Data

The GitHub repository includes a SQL script (DB-load-script.sql in the assets directory) that creates a products table with sample data.

1. Create the SQL Script File:

   Run the command below to create the file and paste the content:

   cat > db-load-script.sql
   

2. Sample Contents of db-load-script.sql:

   USE ecomdb;
   CREATE TABLE products (
     id mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
     Name varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
     Price varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
     ImageUrl varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
     PRIMARY KEY (id) AUTO_INCREMENT=1
   );
   
   INSERT INTO products (Name, Price, ImageUrl) VALUES
     ("Laptop", "100", "c-1.png"),
     ("Drone", "20", "c-2.png"),
     ("VR", "300", "c-3.png"),
     ("Tablet", "50", "c-5.png"),
     ("Watch", "90", "c-6.png"),
     ("Phone Covers", "20", "c-7.png"),
     ("Phone", "80", "c-8.png"),
     ("Laptop", "150", "c-4.png");
   

3. Load the Data:

   Execute the script with:

   mysql < db-load-script.sql
   

4. Verification:

   Log in to the MariaDB monitor and switch to the ecomdb database to confirm the data was loaded:

   mysql
   Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
   Your MariaDB connection id is 4
   Server version: 5.5.64-MariaDB MariaDB Server
   
   MariaDB [(none)]> USE ecomdb;
   Database changed
   MariaDB [ecomdb]> SELECT * FROM products;
   +----+---------------+-------+----------+
   | id | Name          | Price | ImageUrl |
   +----+---------------+-------+----------+
   |  1 | Laptop        | 100   | c-1.png  |
   |  2 | Drone         | 20    | c-2.png  |
   |  3 | VR            | 300   | c-3.png  |
   |  4 | Tablet        | 50    | c-5.png  |
   |  5 | Watch         | 90    | c-6.png  |
   |  6 | Phone Covers  | 20    | c-7.png  |
   |  7 | Phone         | 80    | c-8.png  |
   |  8 | Laptop        | 150   | c-4.png  |
   +----+---------------+-------+----------+
   8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
   

At this point, the database is configured and pre-populated with sample data.

3. Deploying and Configuring the Web Application

Installing HTTPD, PHP, and MySQL Extensions

Install the required web server packages along with PHP and its MySQL extension:

sudo yum install -y httpd php php-mysql

Add the firewall rule for HTTP (port 80) and reload firewalld:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Configuring HTTPD

To configure Apache, open the configuration file and modify the DirectoryIndex if needed. For example, change the default file to index.php by editing the file:

sudo vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Locate and adjust the DirectoryIndex section from:

<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html
</IfModule>

to:

<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.php
</IfModule>

After saving the changes, restart HTTPD:

sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd
sudo systemctl restart httpd

Downloading the Application Code

Ensure Git is installed, then clone the ecommerce repository into the web server’s document root:

sudo yum install -y git
git clone https://github.com/kodekloudhub/learning-app-ecommerce.git /var/www/html/

Verify the files were cloned successfully:

ls /var/www/html/
# Expected output: assets  css  fonts  img  index.php  js  README.md  scss  vendors

Updating Database Connection Settings

By default, the application’s index.php file is configured to connect to an IP address (e.g., 172.20.1.101). Since this is an all-in-one setup, update the database connection details to use localhost. Open index.php and locate the mysqli_connect call.

Change the connection parameters from:

$link = mysqli_connect('172.20.1.101', 'ecommerce', 'password', 'ecommerce');

to:

$link = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'ecomuser', 'ecompassword', 'ecomdb');

Save the file and refresh your web page. You can also test the server response with:

curl http://localhost

If the connection is correctly configured, you will see a list of products fetched from the database.

Troubleshooting Default Page Issues

If an index.html file exists alongside index.php, Apache might serve index.html by default. Ensure that the DirectoryIndex configuration in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf prioritizes index.php. If necessary, remove or rename the default index.html. For example, to create a temporary index file:

cat > index.html
Hello there! This is a sample index file.
^C

After adjusting the DirectoryIndex value, restart HTTPD:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Now, accessing your site should display the ecommerce application (i.e., index.php) rather than the sample index.html.

Conclusion

Following these steps, you have successfully deployed the KodeKloud ecommerce application manually on a CentOS machine. The process included:

• Installing and configuring firewalld and MariaDB
• Setting up the database by creating the database, adding a user, and loading sample data
• Installing and configuring HTTPD, PHP, and cloning the application code
• Updating the database connection settings in index.php

This demonstration highlights how all components work together in a manual deployment scenario. Enjoy exploring the KodeKloud ecommerce application and refer to the KodeKloud GitHub repository for further information and updates.