Deploy

These instructions describe installing Dropspace on a Google Cloud Virtual Machine Instance. If using another cloud provider, apart from setting up the Virtual Machine, the rest of the instructions should be similar.

Checklist

1. Create Virtual Machine
2. Install Linux Dropbox client
3. Install Dropspace
4. Install Certbot

Detailed Instructions

Create Virutal Machine

In your Google Cloud Platform account, navigate to "Compute Engine" then select "Create Instance".

You will need to modify the Boot disk settings - select Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Minimal.

Also under the Firewall settings check the "Allow HTTP traffic" and "Allow HTTPS traffic".

The rest of the defaults that are provided will be sufficient, but you might want to select a region that is closer to you and a cheaper machine type. I find the micro is more than enough to start with, and you can easily upgrade the VM later.

See image of an example configuration.

Install Linux Dropbox client

In your home directory, download and decompress the Linux Dropbox client.

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

Next, you will need to associate the Linux Dropbox client with an account. The following will run the Dropbox client, which will display a URL that you can use with a web browser to connect this machine to a new or existing Dropbox account. Once the account is connected, press Control + C to stop the dropbox client.

.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

Once the account is linked, press control and C to terminate the dropbox daemon.

CTRL + C

So that Apache can access the content in the Dropbox directory, you will need to change its file permissions:

chmod 0755 Dropbox

Finally, create an '/etc/rc.local' file that will start the Linux Dropbox client at boot as your user account.

export username=`whoami`
export userhome=~
sudo username=$username userhome=$userhome bash
echo -e '#!/bin/sh -e' "\n\n""su - $username -c $userhome/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd &""\n\n""exit 0" > /etc/rc.local
chmod 0755 /etc/rc.local
exit

Install DropSpace

In your home directory, download the DropSpace archive file:

cd ~ && wget https://dropspace.org/resources/downloads/DropSpace-latest.tar.bz2
cd /srv
sudo mkdir DROPSPACE
cd /srv/DROPSPACE
sudo ln -sf ~/Dropbox sites
sudo tar jxvf ~/DropSpace-latest.tar.bz2 
cd /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace
sudo ln -sf * latest

Install Apache2

The following installs Apache, and the Apache PHP module:

sudo /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace/latest/dropspace/libexec/install_apache/install_apache.sh

You will also need to edit the '/etc/apache2/apache2.conf' file to enable the '/srv' directory.
Uncomment the following by removing the '#' characters:

#<Directory /srv/>
#       Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
#       AllowOverride None
#       Require all granted
#</Directory>

sudo apt-get install nano
sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

You will also need to edit the "/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.2.conf" (or similar) file if you want to enable the execution of versioned php files such as ".php3". The bold sections below defined the regular-expressions that are used to match file names.

{FilesMatch ".+\.ph(p[3457]?|t|tml)$"}
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
{/FilesMatch}
{FilesMatch ".+\.phps$"}
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
    # Deny access to raw php sources by default
    # To re-enable it's recommended to enable access to the files
    # only in specific virtual host or directory
    Require all denied
{/FilesMatch}
# Deny access to files without filename (e.g. '.php')
{FilesMatch "^\.ph(p[3457]?|t|tml|ps)$"}
    Require all denied
{/FilesMatch}

# Running PHP scripts in user directories is disabled by default
#
# To re-enable PHP in user directories comment the following lines
# (from  to .) Do NOT set it to On as it
# prevents .htaccess files from disabling it.
{IfModule mod_userdir.c}
    {Directory /home/*/public_html}
        php_admin_flag engine Off
    {/Directory}
{/IfModule}

Install Cerbot

sudo /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace/latest/dropspace/libexec/install_certbot/install_certbot.sh
sudo apt-get install dnsutils

Configuring Websites

Note: for now it is recommended that you run these scripts manually, however, instructions for setting up cron is below.

Run the 'generate_apache_configuration.sh' script to generate any required Apache configuration files for websites shared into ~/Dropbox.

sudo /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace/latest/dropspace/libexec/generate_apache_configurations/generate_apache_configurations.sh ~/Dropbox /srv/DROPSPACE /etc/apache2

You will need to run 'sudo service apache2 restart' after 'generate_apache_configuration.sh' in order to activate the generated configuration file.

Run the 'run_certbot.sh' script to retrieve Let's Encrypt SSL certificates for any websites that have been configured.

sudo /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace/latest/dropspace/libexec/run_certbot/run_certbot.sh /etc/apache2

Note: run_certbot.sh will fail for any domains that do not have the root domain (example.com) and the www domain (www.example.com) pointing at the Dropspace host IP address.

Setup Crontab

Note: for now it is recommended that you run these scripts manually, as Let's Encrypt will quickly refused certificates if queried too often, and also the run_certbot script will restart Apache2 automatically.

To setup cron, the 'root' account's crontab so that the 'generate_apache' script, and 'run_certbot' scripts are run periodically.
Note: when run from cron you must explicity specify the fully-qualified path of the Dropbox directory.

sudo crontab -e

Enter the following two lines into the crontab file - Make sure you replace [username] with your Virtual Machines account name.

* * * * *       /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace/latest/dropspace/libexec/generate_apache_configurations/generate_apache_configurations.sh  /home/[username]/Dropbox /srv/DROPSPACE /etc/apache2 >> /var/log/dropspace.log
* * * * *       /srv/DROPSPACE/DropSpace/latest/dropspace/libexec/run_certbot/run_certbot.sh                                        /etc/apache2                                         >> /var/log/certbot.log

Reboot

Finally, reboot the Virtual Machine, so that the Linux Dropbox clients starts again.

sudo shutdown -r now