Installation

Unified CDN is self-hosted, and runs on pretty much any device connected to the internet. You can deploy Unified CDN for an organisation, your team, or yourself.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you must have:

A device/server capable of running a web server (minimum 0.5GB of ram)
A postgres database that your device can reach. (Serverless platforms like Neon works!)
Installed Node.js (minimally v20.9.0) & Git
Reasonable knowledge of git and using the terminal.

Get started

Install

Choose where Unified CDN should be stored, then clone the Unified CDN repository from Github on your device using git.

cd [LOCATION-WHERE-UNIFIED-CDN-SHOULD-BE]
git clone https://github.com/ng-qi-an/unified-cdn.git

Move to the project folder and install the dependencies using npm.

cd unified-cdn
npm install

Setup configuration

Open up the project in a file manager and rename .env.example to .env . On web servers, you can run mv .env.example .env instead.Open the .env file in a text editor. On web servers, run nano .env.

Configure Authentication

We use BetterAuth for authentication.The variable BETTER_AUTH_URL is the URL of your Unified CDN instance, where you intend to host Unified CDN. For example:

.env

BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://unified-cdn-demo.ngqian.com

Next, add the same URL to TRUSTED_ORIGINS. There can be multiple origins if you intend to host Unified CDN on multiple domains:

.env

TRUSTED_ORIGINS=https://unified-cdn-demo.ngqian.com,https://[...].com

BETTER_AUTH_SECRET is a secret key used to encrypt authentication details. This should be a random key. Use your own random key, or generate one:Afterwards, copy the generated key and paste it into the .env file. For example:

.env

BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=YOUR_GENERATED_SECRET_KEY

Example configuration:

.env

BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://unified-cdn-demo.ngqian.com
TRUSTED_ORIGINS=https://unified-cdn-demo.ngqian.com,https://[...].co,
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=YOUR_GENERATED_SECRET_KEY

Configure a database

Unified CDN uses a Postgres database, which are relational in nature and easier to develop with. You can use a Postgres database hosted on your server, a cloud service, or serverless platforms like Neon.

Hosted postgres
Serverless postgres

Follow the instructions provided by your hosting provider, or search online for a guide on creating a Postgres database.Once you have created a Postgres database, create a connection string in the .env file. For example:

.env

DATABASE_URL=postgres://username:password@host:port/database

Follow the instructions provided by your serverless provider. You should typically receive a connection string.Once you have created a Postgres database, copy the connection string and paste it into the .env file. For example:

.env

DATABASE_URL=postgres://[...]

Configure deployment

Unified CDN can be ran in two ways: Node.js or Docker. Choose one of the two methods below, and set the OUTPUT_METHOD variable in your .env file accordingly.

Node
Docker

For running directly with npm run start. This is the default.

.env

OUTPUT_METHOD=node

For running in docker to containerise Unified CDN.

.env

OUTPUT_METHOD=docker

This will be used later in the deployment step.

Test it

Congratulations, you have installed Unified CDN! If you want to, you can test your configuration before deploying to production. This is optional.Run the following command to start Unified CDN in development mode:

npm run dev

Then, navigate to http://localhost:3000 on your machine (where you installed Unified CDN). You should load into a setup page, where you can complete the rest of the Unified CDN immediately.When the setup completes with no error, your configuration is valid, and you can proceed to deploying.

Getting started

Dashboard

API

Prerequisites

Get started