How to Install Mailtrain Newsletter Application on CentOS 7

Mailtrain is an open-source self hosted newsletter app built on Node.js and MySQL/MariaDB. Mailtrain’s source is on GitHub. This guide will show you how to install Mailtrain on a fresh CentOS 7 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• Software Requirements:
  • Node.js v7 or greater
  • MariaDB
  • Nginx
  • Redis (optional)
• Hardware Requirements:
  • 1 vCPU
  • 1024 MB RAM

Check the CentOS version.

cat /etc/centos-release
# CentOS Linux release 7.5.1804 (Core)

Create a new non-root user account with sudo access and switch to it.

useradd -c "John Doe" johndoe && passwd johndoe
usermod -aG wheel johndoe
su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

timedatectl list-timezones
sudo timedatectl set-timezone 'Region/City'

Ensure that your system is up to date.

sudo yum update -y

Install Development Tools and unzip.

sudo yum groupinstall -y 'Development Tools' && sudo yum install -y unzip

For simplicity’s sake, disable SELinux and Firewall.

sudo setenforce 0 ; sudo systemctl stop firewalld ; sudo systemctl disable firewalld

Install Node.js and npm

Install Node.js and npm by utilizing the NodeSource YUM repository for Node.js.

curl --silent --location https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo bash -
sudo yum install -y nodejs

Check the versions.

node -v && npm -v
# v8.11.4
# 5.6.0

Install MariaDB

Install MariaDB.

sudo yum install -y mariadb-server

Check the version.

mysql --version

Start and enable MariaDB.

sudo systemctl start mariadb.service
sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service

Run the mysql_secure installation script to improve security.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Connect to the MariaDB shell as the root user.

mysql -u root -p
# Enter password:

Create an empty database and user, and remember the credentials.

CREATE DATABASE dbname;
GRANT ALL ON dbname.* TO 'username' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

Install Nginx

Install Nginx.

sudo yum install -y nginx

Check the version.

nginx -v

Start and enable Nginx.

sudo systemctl start nginx.service
sudo systemctl enable nginx.service

Configure Nginx as an HTTP or HTTPS (if you use SSL) reverse proxy for Mailtrain. Run sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/mailtrain.conf and add the following configuration.

server {

  listen [::]:80;
  listen 80;

  server_name example.com;

  charset utf-8;
  client_max_body_size 50M;


  location / {
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    proxy_next_upstream error timeout http_502 http_503 http_504;
  }

}

Test the configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo systemctl reload nginx.service

Install Mailtrain

Create an empty document root folder where Mailtrain should be installed.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/mailtrain

Navigate to the document root folder.

cd /var/www/mailtrain

Change ownership of the /var/www/mailtrain folder to user johndoe.

sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /var/www/mailtrain

Download and unzip Mailtrain.

wget https://github.com/Mailtrain-org/mailtrain/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
rm master.zip
mv mailtrain-master/* . && mv mailtrain-master/.* .
rmdir mailtrain-master

Run npm install --production in the Mailtrain folder to install required dependencies.

Copy config/default.toml as config/production.toml and update MySQL and any other settings in it.

cp config/default.toml config/production.toml
vi config/production.toml

Run the server.

NODE_ENV=production npm start

Installation is complete. Login with the username admin and the password test. Once logged in, update the user information and password via the Mailtrain web interface. For more information, visit Mailtrain Github wiki page.