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SALT

Installation

Prerequisites

  • A fresh Ubuntu server (cloud VM, VPS, or bare metal)
  • A domain name with its DNS A record already pointing at the server’s IP address
  • Root SSH access to the server

The server needs outbound internet access to pull Docker images and obtain a Let’s Encrypt certificate.

One-command installation

From the server (as root or via sudo), run:

Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ifellows/salt/main/salt_management/install.sh \
  | sudo bash -s -- your-domain.example.org admin@example.org

Replace your-domain.example.org with your actual domain and admin@example.org with a valid email address for the Let’s Encrypt certificate.

The script:

  1. Installs Docker if it is not already present
  2. Clones the SALT repository
  3. Builds the Docker image (Node.js + R + Quarto, ~2 GB)
  4. Starts the container with a persistent volume and automatic restart
  5. Opens the firewall (ports 80 and 443)
  6. Runs setup-nginx.sh to configure nginx with Let’s Encrypt TLS
  7. Prints the demo facility API key when complete

When the script finishes, browse to https://your-domain.example.org and sign in as:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: admin123

Change this password immediately via Users → Edit.

What ships on first boot

The first boot seeds the database with:

  • Default admin user (admin / admin123)
  • A Demo Facility with a random API key (shown in the container logs, use it to register a tablet)
  • Three HIV lab tests: HIV Confirmatory (dropdown), CD4 Count (numeric), HIV Viral Load (numeric)
  • Short MSM Survey: a complete, ready-to-run link-tracing survey, seeded active
  • SALT HIV Survey: a small 6-question starter for experimenting with the editor, seeded inactive

Optional install flags

FlagDescription
--install-dir DIRDirectory to clone the repo into (default: /opt/salt)
--image IMAGEUse a pre-built Docker image instead of building
--upstream PORTInternal port the container listens on (default: 3000)
--repo URLAlternative Git repository URL
--branch NAMEGit branch to check out
--skip-firewallSkip firewall configuration
--skip-nginxSkip nginx / Let’s Encrypt setup

Run install.sh --help for details.

Next steps