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Production Deployment

Running CommonGraph in production for your community.

Prerequisites

  • A server or cloud instance (VPS, dedicated server, or cloud provider)
  • Docker and Docker Compose installed
  • A domain name with DNS configured to point to your server
  • SSL certificate (automatically obtained via Let's Encrypt)
  • Strong passwords for admin account and database

CommonGraph is free and open source—you're in full control of your deployment and data.

Environment Configuration

Create .env and .env.production files:

.env 

CONFIG_FILE=config/config-myplatform.yaml
APP_ENV=production
DOMAIN=yourdomain.com
BACKEND_PORT=8000
FRONTEND_PORT=5173

POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_very_strong_password
INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=your_very_strong_admin_password

.env.production (optional overrides) 

# Add any production-specific settings here

SSL Certificate Setup

CommonGraph includes automated SSL setup via Let's Encrypt:

./compose.sh setup-ssl

This will: - Validate your domain - Obtain SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt - Configure Nginx with HTTPS - Auto-renew certificates in the background

Requirements: - Domain must be publicly accessible - Port 80 must be reachable - Certificate will be auto-renewed

Deployment

Initial Deploy

./compose.sh up

Services will start with: - PostgreSQL for data storage - Backend API with FastAPI - Frontend with Vue.js - Nginx reverse proxy with SSL - Automatic database initialisation

Monitoring

View service status: 

docker compose ps

Check logs: 

./compose.sh logs [service_name]

Database Backups

Warning

Implement regular database backups before going live.

PostgreSQL can be backed up with: 

docker compose exec postgres pg_dump -U postgres commongraph_db > backup.sql

Optional: JanusGraph

For very large graphs, enable the optional graph database:

In .env: 

ENABLE_GRAPH_DB=true

Then start: 

./compose.sh up

Best Practices

  • Use strong, unique passwords
  • Enable automatic backups
  • Monitor disk space and database size
  • Keep dependencies updated
  • Review logs regularly
  • Set up log aggregation for debugging

Scaling Considerations

For high-traffic deployments: - Use a managed PostgreSQL service - Run multiple backend instances behind load balancer - Use CDN for frontend assets - Consider JanusGraph for graph-heavy queries - Monitor performance and optimise as needed

Support

For production issues, check the Troubleshooting section (coming soon) or contact support.