Setup: AlterCPA Lite

The installation of AlterCPA Lite is fully automatic. You prepare a server and a domain and run one command on the server, and the installer does everything else by itself.

Preparing to deploy

  1. Server on clean Debian 13 (x86-64) without a control panel, with its own IPv4 address, at least 2 vCPU, 4 GB of RAM and a 40 GB SSD. Ports 22, 80 and 443 must be open. Shared hosting will not work.
  2. Domain specified in the license, for the control panel and internal services. A second-level domain is best: the www and click subdomains will be needed.
  3. License of AlterCPA Lite, paid and active. When purchasing it, specify the server IP address and the domain: the license is bound to them. If the IP address or the domain needs to change, click “Change address” on the license page.
  4. SSH client: PuTTY for Windows, the built-in Terminal for macOS.

Setting up the domain

Point the domain to the server. In the DNS zone of the domain (the zone records, not the list of DNS servers) add three records. Replace 12.34.56.78 with the IP address of your server. The record @ is the domain itself, www is its alias, and click is the address of the sites and the tracker, which work on the same server.

@ A 12.34.56.78
www CNAME @
click CNAME @

If your registrar does not support CNAME records, add the same A records with the server address for www and click. There is no need to wait for the records to start working: the certificates will be issued by themselves once the domain points to the server.

Installation

  1. Connect to the server over SSH as root. If the provider does not let you log in as root, run this command after logging in: 
    sudo -i
  2. In your account, open the “Licenses” section and then your license. Copy the command from the “Installation instructions for the server” block. The command looks like this: 
    wget https://cpa.st/lic/q1w2e3r4t5y6u7i8o9p0/track.sh && bash track.sh
  3. Paste the command into the SSH window and press Enter. The installer asks no questions. Keep the terminal open until it has finished.
  4. Wait a few minutes. At the end the installer prints the line “Setup completed successfully!” and the address of the panel, and the e-mail “Completed installation of AlterCPA on your domain” with the access data of the server arrives at your account’s address. If the output above contains the line “Note: reboot the server once the installation has finished”, reboot the server with the reboot command after the installation.
  5. If the installation was interrupted or stopped with an error, remove the cause and run the same command again. The installation continues where it stopped. If wget answers “404 Not Found”, check that the license is paid and active and that the command is copied completely.

Initial system setup

Open your main tracker domain in a browser. You will be prompted to create a main administrator. Enter a valid e-mail address and a strong password: the administrator has full access to any operations with the system.

Then go to the “Control — Settings” section and make small changes to the sections “Basic”, “Advanced” and “Datasets”.

Section “Basic”

  1. Specify the name of your team, contact E-mail and time zone.
  2. By default the system sends e-mails by itself, from the server. If you want to send them through your own mail server, enable SMTP and enter its details. If not, leave the mail settings as they are.
  3. Select a geoIP database. We recommend MaxMind GeoLite (english) as the best one. Some paid databases require a key.

Section “Advanced”

This section holds the tracker settings.

Further steps

  1. Keep the e-mail with the access data of the server: it holds the passwords for SFTP and the database.
  2. The system updates itself: every hour the server checks for a new build of the panel and installs it.
  3. If you want to add optional services to the system, see the other guides of the “System deployment” section. It’s strongly recommended to use front server with your setup. Please follow this manual.