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Hosting a web application

Putting a site and an application into production: the domain name, the web server, the database, and deployments you can undo.

8 courses · about 1290 minutes

This path assumes you can already keep a server running — it follows on from the administration path. It covers what happens once an application has to be reachable from outside: name resolution, Nginx in front of the application, the database, reversible deployments, and Docker where it actually earns its place.

What you will be able to do

  • Publish a domain’s DNS records and verify them before waiting
  • Serve a static site and put a Node application behind Nginx
  • Deploy a new version without downtime, and roll it back
  • Administer PostgreSQL: access, connections, and what makes it grow
  • Decide when a container helps, and when it is a layer for nothing

The path

  1. How a network works: packets, addresses and neighbours

    What actually travels between two machines, and how each one decides whether the destination is a neighbour or somebody else's problem.

    6 lessons · about 126 minutes

  2. Ports, TCP and UDP: how two programs talk

    An address names a machine, a port names a program — and a connection is nothing more than two kernels agreeing.

    5 lessons · about 104 minutes

  3. DNS: pointing a domain at your server

    Understand how a name resolves, publish the right records, and diagnose with dig instead of waiting.

    6 lessons · about 138 minutes

  4. Hosting a web application with Nginx

    Serve a React/Vite build, put a Node.js or Next.js application behind a reverse proxy, and move to HTTPS.

    10 lessons · about 222 minutes

  5. Deploying: releases, the switch and rolling back

    Get the code onto the server, switch in a single operation, and be able to go back — including when the verification fails.

    6 lessons · about 138 minutes

  6. Administering PostgreSQL: access, connections and growth

    Who may connect, how many at once, what the database is doing right now, and why it takes more space than the data inside it.

    10 lessons · about 232 minutes

  7. Docker: containers for hosting a Node application

    What a container actually is, when to do without one, and how to put a Node application and its database behind a reverse proxy without exposing the machine.

    9 lessons · about 190 minutes

  8. ISPConfig: hosting several sites on one server

    Optional

    Install the ISPConfig panel on Ubuntu Server, understand what it automates, and host a site and then a Node.js application on it.

    5 lessons · about 140 minutes