How to Install nopCommerce on Ubuntu 20.04

Introduction

nopCommerce is a free open source eCommerce application based on the ASP.NET framework. It is secure and fully customizable, making it an excellent choice for store owners because multiple customization tools are available for designing a user-friendly online shopping website.

In this guide, you will install nopCommerce on a Ubuntu 20.04 server running Nginx, MySQL as the web, and database server software, respectively.

Prerequisites

• Deploy a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 server
• SSH and Login as a user with sudo privileges
• Update the server
• Install LEMP

Step 1: Create a New nopCommerce Database

Login to MySQL.

$ mysql -u root -p

Create a new database.

mysql> create database nopcommerce; 

Create a database user with a strong password.

mysql> CREATE USER 'admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Refresh MySQL Privileges.

mysql>FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit the console.

Step 2: Install ASP.NET Core

For nopCommerce it to run on, you need to install .NET (dot net) Core. But first, add the Microsoft package signing key to your server and install the necessary dependencies.

Download the Ubuntu 20.04 Microsoft Package Key.

$ wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb

Install it on the server.

$ sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

Then, update the server.

$ sudo apt update

Install aptitude transport for HTTPS downloads.

$ sudo apt install apt-transport-https

Now, Install .NET Core runtime.

$ sudo apt install aspnetcore-runtime-5.0

Verify the installation.

$ dotnet --list-runtimes

Output:

Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.13 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.13 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

Step 3: Install nopCommerce

Create the nopCommerce webroot directory. Replace shop.example.com with your subdomain or preferred naming style.

$ sudo mkdir /var/www/shop.example.com

Now, switch to the directory.

$ cd /var/www/shop.example.com

Then, download the latest nopCommerce stable release from its GitHub repository. In this guide, release-4.40.4 is installed. Consider downloading the latest file.

$ sudo wget https://github.com/nopSolutions/nopCommerce/releases/download/release-4.40.4/nopCommerce_4.40.4_NoSource_linux_x64.zip

Extract files from the Zip archive.

$ sudo unzip nopCommerce_4.40.4_NoSource_linux_x64.zip

To save space, delete the original zip archive.

$ rm nopCommerce_4.40.4_NoSource_linux_x64.zip

Grant Nginx (running as www-data) ownership permissions to the directory.

$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/shop.example.com

All necessary files are now available on the server. Next, configure Nginx as a reverse proxy to serve these files on your subdomain.

Step 4: Configure Nginx

Create a new Nginx virtual host file.

$ sudo touch /etc/nginx/sites-available/shop.example.com.conf

Open and edit the file.

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/shop.example.com.conf

Paste the following contents:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    root /var/www/html;
    server_name  shop.example.com;

    location / {

location / {
    proxy_pass         http://localhost:5000;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header   Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header   Connection keep-alive;
    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;
    }
    }
}

Save and close the file.

Test Nginx for errors.

$ sudo nginx -t

Restart Nginx.

$ sudo service nginx restart

Step 5: Configure nopCommerce as a Service

To start nopCommerce, it must be running as a service on the server. To do this, create a new service file in the systemd directory.

Open and edit the file.

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/nopcommerce.service

Paste the following contents:

Unit]
Description=NopCommerce eCommerce application

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/shop.example.com/
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dotnet /var/www/shop.example.com/Nop.Web.dll
Restart=always

# Auto restart nopCommerce in 10 seconds if .NET crashes

RestartSec=10
KillSignal=SIGINT
SyslogIdentifier=nopcommerce
User=www-data
Environment=ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production
Environment=DOTNET_PRINT_TELEMETRY_MESSAGE=false

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now, restart the systemd daemon.

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Then, enable nopCommerce to start at boot time.

$ sudo systemctl enable nopcommerce

Start nopCommerce.

$ sudo systemctl start nopcommerce

Check the current nopCommerce status.

$ sudo systemctl status nopcommerce

Restart Nginx to start serving nopCommerce on the subdomain.

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Finally, visit your subdomain to start the nopCommerce setup process through a web browser.

http://shop.example.com

Enter the administrator email, username, password, and country. Then, select MySQL from the drop-down list of options in the database section.

Under Server name, enter localhost, then enter the database name, username, and password created on step 1.

Click Install to proceed, nopCommerce will restart, and you may receive a 502 bad gateway error. Simply refresh your browser to log in and configure your online store.

Step 6: Secure the Server

By default, Uncomplicated Firewall (ufw) is enabled on Ubuntu 20.04, configure it to allow HTTP, HTTPS traffic on the server and block the rest.

Allow HTTP traffic.

$ sudo ufw allow 80/tcp

Allow HTTPS traffic.

$ sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

Restart the firewall

$ sudo ufw reload

Request an SSL Certificate

Install Certbot.

$ sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Request for a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. Replace example.com with your actual subdomain.

$ sudo certbot --nginx -d shop.example.com -d www.shop.example.com

Now, set up a new Cron job to automatically renew the SSL certificate before every 30 days of expiry.

Open the crontab file.

$ sudo crontab -e

Paste the following code:

0 12 * * * /usr/bin/certbot renew --quiet

Save and close the file.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you have installed nopCommerce on a Ubuntu 20.04 server. You can further configure to meet your customer and visitor standards using ready-made themes, plugins, and language packs.