Server Preparation

Prepare a clean, secure Ubuntu 22.04 server before installing the explorer stack.

1. Provision the Server

Start with a server or VM meeting the Hardware Requirements:

• Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
• NVMe SSD storage
• A static public IP if the explorer will be public

2. System Updates and Base Packages

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y curl git ufw jq ca-certificates gnupg

3. Create a Deployment User

Avoid running everything as root:

sudo adduser openscan
sudo usermod -aG sudo openscan

4. Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh
sudo usermod -aG docker openscan

Log out and back in, then verify:

docker version
docker compose version

5. Configure the Firewall

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp     # HTTP (certificate issuance, redirect)
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp    # HTTPS
sudo ufw enable

Do not expose the explorer’s internal ports (3000, 4000, 5432) or your chain node’s RPC (8545) publicly — the reverse proxy handles public traffic (see TLS / HTTPS Setup).

6. Storage Layout

Put Docker data and explorer volumes on your fast disk:

sudo mkdir -p /data/openscan
sudo chown openscan:openscan /data/openscan

If the disk is mounted somewhere other than /, configure Docker’s data root accordingly in /etc/docker/daemon.json:

{
  "data-root": "/data/docker"
}

sudo systemctl restart docker

7. Time Synchronization

Explorers are timestamp-sensitive; ensure NTP is active:

timedatectl status

Next Step

Explorer Installation (Preparation) — configuration and secrets.