Updated April 12, 2023
Introduction to Laravel Forge
Laravel Forge is a special tool that is used for deploying web applications and also configuring them. The developers of the Laravel Framework are the ones who created Laravel Forge. The benefit is that it can be conveniently used to automate the deployment of any of the web applications that use any PHP Server. NGINX, MySQL, and PHP are some of the components needed that are normally used for the creation of any fully functional web browser. Laravel Forge automatically activates all the important configuration and installation steps which allow getting the website up and also running it quickly further.
What is Laravel Forge?
All the advanced security features that are needed in an application are made available by Laravel Forge. Free SSL Certificates, Automated Firewall configuration are some of the benefits that are available for the users in Laravel Forge. If a user wishes to host a Laravel site consistently and flexibly, Laravel Forge is the best option. It is also termed as a PASS (Platform as a Service). It helps by managing and also simplifying deployment of the codes in the application to Digital Ocean, Rackspace, and other similar spaces on the web. It also creates a remote hosting environment. It includes in its feature parity that helps the developer and producer environments to be as much close as possible. Ideally launching new servers is easy because of Laravel Forge
With the help of this, users can install PHP, Nginx, MySQL, etc. which are needed on the cloud for the making of the application in Laravel. The benefit is that there will not be any outdated PHP installations taking place in the Laravel Forge. There is no need for manual supervisor configuration as the user can conveniently start and also manage supervised Laravel Queue workers directly. Also, the deployment of code is easier with Laravel Forge. The user just has to push the codes to the master’s in GitHub or any other similar websites that have a custom Git repository. The sharing of the hosted server’s management dashboard can be conveniently shared with the co-workers for collaborative functioning without any hesitation with the help of Laravel Forge. Laravel Forge has a very powerful API. With the help of the API available in here, users can easily manage the servers programmatically as per their needs.
How does Laravel Forge work?
The first thing that any user will have to do is to sign up with Laravel Forge. Having an account is mandatory to reap the benefits offered by Laravel Forge. Once the registration of the account is done on the website, the user can authenticate GitHub so that there can be codes shared and exchanged for the working of the Laravel Forge. The GitHub account can be linked to the Laravel Forge account so that the codebase can be shared. Once the linking is done, it is totally up to the user to either manually access the codes from the codebase or even automate the process of transfer of codes when necessary.
Then the user will have to create a new server. All four hosts are available for the users (DigitalOcean, Linode, Rackspace, Amazon). The users can choose as per their interests. All of them allow any user to configure the required settings for the running of a virtual machine that will assist in the running of the website. No matter which server is used, the user has to note that the environment in all the four available choices is the same.
To have access and control over the servers, the API keys will be needed. Even additional information required to take control may be asked for taking complete control over the server handling.
DigitalOcean
Generating API key is easy in DigitalOcean and the left navigation button, the user has to click ‘API’ to get the Client ID. Then the user can generate or retrieve an API key.
In Linode, under ‘My profile’, the user will find the option to generate an API key.
On Amazon, ‘getting your access key ID’ is the option and on Rackspace ‘generating your Access Key ID’ are the options made available for the developers and users.
Example
The creation of a server through Laravel Forge is easy.
- Add a name to the server. It has to be unique. Forge also automatically generates readable names if required.
- Server size is to be chosen and the best thing is to choose the cheapest option, in the beginning, to go along with.
- Many of the hosts have servers all over the world. It is best to choose the region that is closest to the largest number of user base. It helps in many ways and benefits the user.
- ‘Create your database’ option is made available by Laravel Forge for the users to create the database as per the needs of the website or the application.
- There will be ‘building’ that will happen in the beginning after which the status will change from ‘building’ to ‘provisioning’. There will be a few minutes required for further processing after which the status will move to ‘active’ and that will be symbolic to mention that the server is live and is active.
Configuring the First Server
- There will be two IP addresses in the address bar that will come to your notice. The first one is the server’s public IP address. The second is the server’s internal IP address.
- Once done, an email will be sent with configuration details. SSH key needs to be uploaded thereafter to Laravel Forge.
- Go to the domain name provider and add a name for both the domain and sub-domain. After that point it to the public IP address of the server.
- After this, you are ready to move ahead with your slide creations as per your needs.
Conclusion
From this article, we understand that Laravel Forge is the best server creation application available with all the benefits that a user needs in assistance for server control and activation. Servers are necessary to host and also have control over the data. It helps the user to handle this important task.
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