NodeBB on Windows 10 / 2016

[0xA4B16]

Hello All,

this is a guideline of how to get NodeBB running on Windows in a way which worked for me.
I will update this guideline over time as there is always something to improve.

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Prerequisites Stuff

These steps have been captured by a new VPS installation.
The following was installed before attempting the steps further below:

• Windows Server 2016 / Windows 10 (tested on both)
• Full Windows Update
• Visual Studio Code Insider
• Visual Studio Community Edition 15.7.1 (C++ and .NET Environments)

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Download Stuff

Node.js

https://nodejs.org/dist/v10.1.0/node-v10.1.0-x64.msi

nginx

https://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.14.0.zip

MongoDB

https://fastdl.mongodb.org/win32/mongodb-win32-x86_64-2008plus-ssl-3.6.4-signed.msi

NodeBB

https://codeload.github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/zip/v1.9.1

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Install Stuff

Install Node.js > X:\Node
Unzip nginx > X:\nginx
Unzip NodeBB > X:\NodeBB
Install Mongo > X:\MongoDB

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Test Stuff

Test Node.js
cmd > node --version

v10.1.0

Test nginx
cmd > X:\nginx
nginx -v

nginx version: nginx/1.14.0

Test Mongo
Add to Path (User & System) > X:\MongoDB\bin
Reboot
cmd > mongod --version

db version v3.6.4

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Configure Mongo Service Stuff

mkdir X:\MongoDB\data\db
mkdir X:\MongoDB\logs

make a file called mongod.cfg:

systemLog:
 destination: file 
 path: X:\MongoDB\logs\mongod.log
storage: 
 dbPath: X:\MongoDB\data\db
security:
  authorization: enabled

copy mongod.cfg > X:\MongoDB\mongod.cfg

Install Mongo as Windows Service
sc.exe create MongoDB binPath= ""X:\MongoDB\bin\mongod.exe" --service --config="X:\MongoDB\mongod.cfg"" DisplayName= "MongoDB" start= "auto"

[SC] CreateService SUCCESS

net start MongoDB

The MongoDB service is starting.
The MongoDB service was started successfully

InfoBox
How to Remove Mongo as Windows Service
net stop MongoDB
sc.exe delete MongoDB

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Create Mongo Database Stuff

Create 2 very good long safe uncrackable passwords:

PASSWORD1 > MondoDB Admin
PASSWORD2 > MongoDB NodeBB Account

cmd > mongo

use admin
db.createUser( { user: "admin", pwd: "PASSWORD1", roles: [ { role: "readWriteAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }, { role: "userAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" } ] } )

Look for something like:

"Successfully added user"

quit()
net stop MongoDB
net start MongoDB
mongo -u admin -p PASSWORD1 --authenticationDatabase=admin

use nodebb
db.createUser( { user: "nodebb", pwd: "PASSWORD2", roles: [ { role: "readWrite", db: "nodebb" }, { role: "clusterMonitor", db: "admin" } ] } )

Look for something like:

"Successfully added user"

quit()

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NodeBB Configuration Stuff

cmd > X:\NodeBB
nodebb setup

Wait for stuff to happen ..
Answers the prompts
Note: Set the URL to your real Yourdomain.com if you want to use one !

Or fix it later here:
X:\NodeBB\config.json

If you mess up, start again with:
nodebb setup

Check for:

"NodeBB Setup Completed"

Start the Forum
cmd > nodebb start

InfoBox
To Stop ..
nodebb stop

Node.js will start up
Access your forum at your Yourdomain:4567 (or localhost:4567 for testing)

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nginx Stuffnx

Edit C:\nginx\conf\nginx.conf

#user  nobody;
worker_processes  1;

#error_log  logs/error.log;
#error_log  logs/error.log  notice;
#error_log  logs/error.log  info;

#pid        logs/nginx.pid;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;

    #log_format  main  '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
    #                  '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
    #                  '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';

    #access_log  logs/access.log  main;

    sendfile        on;
    #tcp_nopush     on;

    #keepalive_timeout  0;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    #gzip  on;

server {
    listen 80;

    server_name 123.124.125.126;

    location / {
        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;
        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
        proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;

        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567;
        proxy_redirect off;

        # Socket.IO Support
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}
}

make sure to edit ..

server_name 123.124.125.126;

.. with your real webserver external IP

InfoBox
Default value for the listening IP is:

server_name $hostname;

Which gets translated to 0.0.0.0 which means 'All IPs'

Ok, lets move on ..

start nginx

InfoBox
Good to know:
nginx -s stop
nginx -s restart

Access your forum at: Yourdomain:80

You want to further tune your nginx.conf by doing lots of Google research but it should work for now.

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More Stuff

1. Get extreme speeds by putting your X:\ in a Ramdisk

I recommend Softperfect Ramdisk as unlike other Windows ramdisks it has excellent performance on parallel read/write requests.
Currently I have Node.js/Mongo/nginx/NodeBB on a Ramdisk image with a size of 4GB, autosave every 60 minutes or any interval you need. Around 2.5GB are used for all having an empty forum.

2. Issues: I still investigate a problem with Mongo to cash overnight, will update once I figure that out.

3. Tuning: You do not really need to use nginx in this scenario. It all depends on your own website project. However nginx can offer some cache features and other magic things which you may want to use at some point.

4. Windows Firewall, if you can't connect to the forum from an external device, try to edit your Windows Firewall configuration for Port 80 to listen to your external IP only. If you set it to "All IP's" it did not work for me somehow.

[0xA4B16]

This post is deleted!

[0xA4B16]

@pummelchen said in NodeBB on Windows 10 / 2016:

Issues: I still investigate a problem with Mongo to cash overnight, will update once I figure that out.

So turned out that when the forum has no traffic, like when it sits idle overnight, something gets a timeout and the forum responds with "Internal Server Error" once you load it in the morning. Need to run nodebb stop/start cycle to fix that.

Since I have a website alive monitor running which loads the forum every x seconds from external also to measure response time for performance monitoring, that issue is gone.

Forum is responsive and stable for many days now without a single failure. Total RAM usuage for mongo/node/ngix is around 360 MB while the website monitor sends one request every 10 seconds to the forum over Cloudfare and the same to the homepage which simulates ca. 20.000 users per month in total.

[arranka]

I have this error message when trying to start mongob.exe

Any idea of how to solve the problem of cache and meroria?

WARNING: The file system cache of this machine is configured to be greater than 40% of the total memory. This can lead to increased memory pressure and poor performance.

[PitaJ]

That's a warning, not an error.

[0xA4B16]

I guess you use a VPS with low RAM, and Windows needs to swap out to keep going. My VPS has 8GB RAM and 2GB swap with usually 5-6GB RAM free even under stress test.

[0xA4B16]

If anyone gets this error having the forum in a subfolder like blabla.com/forum:

forumcategories Not Found

Fix Here