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Server Management Overview

Servers are the infrastructure that runs your applications. Appliku manages Docker, Nginx, SSL, and deployments on your servers — you choose the provider and pay them directly.

Supported Providers​

  • DigitalOcean — Provision droplets directly from the Appliku dashboard
  • AWS EC2 — Launch EC2 instances with your AWS credentials
  • Custom servers — Bring any server from any provider (Hetzner, Linode, Vultr, OVH, etc.) with SSH access

Server Requirements​

  • OS: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, or Debian 12
  • Architecture: x86_64 or arm64
  • Access: Root or sudo SSH access (for initial setup)
  • State: Fresh installation recommended — Appliku installs Docker, Nginx, and its management tools during setup

Server Types​

Standalone Server​

A standalone server runs applications directly via Docker Compose. Nginx handles HTTP routing and SSL termination. This is the default and recommended mode for most applications.

You can run multiple applications on a single standalone server.

Cluster Node​

A server can join a Docker Swarm cluster as a:

  • Manager (leader) — orchestrates the cluster, runs the Nginx load balancer
  • Worker — runs application containers
  • Build server — compiles Docker images (recommended to keep separate from the cluster)

What Happens During Server Setup​

When you add a server, Appliku connects via SSH and:

  1. Updates the OS packages
  2. Installs Docker
  3. Installs Nginx
  4. Configures firewall rules
  5. Configures automatic SSL via Let's Encrypt

All ongoing management is done entirely over SSH — Appliku installs no agent and has no footprint on server resources.

The setup process takes a few minutes. You can monitor progress on the server detail page.

Server Monitoring​

Appliku tracks key metrics for each server:

  • CPU usage
  • Memory usage — alerts when RAM exceeds 80%
  • Disk usage
  • Uptime
tip

RAM spikes during deployment builds are normal, especially for JavaScript/TypeScript projects with many dependencies. If you see temporary alerts during deploys, consider using a larger server or reducing build concurrency.

Next Steps​