Install Metabase on Ubuntu 18.04 with Nginx and SSL – Google Cloud

Install Metabase on Ubuntu 18.04 with Nginx and SSL- Google Cloud. In this guide you are going to install Metabase and use Cloud SQL for database server and also install Nginx and finally secure the installation with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for free.

Metabase is a free, opensource platform built to visualize the data with graphs and charts without writing a single line of SQL query or hiring a developer to analyze the data.

This setup is tested on Google Cloud and it works fine on any other cloud hosting like AWS, Azure or any VPS or Dedicated running Ubuntu 18.04.

Prerequisites

• A running Compute Engine, see the Setting up Compute Engine Instance with Ubuntu 18.04
• Initial Ubuntu Server Set up.
• Setup Google Cloud DNS for your Domain name.
• A running Cloud SQL instance, see How to set up Cloud SQL in Google Cloud

Step 1: Install Java

Once you have completed your instance or server setup you can proceed to install Java 8.

Execute the following command to install OpenJDK 8.

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

Use the update-alternatives command to get the installation path of your default Java version.

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Copy the installation path of your default version and add it in the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

sudo nano /etc/environment

At the end of this file, add the following line with your installation path. The variable will like the one below.

JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java"

Hit Ctrl+X followed by Y and Enter to save and exit the nano editor.

Now JAVA_HOME environment variable is set and available for all users.

Reload to apply changes.

source /etc/environment

To verify the environment variable of Java

echo $JAVA_HOME

You will get the installation path you just set.

Now you have installed and configured Java, so we can proceed to install Metabase.

Step 2: Download Metabase

You can get the latest Metabase from the official website. Copy the Metabase download link and download it using wget command.

wget http://downloads.metabase.com/v0.34.2/metabase.jar

Create a new directory for Metabase and move the downloaded file inside it.

sudo mkdir /opt/metabase
sudo mv metabase.jar /opt/metabase

Step 3: Configure User and Group for Metabase

Now you need to create new user and group specifically to run Metabase.

sudo addgroup --quiet --system metabase
sudo adduser --quiet --system --ingroup metabase --no-create-home --disabled-password metabase

Step 4: Setup correct permissions

Provide correct permissions and privileges to the user we have created above to run Metabase and also configure the logs.

sudo chown -R metabase:metabase /opt/metabase
sudo touch /var/log/metabase.log
sudo chown metabase:metabase /var/log/metabase.log
sudo touch /etc/default/metabase
sudo chmod 640 /etc/default/metabase

Step 5: Create Metabase Service

Creating a service is more useful for managing Metabase to start, stop and restart. Follow the below steps to create the service.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/metabase.service 

Paste the following content inside the file.

[Unit]
Description=Metabase server
After=syslog.target
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/metabase/
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /opt/metabase/metabase.jar
EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/metabase
User=metabase
Type=simple
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=metabase
SuccessExitStatus=143
TimeoutStopSec=120
Restart=always
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Hit Ctrl+X followed by Y and Enter to save and exit the nano editor.

Now reload the daemon and enable the Metabase service to start Metabase on boot.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable metabase

Step 6: Configure Logs

Next you need to create a syslog conf to make sure systemd is able to handle the logs properly.

sudo nano /etc/rsyslog.d/metabase.conf

Paste the following inside the file and save it.

if $programname == 'metabase' then /var/log/metabase.log
& stop

Step 7: Start Metabase

Now you can start Metabase.

sudo systemctl start metabase

To check the status you can use the following command.

sudo systemctl status metabase

You will get the output similar to the one below which indicates Metabase is running successfully.

● metabase.service - Metabase server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/metabase.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-02-20 08:42:59 UTC; 12s ago
 Main PID: 20550 (java)
    Tasks: 10 (limit: 4395)
   CGroup: /system.slice/metabase.service
           └─20550 /usr/bin/java -jar /opt/metabase/metabase.jar

By default Metabase runs on port 3000. Next we can install Nginx and configure reverse proxy to listen on port 3000.

Step 8: Install and Configure Nginx

sudo apt install nginx

Allow ports 80 and 443 if you have configured UFW.

sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'

Remove default Nginx configuration.

sudo rm -rf /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
sudo rm -rf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Create a new configuration file for Metabase.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/metabase.conf

Add the following configurations.

server {
     listen [::]:80;
     listen 80;

     server_name metabase.domain.com;

     location / {
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
         client_max_body_size 100M;
     }
 }

Hit Ctrl+X followed by Y and Enter to save the file and exit.

To enable this newly created website configuration, symlink the file that you just created into the sites-enabled directory.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/metabase.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/metabase.conf

Check your configuration and restart Nginx for the changes to take effect.

sudo nginx -t
sudo service nginx restart

Step 9: Install Let’s Encrypt SSL for Metabase

HTTPS
HTTPS is a protocol for secure communication between a server (instance) and a client (web browser). Due to the introduction of Let’s Encrypt, which provides free SSL certificates, HTTPS are adopted by everyone and also provides trust to your audiences.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python-certbot-nginx

Now we have installed Certbot by Let’s Encrypt for Ubuntu 18.04, run this command to receive your certificates.

sudo certbot --nginx certonly

Enter your email and agree to the terms and conditions, then you will receive the list of domains you need to generate SSL certificate.

To select all domains simply hit Enter

The Certbot client will automatically generate the new certificate for your domain. Now we need to update the Nginx config.

Redirect HTTP Traffic to HTTPS

Open your site’s Nginx configuration file add replace everything with the following. Replacing the file path with the one you received when obtaining the SSL certificate. The ssl_certificate directive should point to your fullchain.pem file, and the ssl_certificate_key directive should point to your privkey.pem file.

server {
     listen [::]:80;
     listen 80;

     server_name metabase.domain.com;

     return 301 https://metabase.domain.com$request_uri;
 }

 server {
     listen [::]:443 ssl;
     listen 443 ssl;

     server_name metabase.domain.com;

     ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/metabase.domain.com/fullchain.pem;
     ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/metabase.domain.com/privkey.pem;

     location / {
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
         proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
         proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
         client_max_body_size 100M;
     }
 }

Hit CTRL+X followed by Y to save the changes.

Check your configuration and restart Nginx for the changes to take effect.

sudo nginx -t
sudo service nginx restart

Renewing SSL Certificate

Certificates provided by Let’s Encrypt are valid for 90 days only, so you need to renew them often. Now you set up a cronjob to check for the certificate which is due to expire in next 30 days and renew it automatically.

sudo crontab -e

Add this line at the end of the file

0 0,12 * * * certbot renew >/dev/null 2>&1

Hit CTRL+X followed by Y to save the changes.

Step 10: Install Metabase

Now we have configured Metabase and secured it with free Let’s Encrypt SSL, it’s time to install Metabase.

Point your browser to the domain name or sub domain name on which you have installed Metabase.

You will be greeted with the welcome message.

Now you can follow the on screen instructions to install Metabase using the UI.

On the data section you can select the database like MySQL that you have created in Cloud SQL and enter your database access credentials.

Once done you can complete the installation and you will be taken to the dashboard where you can manage your data.

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Conclusion

Now you have learned how to install Metabase on Ubuntu with Cloud SQL and configured Nignx and also secured the installation using Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate

Thanks for your time. If you face any problem or any feedback, please leave a comment below.