Version: Jun 2, 2025

DreblowDesignsWebServer

Dreblow Designs server

Getting Started

This blog sets up a reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS using NGINX for website hosting and Let's Encrypt for SSL certificate. These are guides I've written based on setting up and maintaining my own production-grade Ubuntu server using Docker, NGINX, and shell scripts — fully open source and self-hosted.

Check out the required Docker Compose files for the server and sites:

Prerequisites

Docker
Docker Compose
Your DNS A record pointing to your server

Setup

Clone the repo:

git clone git@github.com:Dreblow/DreblowDesignsWebServer.git
cd DreblowDesignsWebServer

Run the setup script:

sudo chmod +x setup.sh && ./setup.sh

This will:

Create required directories (data/certs, data/html, data/vhost.d)
Create the shared Docker network webproxy
Start the NGINX proxy + SSL companion stack

Push the update over SSH:

ssh dreblow@<your_ip> '~/git/DreblowDesignsWebServer/setup.sh'

Take it one stop further and add as an alias on the Mac:

Add this to your nano ~/.zshrc or nano /.bash_profile:

alias deployserver="ssh dreblow@<your_ip> '~/git/DreblowDesignsWebServer/setup.sh'"

Then run:

source ~/.zshrc   # or ~/.bash_profile

Now anytime you want to deploy from terminal:

deployserver

Done!!

Here is mine in real life:

# Alias to invoke script on server
alias localdeploy='ssh dre@192.168.1.### "bash ~/git/DreblowDesignsWebServer/setup.sh"'           # Local IP
alias remotedeploy='ssh -p 6## dre@##.##.###.### "bash ~/git/DreblowDesignsWebServer/setup.sh"'   # Public IP 

# Optional: enable tab-completion for aliases
setopt complete_aliases                                                                           # Have to have tab auto complete

Setup.sh

This script automates the entire web server deployment:

Clones the website repos
Copies them to /srv/sites/[domain]
Starts a Docker reverse proxy with HTTPS
Makes sure the server is the only one responsible for deployment — not the websites themselves

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Shebang + Error Handling

#!/bin/bash
set -e

#!/bin/bash ensures the script runs with Bash.
set -e means the script will stop immediately if any command fails — good for fail-fast behavior

# Prevent running as root (with sudo)
if [ "$EUID" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "❌ Do not run this script with sudo. Exiting.."
  exit 1
fi

Exit the script if running in sudo. We SSH into Git, and we need to be using user credentials and not root.

Introduction Output

echo "🚀 Launching Dreblow Designs Web Server setup..."

Just a friendly launch message.

Settings Block

GIT_ROOT="$HOME/git"
DEPLOY_ROOT="/srv/sites"
REPOS=(
    # Add more repos here, no commas needed
  "git@github.com:Dreblow/WebSite_DreblowDesigns.git"
  "git@github.com:Dreblow/WebSite_MathSheetGen.git"
  "git@github.com:Dreblow/WebSite_DreblowandAssociates.git"
)

GIT_ROOT: where your cloned repos will live on the server.
DEPLOY_ROOT: where live web files are served from.
REPOS: list of Git repos to deploy.

Directory Setup

if [ ! -d "$GIT_ROOT" ]; then
  sudo mkdir -p "$GIT_ROOT"
fi
if [ ! -d "$DEPLOY_ROOT" ]; then
  sudo mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_ROOT"
fi
sudo chown -R "$USER" "$GIT_ROOT" "$DEPLOY_ROOT"

creates /git and /srv/sites if they don’t exist.
Changes ownership to your current user so you don’t need sudo later.

Repo Cloning & Deployment Loop

for REPO in "${REPOS[@]}"; do
  NAME=$(basename "$REPO" .git)
  DOMAIN="$(echo "$NAME" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed 's/website_//g').com"

  LOCAL_REPO="$GIT_ROOT/$NAME"
  if [ -d "$LOCAL_REPO" ]; then
    echo "🗑️ Removing old repository at $LOCAL_REPO..."
    rm -rf "$LOCAL_REPO"
  fi

  if [ -d "$DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN" ]; then
    echo "🗑️ Removing deployed site at $DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN..."
    rm -rf "$DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN"
  fi

  if [ -d "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME/.git" ]; then
    git -C "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME" pull
  else
    git clone "$REPO" "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME"
  fi

  mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN"
  rsync -av --delete "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME/" "$DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN/" \
    --exclude ".git" --exclude "resources/dev" --exclude "node_modules"
done

For each repo:
- NAME gets the repo folder name.
- DOMAIN transforms that name into a lowercase .com domain (e.g., WebSite_MyBlog → myblog.com).
- LOCAL_REPO see if folder/files currently exists, if so delete it.
- Removes the deployed site folder in /srv/sites if it exists.
- If repo already exists: pull the latest.
- If not: clone it.
- Syncs the repo into /srv/sites/[domain]/, excluding development junk (.git, dev scripts, node modules).

