Phoenix Deployment with Ansible

This repository contains Ansible playbooks to prepare and deploy a Phoenix/Elixir server in production.

Installation

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ImNotAVirus/ansible_deploy_ex deploy
cd deploy

# 2. Copy and configure example files
cp playbooks/inventory/hosts.example playbooks/inventory/hosts
cp playbooks/group_vars/all/all.yml.example playbooks/group_vars/all/all.yml
# Edit these files to match your application, server, domain, and SSH key

# 3. Run the Ansible playbooks (replace `3333` with the configured port in `ssh_port`)
ansible-playbook playbooks/setup.yml
ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml -e ansible_port=3333

Optional: Deploy with mix deploy

You can add a deploy alias in your mix.exs:

defp aliases do
  [
    # ...other aliases...
    deploy: [
      "cmd --cd deploy ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml -e ansible_port=3333"
    ]
  ]
end

With this alias, simply run mix deploy to deploy your application in production (replace 3333 with your SSH port if needed).

Configuration

All configuration is centralized in playbooks/group_vars/all/all.yml. Key variables:

Variable	Default	Description
app_name	—	Application name (used for directories, services, etc.)
domain	—	Main domain name for Nginx and SSL
admin_email	—	Email for Certbot and admin notifications
db_user	deploy	PostgreSQL user for the application
db_password	—	PostgreSQL password for db_user (TCP connections)
ssh_port	—	SSH port for server access
app_port	4000	Internal HTTP port the Phoenix app listens on
certbot_domains	—	List of domains/subdomains for SSL certificate
redirect_www	true	Redirect www.domain to domain via 301
elixir_version	—	Elixir version for the Docker builder (asdf format)
erlang_version	—	Erlang/OTP version for the Docker builder

playbooks/setup.yml — Server Preparation & Hardening

• Prepares the server with required packages and security best practices.
• Sets up a secure user, SSH access, and basic firewall/hardening.
• Installs and configures PostgreSQL for the application database.
• Installs and configures Nginx and SSL (via Certbot) for serving your application.
• Supports multiple domains/subdomains via certbot_domains.
• Optional www-to-apex redirect (controlled by redirect_www).

playbooks/deploy.yml — Build & Application Deployment

• Builds your Phoenix/Elixir application for production.
• Deploys the release and environment files to the server.
• Runs database migrations automatically before starting the app.
• Restarts the app service.

Roles structure

• base: Basic system preparation.
• harden_server: Server hardening and security.
• setup_postgres: PostgreSQL installation and database provisioning.
• setup_nginx: Nginx and Certbot installation/configuration.
• build_release: Phoenix release build (via Docker).
• deploy_release: Release deployment, migration, and service management.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.