Set up Typesense on Ubuntu 22.04 including SSL

Tim Kleyersburg on 25 April 2024

Typesense is a fast, typo-tolerant search engine that is easy to set up and use. In this tutorial, we will set up Typesense on a VPS and configure it to use SSL certificates. We will use a cheap VPS from Hetzner, but you can use any VPS provider that you prefer.

Preqrequisites #

Before we start, you will need the following:

• A VPS with Ubuntu 22.04 with at least 1GB of RAM and 1 CPU core
• A domain name that you can point to your VPS
• A basic understanding of Linux and the command line

Step 1: Install Typesense #

After your server is spun up, SSH into it and run the following commands:

# Update the package list and the packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y
 
# Install Typesense
# x64
curl -O https://dl.typesense.org/releases/26.0/typesense-server-26.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -xzf typesense-server-26.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz
 
# arm64
curl -O https://dl.typesense.org/releases/26.0/typesense-server-26.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz
tar -xzf typesense-server-26.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz
# Update the package list and the packages
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Install Typesense
# x64
curl -O https://dl.typesense.org/releases/26.0/typesense-server-26.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -xzf typesense-server-26.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz

# arm64
curl -O https://dl.typesense.org/releases/26.0/typesense-server-26.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz
tar -xzf typesense-server-26.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz

Step 2: Set up SSL #

Before proceeding, make sure that your domain is pointing to your VPS.

To set up SSL, we will use Certbot to generate SSL certificates for our domain. Run the following commands:

apt install snapd
snap install core && snap refresh core
snap install --classic certbot
certbot certonly --standalone -d your.domain.example.com
apt install snapd
snap install core && snap refresh core
snap install --classic certbot
certbot certonly --standalone -d your.domain.example.com

This will also set up auto renewal of your certificates. To make sure that Typesense will use the new certificates you will need to restart the service when the certificates have been renewed.

With your preferred text editor, open the Certbot renewal configuration file /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/your.domain.example.com.conf.

Add the following line to the file:

renew_hook = systemctl reload typesense-server.service
renew_hook = systemctl reload typesense-server.service

Step 3: Configure Typesense #

Open the Typesense configuration file /etc/typesense/typesense-server.ini with your preferred text editor and change the lines with the comments. All other lines can be left as they are.

[server]
 
api-address = 0.0.0.0
api-port = 443 # Adjust the port
api-key = api-key # Set a secure API Key
log-dir = /var/log/typesense
ssl-certificate = /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.domain.example.com/fullchain.pem # Path to the SSL certificate
ssl-certificate-key = /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.domain.example.com/privkey.pem # Path to the SSL certificate key
[server]

api-address = 0.0.0.0
api-port = 443 # Adjust the port
api-key = api-key # Set a secure API Key
log-dir = /var/log/typesense
ssl-certificate = /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.domain.example.com/fullchain.pem # Path to the SSL certificate
ssl-certificate-key = /etc/letsencrypt/live/your.domain.example.com/privkey.pem # Path to the SSL certificate key

Step 4: Adjust firewall #

As a security measure, you should adjust the firewall to only allow incoming traffic on the ports you need. Run the following commands:

ufw allow 443
ufw allow 80
ufw allow 22
ufw enable
ufw allow 443
ufw allow 80
ufw allow 22
ufw enable

This ensures, that only traffic from these ports are allowed.

Step 5: Start Typesense #

You are now ready to start Typesense!

Run the command below to start Typesense:

systemctl start typesense-server.service
systemctl start typesense-server.service

You may check if everything worked by opening the health check URL in your browser: https://your.domain.example.com/health.

If everything worked, you should see a JSON response like this:

{
	"ok": true
}
{
	"ok": true
}

I hope this post helped you! If you have any questions, hit me up on X 😊.