Docker Network Setup

docker network inspect webproxy >/dev/null 2>&1 || \ docker network create webproxy

Ensures the shared Docker network webproxy exists for your NGINX and SSL containers.

Start Reverse Proxy Stack

SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
docker compose -f "$SCRIPT_DIR/docker/server/docker-compose.yml" up -d
docker compose -f "$SCRIPT_DIR/docker/sites/docker-compose.yml" up -d

Boots up your NGINX and acme-companion containers using the docker-compose files inside the docker/server and docker/sites directories.
This approach centralizes and dynamically manages the proxy and site containers.
Provides HTTPS and reverse proxying for all deployed sites.

Wrap-up

echo "✅ All websites are deployed and live with HTTPS support."

Done! All sites are deployed under your single management umbrella.

The entire script

#!/bin/bash

# Super clean, Super Bias, Dreblow Designs Server Setup Script
# This script owns all deployments. Websites are dumb. Server is smart.

set -e

# Prevent running as root (with sudo)
if [ "$EUID" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "❌ Do not run this script with sudo. Exiting.."
  exit 1
fi

echo "🚀 Launching Dreblow Designs Web Server setup..."

# === SETTINGS ===
GIT_ROOT="$HOME/git"
DEPLOY_ROOT="/srv/sites"
REPOS=(
  "git@github.com:Dreblow/WebSite_DreblowDesigns.git"
  "git@github.com:Dreblow/WebSite_MathSheetGen.git"
  "git@github.com:Dreblow/WebSite_DreblowandAssociates.git"
  # Add more repos here
)

# === PREP DIRECTORIES ===
echo "📁 Ensuring base directories exist..."
if [ ! -d "$GIT_ROOT" ]; then
  echo "📁 Creating git directory at $GIT_ROOT"
  sudo mkdir -p "$GIT_ROOT"
else
  echo "✅ Git directory exists at $GIT_ROOT"
fi

if [ ! -d "$DEPLOY_ROOT" ]; then
  echo "📁 Creating deploy directory at $DEPLOY_ROOT"
  sudo mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_ROOT"
else
  echo "✅ Deploy directory exists at $DEPLOY_ROOT"
fi

sudo chown -R "$USER" "$GIT_ROOT" "$DEPLOY_ROOT"

# === CLONE & DEPLOY ===
echo "📦 Cloning and copying website files..."
for REPO in "${REPOS[@]}"; do
  NAME=$(basename "$REPO" .git)
  DOMAIN="$(echo "$NAME" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed 's/website_//g').com"
  
  LOCAL_REPO="$GIT_ROOT/$NAME"
  if [ -d "$LOCAL_REPO" ]; then
    echo "🗑️ Removing old repository at $LOCAL_REPO..."
    rm -rf "$LOCAL_REPO"
  fi

  DOMAIN="$(echo "$NAME" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | sed 's/website_//g').com"

  # Clone or pull
  if [ -d "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME/.git" ]; then
    echo "🔄 Updating $NAME..."
    git -C "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME" pull
  else
    echo "📥 Cloning $NAME..."
    git clone "$REPO" "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME"
  fi

  # Copy static content
  echo "📤 Deploying to $DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN..."
  mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN"
  rsync -av --delete "$GIT_ROOT/$NAME/" "$DEPLOY_ROOT/$DOMAIN/" \
    --exclude ".git" --exclude "resources/dev" --exclude "node_modules"
done

# === NETWORK SETUP ===
echo "🌐 Ensuring shared Docker network exists..."
docker network inspect webproxy >/dev/null 2>&1 || \
  docker network create webproxy

# === START REVERSE PROXY ===
echo "🧰 Starting NGINX + SSL reverse proxy..."
SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
docker compose -f "$SCRIPT_DIR/docker/server/docker-compose.yml" up -d
docker compose -f "$SCRIPT_DIR/docker/sites/docker-compose.yml" up -d

# === DONE ===
echo "✅ All websites are deployed and live with HTTPS support."