Table of Contents

Quick Start for Linux Deployment

Startup

Note: There are several seeders that will input required entries into the database if the database does not contain any entries This includes a default Technician account that is required to log in to MESS and to start creating WorkInstructions, Users, etc.

Ensure that once the application has a database connection that you Change Default Technician Password.

This feature does not yet exist (as of 3/31/2026). However, once password support is added this step will be very important.

(Linux/Ubuntu) Initial Project Setup

For more information on installation we followed this tutorial from Microsoft

This tutorial utilizes Ubuntu version 24.04

To list Ubuntu version use:

cat /etc/*ease

.NET Setup

Currently MESS utilizes .NET 10 as of 3/2/2026

Note: The SDK installs both the SDK itself and the runtime. If you are developing MESS ensure the SDK is installed. If you are only deploying the application install either the SDK or only the ASP.NET Core Runtime
  • Check if the .NET SDK is already installed
dotnet --list-sdks
  • Check if the .NET Runtime is already installed
dotnet --list-runtimes

If you need to install either the SDK or the Runtime please follow this tutorial from Microsoft

NOTE: It is common practice to create a dedicated user for hosting purposes. This guide will demonstrate how to create a user and group for permissions.

Creating New Group (OPTIONAL)

Where GROUPNAME is to be replaced with the desired name of the group for the user.

sudo addgroup GROUPNAME

Creating New User (OPTIONAL)

-m Creates a directory for the new user -g Assigns the new user to the group. Note that if you did not create a group before or do not want to add this user to a group ignore the -g GROUPNAME flag

sudo useradd -m -g GROUPNAME USERNAME

Setting Password

Use the following command to set the password for the user.

sudo passwd USERNAME

Switching Users

Use the following command to switch to the newly created user.

su USERNAME

Applying Bash Shell (Optional)

When creating a new user, you may notice that the shell experience is different. This is due to the way that Ubuntu creates new users. To change this simply run the following commands while logged in as the new user.

chsh

# Enter the user's password when prompted
/bin/bash

exit

# Login as the new user to refresh the shell

Deployment (Ubuntu)

Setup production environment variables.

Create an environment file

sudo mkdir /etc/mess
sudo nano /etc/mess/env
  1. Add the following lines to the /etc/mess/env file
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT="Production"
ConnectionStrings__MESSConnection="ENTER_CONNECTION_STRING_HERE"

ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT="Development"
ConnectionStrings__MESSConnection="ENTER_CONNECTION_STRING_HERE"

The connection strings should look something like:

Server=localhost; Database=MESS_Data; User Id=sa; Password=ENTER_YOUR_DB_PASSWORD_HERE; TrustServerCertificate=True;
  1. Save the file and change permissions
sudo chown USERNAME:USERNAME /etc/mess/env
sudo chmod 600 /etc/mess/env

Publish

There are several ways to publish the application for deployment. Some of these options include building the source on a separate machine and then copying the files over. Another option is to clone the repo onto the hosting server and to build directly on the hosting server (not recommended for production environment). This guide will be compatible with either option. Visit README.md located in MESS/deployment-resources for further information on publishing. This includes a shell script for automating the publishing of MESS code (publish.sh).

Install Nginx

For this guide we will be using Nginx, but the same outcome can be reached with Apache or any other web server. Using this guide: https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/installing-nginx/installing-nginx-open-source/ Please install Nginx for the OS that MESS will be hosted on.

Create web directory

After Nginx is installed the www directory will be available within the /var directory structure. Create a new directory for the application.

sudo mkdir /var/www/mess

Apply Permissions

Apply permissions to the newly created directory so that only the newly created user can access it.

sudo chown -R USERNAME:GROUPNAME /var/www/mess

Cloning the repository

Within a directory on the newly created users account, run the following command to clone the MESS repository.

git clone https://github.com/VidetteMakes/MESS.git

1. Navigate to the solution directory

cd /MESS/MESS

2. Run the build

Note: If you are building on a separate machine leave out the -o /var/www/mess flag as this will direct the output of the build.

dotnet publish --configuration Release -o /var/www/mess

This will build MESS for production. It will store the build files (including the dll) in the following directory: MESS/MESS/MESS.Blazor/bin/Release/net10.0/publish

3. Copy build output (Optional if you are not building on the hosting machine)

After running the production build, you will need to copy the entirety of the /bin/Release/net10.0/publish directory to a directory within /var/www/

The command will look something along the lines of: NOTE: Some of the following commands may require sudo privileges.

mkdir /var/www/MESS_PRODUCTION

cp /MESS/MESS/MESS.Blazor/bin/Release/net10.0/publish /var/www/MESS_PRODUCTION

Systemd Service File (Optional)

This will allow the mess application to be monitored as a service. Create the following file:

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

Within this file past the following. You may need to change some of these fields depending on your configuration: You will need to change the following fields:

  • User
  • WorkingDirectory
  • EnvironmentFile
[Unit]
Description=My .NET Web App
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/myapp
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dotnet /var/www/myapp/MyApp.dll
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
SyslogIdentifier=myapp
User=USERNAME
Environment=ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production
EnvironmentFile=/etc/myapp/env  # Environment File Location

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

NOTE: The sudo user should not be hosting this web application as this can lead to security vulnerabilities. Ideally there should be a designated user that is created for this task.

Enable & Start MESS Service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable mess.service
sudo systemctl start mess.service

Note: If you want to check the status of this service use the following command:

sudo systemctl status mess.service

Reverse Proxy

Note: For the reverse proxy to work effectively it will require a registered domain name.

Remove contents of default Nginx file

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Replace the entire file contents with the following:

map $http_connection $connection_upgrade {
  "~*Upgrade" $http_connection;
  default keep-alive;
}

server {
  listen        80;
  server_name   example.com *.example.com;
  location / {
      proxy_pass         http://127.0.0.1:5000/;
      proxy_http_version 1.1;
      proxy_set_header   Upgrade $http_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header   Connection $connection_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header   Host $host;
      proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
  }
}

Restart Nginx Service

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Database

For database setup MESS uses PostgreSQL as its SQL provider. In terms of setting up the database itself, we leave up to the user since there are a variety of different methods on how to setup a Postgres database. However, if you are simply wanting to test MESS in a production environment please refer to the database setup within the Local Development section of this Wiki as it will guide you on how to setup a Dockerized Postgres instance.

(Windows) Initial Project Setup To Be Implemented

...

EF Core (Common Database Interactions)

NOTE: For both of these commands you must be in the MESS.Data directory, otherwise you must specify the base project as well.

Migrations

dotnet ef migrations add "MIGRATION_NAME"

Updates

dotnet ef database update

Secret Management

NOTE: This should only be used for development purposes

Instead of using "appsettings.*.json" for managing environment variables or user secrets we have opted to utilize the .NET Secret Manager for development purposes. For more information see .NET Secret Manager

Quick Start

NOTE: If you are deploying to production you should not use the Secret Manager. In terms of the MESS project you should not have to initial the Secret Manager since it will already be in each appropriate project. However, in the case that the Secret Manager is being redone use the following command:

Instantiate User Manager (New Projects only)
dotnet user-secrets init
Set a secret
dotnet user-secrets set "Key" "Value"

Example

dotnet user-secrets set "DatabaseConnection" "Data Source = 123456.db"

Setup Development Database connection

Below is an example of how to set the connection string for the development database using the Secret Manager.

dotnet user-secrets set "ConnectionStrings:MESSConnection" "Server=myhost;Database=mess;Port=5432;User Id=myuser;Password=MySuperSecurePassword;"
Edit this page