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Conloca CMS

VPS (systemd)

Run Conloca directly on a Linux VPS as a systemd service. This is a lightweight alternative to Docker for servers where you want to run Bun natively.

Prerequisites

  • A Linux server (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, etc.)
  • Bun installed (bun.sh)
  • A built Astro site with Conloca configured (bun run build completed)

Setup

1. Create a system user

Create a dedicated user for running the CMS:

sudo useradd -r -m -d /home/conloca -s /usr/sbin/nologin conloca

2. Deploy the application

Copy your built application to /opt/conloca:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/conloca
sudo cp -r dist node_modules package.json /opt/conloca/
sudo cp -r content /opt/conloca/
sudo chown -R conloca:conloca /opt/conloca

3. Create the systemd unit file

Create /etc/systemd/system/conloca.service:

[Unit]
Description=Conloca CMS
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=conloca
WorkingDirectory=/opt/conloca
ExecStart=/home/conloca/.bun/bin/bun run ./dist/server/entry.mjs
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Environment=HOST=0.0.0.0
Environment=PORT=4321

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If Bun is installed system-wide (e.g., via a package manager), adjust the ExecStart path accordingly:

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/bun run ./dist/server/entry.mjs

4. Add environment variables

For authentication with Cloudflare Access, add these environment variables to the unit file:

Environment=CF_ACCESS_TEAM_NAME=YOUR_TEAM_NAME
Environment=CF_ACCESS_AUD=YOUR_APPLICATION_AUD_TAG

Or use an environment file for better security:

EnvironmentFile=/opt/conloca/.env

See the Cloudflare Access guide for how to obtain these values.

5. Enable and start

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now conloca

Managing the service

Check status:

sudo systemctl status conloca

View logs:

journalctl -u conloca -f

Restart after an update:

sudo systemctl restart conloca

Updating

To deploy a new version:

# Build on your local machine
bun run build

# Copy to server
scp -r dist package.json node_modules user@server:/opt/conloca/

# Restart
ssh user@server 'sudo systemctl restart conloca'

Reverse proxy

For HTTPS, place a reverse proxy in front of Conloca. Here are examples for Caddy and nginx.

Caddy

Install Caddy and create /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

cms.YOUR_DOMAIN.com {
  reverse_proxy localhost:4321
}

Caddy automatically provisions TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt.

sudo systemctl enable --now caddy

nginx

Install nginx and create /etc/nginx/sites-available/conloca:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name cms.YOUR_DOMAIN.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4321;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        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;

        # WebSocket support for live content updates
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

Enable the site and use certbot for TLS:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/conloca /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo certbot --nginx -d cms.YOUR_DOMAIN.com
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Next steps