Static-Only application documentation with custom domain

anjanesh

I need to migrate another Webfaction account to OpalStack by this month end.
In Webfaction I made use of serving static media from a Static-only application. (https://docs.webfaction.com/software/static.html#serving-static-media)
I was wondering where is the documentation for this on OpalStack. (I need custom domain like media.mywebsite.com too)

sean

The scenario you've described is a basic example of building a website, which is documented here: Building a Site

Some notes on those instructions applicable to your case:

Step 1: you can use an existing shell user if you don't want to create a new one. For example if you're using this to serve media for a particular Django application then you might want to use the same shell user that owns the Django application.
Step 2: use the "Nginx Static Only" app type. You can copy your files into the app directory as soon as the control panel notifies you that the app is ready.
Step 3: use media.mywebsite.com as the domain.
Step 4: use / as the URI path on the site route. You can also turn on Let's Encrypt at this stage (recommended).

When all of that is done your media will be served from https://media.mywebsite.com/

anjanesh

Thanks Sean

christer

I'd like to build on this question since I also plan to add a static site: What is the benefit of using "Nginx Static Only" as compared to "PHP+Apache" or "PHP-FPM+Nginx" ?

sean

christer "Nginx Static Only" apps serve content directly from our front-end Nginx server.

If you use one of these apps for your static stuff instead of serving it from the back-end server (ie Apache or your own app server) then you should see an improvement in your site performance, for two main reasons:

Nginx is really efficient with static content
Since the back-end server is no longer doing the extra work of serving static content, it will use less memory and will be able to service your application requests for efficiently

christer

OK, thanks Sean