Lemmy-Ansible

This provides an easy way to install Lemmy on any server. It automatically sets up an nginx server, letsencrypt certificates, and email.

Requirements

To run this ansible playbook, you need to:

• Have a Debian-based server / VPS where lemmy will run.
• Configure a DNS A Record to point at your server's IP address.
• Make sure you can ssh to it, with a sudo user: ssh <your-user>@<your-domain>
• Install Ansible on your local machine (do not install it on your destination server).

Install

1. Clone this repo:

   git clone https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ansible.git
   cd lemmy-ansible
   

2. Make a directory to hold your config:

   mkdir -p inventory/host_vars/<your-domain>

3. Copy the sample configuration file:

   cp examples/config.hjson inventory/host_vars/<your-domain>/config.hjson

   Edit that file and change the config to your liking. Note: Do not edit anything inside the {{ }} braces.

   Here are all the config options.

4. Copy the sample inventory hosts file:

   cp examples/hosts inventory/hosts

   Edit the inventory hosts file (inventory/hosts) to your liking.

5. Copy the sample postgresql.conf

   cp examples/customPostgresql.conf inventory/host_vars/<your-domain>/customPostgresql.conf

   You can use the PGTune tool to tune your postgres to meet your server memory and CPU.

6. Run the playbook:

   ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts lemmy.yml

   Note: if you are not the root user or don't have password-less sudo, use this command:

   ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts lemmy.yml --become --ask-become-pass

   Note: if you haven't set up ssh keys¹, and ssh using a password, use the command:

   ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts lemmy.yml --become --ask-pass --ask-become-pass

   Full ansible command-line docs

   If the command above fails, you may need to comment out this line In the ansible.cfg file:

   interpreter_python=/usr/bin/python3

Upgrading

• Run git pull
• Check out the Lemmy Releases Changelog to see if there are any config changes with the releases since your last.
• Run ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts lemmy.yml --become

Migrating your existing install to use this deploy

• Follow this guide to backup your existing install.
• Run docker-compose stop to stop lemmy.
• Move your docker folders on the server to <lemmy_base_dir>/<your-domain>.
• Copy your postgres password to inventory/host_vars/<your-domain>/passwords/postgres.
• Follow the install guide above, making sure your config.hjson is the same as your backup.

Uninstall

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts uninstall.yml --become

License

• AGPL License

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1. To create an ssh key pair with your host environment, you can follow the instructions here, and then copy the key to your host server. ↩︎