Need guidance on using DigitalOcean API to auto-provision Droplets, with custom domain and SSL cert for each

For anyone coming across this post, I’ve made some progress which is outlined below.

Issue 1: User Data tasks are not being triggered

I found and resolved two issues with my user_data script.

**Problem / Resolution 1: ** The first was as simple as incorrect indentation of the apt packages I was installed. I used a tab indent size before each package that I wanted to install, when in-fact it should be just a single space.

Incorrect cloud-config indentation

#cloud-config
# Default: true
package_update: false

# Upgrade the instance on first boot
# Default: false
package_upgrade: true

# Reboot after package install/update if necessary
# Default: false
package_reboot_if_required: true

# Install packages using apt
packages:
	 - nodejs
	 - npm

Correct cloud-config indentation

#cloud-config
# Default: true
package_update: false

# Upgrade the instance on first boot
# Default: false
package_upgrade: true

# Reboot after package install/update if necessary
# Default: false
package_reboot_if_required: true

# Install packages using apt
packages:
packages:
 - nodejs
 - npm

**Problem / Resolution 2: ** I’d got complacent with using a Mac that has homebrew installed as a package manager and was trying to install node instead of nodejs. My basic script didn’t handle errors very well, so as soon as there was an error trying to install node (as that package name doesn’t exist), the rest of the user_data script failed. The solution was to just change the package name to nodejs.

Issue 2: Cannot see how to link Domain Record with Droplet, instead of IP

Not solved this one yet. Still looking for suggestions.

Issue 3: Install and configure new SSL cert for each Droplet

I’ve ‘nearly’ solved this one by manually installing an SSL certificate with certbot and then transposing the manual process into the cloud-config file.

The manual process involved following the instructions for “How To Secure Nginx with Let’s Encrypt on Ubuntu 20.04”, which required that I first installed Nginx by following the instructions on “How To Install Nginx on Ubuntu 20.04”. Once I’d installed and configured Nginx and the certbot process was quite simple.

Here’s the latest version of my user_data written as cloud-config. Everything in here works except for the main certbot command which still fails (and means any commands after it are not executed):

- sudo certbot --nginx -d 'yourdomain.com' --non-interactive --agree-tos -m 'hello@yourdomain.com'

If you’re using the user_data below, be sure to remove the this certbot command to see everything else working - then join me in the task of debugging why it won’t work :-)

#cloud-config
# Default: true
package_update: false

# Upgrade the instance on first boot
# Default: false
package_upgrade: true

# Reboot after package install/update if necessary
# Default: false
package_reboot_if_required: true

# For 'apt' specific config, see cloud-config-apt.txt
packages:
 - nodejs
 - npm
 - nginx
 - certbot
 - python3-certbot-nginx
 - gconf-service

# Install Nginx 
# Reference 1: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/tutorial-automate-vm-deployment
# Reference 2: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-nginx-on-ubuntu-20-04#step-5-%E2%80%93-setting-up-server-blocks-(recommended)
write_files:
  - owner: www-data:www-data
    path: /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
    content: |
      server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;
        root /home/project_name/myapp/;
        server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
        location / {
          proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
          proxy_http_version 1.1;
          proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
          proxy_set_header Connection keep-alive;
          proxy_set_header Host $host;
          proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        }
      }
  - owner: project_name_user:project_name_user
    path: /home/project_name/myapp/index.js
    content: |
      var express = require('express')
      var app = express()
      var os = require('os');
      app.get('/', function (req, res) {
        res.send('Hello World from host ' + os.hostname() + '!')
      })
      app.listen(8080, function () {
        console.log('Hello world app listening on port 8080!')
      })

# Configure Nginx and then install SSL certificate using certbot
# Reference 1: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-nginx-with-let-s-encrypt-on-ubuntu-20-04
# Reference 2: Run certbot without interaction https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49172841/how-to-install-certbot-lets-encrypt-without-interaction
runcmd:
 - service nginx restart
 - sudo ufw allow 'Nginx HTTP'
 - sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/default /home/project_name/myapp/
 - sudo certbot --nginx -d 'yourdomain.com' --non-interactive --agree-tos -m 'hello@yourdomain.com'
 - cd "/home/project_name/myapp"
 - npm init
 - npm install express -y
 - nodejs index.js