Quick reference index for all self-hosted deployment documentation and resources.

1. One-Line Installation (Recommended)

   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yourusername/nself-chat/main/scripts/self-hosted-install.sh | bash

2. Manual Installation

   • See Self-Hosted Guide

3. Custom Deployment

   • See Production Deployment

Created during installation in /usr/local/bin/:

Nginx (Reverse Proxy + SSL):

• /deploy/nginx/nginx.conf - Main configuration
• /deploy/nginx/conf.d/nchat.conf - Virtual host

PostgreSQL (Database):

• /deploy/postgres/postgresql.conf - Performance tuning
• /deploy/postgres/init-scripts/01-init.sql - Initialization

Monitoring:

• /deploy/monitoring/prometheus/prometheus.yml - Metrics
• /deploy/monitoring/grafana/ - Dashboards and provisioning

Minimum required settings:

DOMAIN=chat.example.com
[email protected]
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=strong_password
HASURA_ADMIN_SECRET=strong_secret
SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
SMTP_USER=your_smtp_user
SMTP_PASS=your_smtp_password

• OAuth providers (Google, GitHub, LinkedIn)
• Storage backends (AWS S3, Cloudflare R2)
• Monitoring and analytics
• Feature flags
• Performance tuning

When monitoring is enabled:

1. System Metrics

   • CPU usage
   • Memory usage
   • Disk I/O
   • Network traffic

2. Application Metrics

   • Request rate
   • Response times
   • Error rates
   • Active users

3. Database Metrics

   • Connection pool
   • Query performance
   • Cache hit rates
   • Table sizes

4. Container Metrics

   • Resource usage
   • Health status
   • Restart counts

• Strong passwords configured
• SSL certificate valid
• Firewall enabled (ports 22, 80, 443)
• Fail2ban installed (optional)
• 2FA enabled for admin accounts
• Regular updates scheduled
• Backups configured and tested
• Access logs monitored

# Create backup
sudo /usr/local/bin/backup-nchat

# List backups
ls -lh /var/backups/nself-chat/

# Test backup integrity
tar tzf /var/backups/nself-chat/nchat-backup-LATEST.tar.gz

See Troubleshooting Guide

1. Automatic backup created before update
2. Pre-flight checks verify system readiness
3. Code pulled from repository
4. Images rebuilt with latest dependencies
5. Migrations run for database schema
6. Services restarted with new version
7. Verification ensures update succeeded
8. Automatic rollback on failure

# Update to latest version
sudo /usr/local/bin/update-nchat

# Update to specific version
sudo /usr/local/bin/update-nchat v1.0.1

# Check current version
cd /opt/nself-chat && git describe --tags

# Run full diagnostic
sudo /usr/local/bin/diagnose-nchat

# Check service status
cd /opt/nself-chat
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml ps

# View recent errors
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml logs --tail=100 | grep -i error

# Test application health
curl -I https://chat.example.com/api/health

Quick links to solutions:

1. Services Won't Start
2. 502 Bad Gateway
3. SSL Problems
4. Database Errors
5. Disk Space
6. High Memory
7. Slow Performance
8. Email Issues

# Edit PostgreSQL config
nano /opt/nself-chat/deploy/postgres/postgresql.conf

# Key settings for 8GB RAM:
shared_buffers = 2GB
effective_cache_size = 6GB

# Increase Node.js memory
echo "NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096" >> .env.production

# Restart application
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml restart nchat

# Configure Redis
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml exec redis \
  redis-cli CONFIG SET maxmemory 1gb

Best Value:

• Hetzner: €8.46/month for 4GB VPS
• DigitalOcean: $24/month for 4GB droplet
• Vultr: $24/month for 4GB instance

Best Performance:

• AWS EC2: t3.medium with reserved instance
• Google Cloud: e2-medium with committed use
• Azure: B2s with reserved instance

# 1. One-line install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yourusername/nself-chat/main/scripts/self-hosted-install.sh | bash

# 2. Follow prompts:
#    - Domain name
#    - Email for SSL
#    - Admin email
#    - Company name
#    - Enable monitoring (optional)

# 3. Complete setup
open https://chat.example.com/setup

# Check status
docker compose -f /opt/nself-chat/docker-compose.production.yml ps

# View logs
docker compose -f /opt/nself-chat/docker-compose.production.yml logs -f

# Restart
docker compose -f /opt/nself-chat/docker-compose.production.yml restart

# Backup (runs daily automatically)
sudo /usr/local/bin/backup-nchat

# Update (when new version available)
sudo /usr/local/bin/update-nchat

# Diagnostics (when issues occur)
sudo /usr/local/bin/diagnose-nchat

• Main Guide: self-hosted.md
• Troubleshooting: self-hosted-troubleshooting.md
• Production Guide: production-deployment.md
• Quick Reference: ../../../deploy/self-hosted/README.md

• GitHub Issues: https://github.com/yourusername/nself-chat/issues
• Discord Community: https://discord.gg/nself
• Forum: https://community.nself.chat
• Documentation: https://docs.nself.chat

• Email: [email protected]
• Enterprise Support: Available for commercial deployments
• Consulting: Deployment and migration services

• Server provisioned (2+ CPU, 4+ GB RAM, 20+ GB disk)
• Domain registered and DNS configured
• Port 80 and 443 accessible
• SMTP credentials obtained (SendGrid, Mailgun, etc.)
• Backup solution planned

• Installer script run successfully
• All services started and healthy
• SSL certificate obtained
• Firewall configured
• Backups scheduled

• Setup wizard completed
• SMTP configured and tested
• First backup created and verified
• Admin account secured with strong password
• 2FA enabled for admin accounts
• Documentation reviewed
• Team members invited

• Regular backups verified (weekly)
• System updates applied (monthly)
• Application updates applied (as released)
• Logs reviewed (monthly)
• Performance monitored (if enabled)
• Disk space monitored (weekly)

• Deployment Checklist
• Production Deployment
• Vercel Deployment
• Mobile Deployment
• Desktop Deployment

• Docker Documentation: https://docs.docker.com/
• Let's Encrypt: https://letsencrypt.org/
• PostgreSQL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/
• Nginx: https://nginx.org/en/docs/

Initial release with:

• One-line installation script
• Production Docker Compose configuration
• Automatic SSL/TLS via Let's Encrypt
• Comprehensive monitoring stack
• Automated backups
• Update management
• Complete documentation

Last Updated: January 31, 2026 Version: 1.0.0 Maintained by: nself-chat Team