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Deploy a Drupal website

Overview

Drupal applications almost work out of the box on Clever Cloud, you just have a few adjustments to make.

Create an application on Clever Cloud

With the web console

Refer to our getting started for more details on application creation via the console.

With the Clever Tools CLI

  1. Make sure you have clever-tools installed locally or follow our CLI getting started guide.
  2. In your code folder, do clever create --type <type> <app-name> --region <zone> --org <org> where :
    1. type is the type of technology you rely on
    2. app-name the name you want for your application,
    3. zone deployment zone (par for Paris and mtl for Montreal)
    4. org the organization ID the application will be created under.

Refer to clever create for more details on application creation with Clever Tools.

Setting up environment variables on Clever Cloud

With the Clever Cloud console

  1. Go to the Clever Cloud console, and find the app you want to fine tune under it’s organization.
  2. Find the Environment variables menu and select it.
  3. In this menu, you will see a form with VARIABLE_NAME and variable value fields.
  4. Fill them with the desired values then select Add.
  5. Don’t forget to “Update Changes” at the end of the menu.

With the Clever Tools CLI

  1. Make sure you have clever-tools installed locally. Refer to our CLI getting started.
  2. In your code folder, do clever env set <variable-name> <variable-value>

Refer to environment variables reference for more details on available environment variables on Clever Cloud.

You can of course create custom ones with the interface we just demonstrated, they will be available for your application.

Monitor your application with New Relic

You can use New Relic to monitor your application on Clever Cloud.

Please refer to our New Relic documentation to configure it for your application.

Environment injection

Clever Cloud injects environment variables from your application settings as mentioned in setting up environment variables and is also injecting in your application production environment, those from your linked add-ons.

Linking a database or any other add-on to your application

By linking an application to an add-on, the application has the add-on environment variables in its own environment by default.

On add-on creation

Many add-ons do exist on Clever Cloud, please refer to the full list and check add-ons dedicated pages for full instructions.

During add-on creation, you will see Applications screen, with a list of your applications. You can toggle the button to Link and click next. If you finish the process of add-on creation, the application will automatically be linked to it.

Add-on already exists

In the Clever Cloud console, under the Service Dependencies menu of your application, you can use the Link addons dropdown menu to select the name of the add-on you want to link and use the add button to finish the process.

You can also link another application from the same page in the Clever Cloud console, using the Link applications dropdown menu.

Configure your database

Make sure you have created a MySQL database add-on in the Clever Cloud console, and that it’s linked to your application. When it’s done, you will be able to access all of your add-on environment variables from the application. You can use them as DATABASE_URL=$MYSQL_ADDON_URI.

Git Deployment on Clever Cloud

You need Git on your computer to deploy via this tool. Here is the official website of Git to get more information: git-scm.com

Setting up your remotes

  1. The “Information” page of your app gives you your Git deployment URL, it looks like this:

    1. git+ssh://git@push.clever-cloud.com/<your_app_id>.git
    2. Copy it in your clipboard

  2. Locally, under your code folder, type in git init to set up a new git repository or skip this step if you already have one

  3. Add the deploy URL with git remote add <name> <your-git-deployment-url>

  4. Add your files via git add <files path> and commit them via git commit -m <your commit message>

  5. Now push your application on Clever Cloud with git push <name> master

Refer to git deployments for more details.

Git specific Drupal instructions

We at this point assume you have downloaded the source files of drupal from drupal.org and already have linked your MySQL add-on.

  • Open .gitignore file and delete sites/*/settings*.php line
  • Copy the file sites/default/default.settings.php to sites/default/settings.php
  • Open sites/default/settings.php and line 213, replace
$databases = array();

by

    $databases = array (
      'default' =>
        array (
          'default' =>
          array (
            'database' => getenv('MYSQL_ADDON_DB'),
            'username' => getenv('MYSQL_ADDON_USER'),
            'password' => getenv('MYSQL_ADDON_PASSWORD'),
            'host' => getenv('MYSQL_ADDON_HOST'),
            'port' => getenv('MYSQL_ADDON_PORT'),
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            'prefix' => '',
          ),
        ),
    );
  • Replace the line $settings['hash_salt'] = '' ($drupal_hash_salt for Drupal 7) with $settings['hash_salt'] = getenv('DRUPAL_SALT'). You can generate salts with this link. Add a new DRUPAL_SALT environment variable to the application with the salt you have generated.
  • As mentioned in this article, with Git deployments, files that are uploaded by users must be persisted in a File System Bucket. In order to do so, add a File Bucket via the console.
  • At the root of your application, create a clevercloud/buckets.json file (create a clevercloud folder in which you create a buckets.json file).
  • Copy the bucket.json content from the FS bucket addon dashboard (make sure to edit the folder field):
[
   {
      "bucket_host": "<bucket-id>-fsbucket.services.clever-cloud.com",
      "folder": "/sites/default/files"
   }
]
  • Send these Drupal files via Git.
  • When finished, get the url that you can find in the domains panel in the left sidebar. Then open the following link:

https://yourapplication.cleverapps.io/install.php

Do not forget the /install.php page otherwise installation will not happen.

FTP Deployment

Make sure you have Filezilla or an other FTP software installed in your machine.

When you have chosen to deploy your application via FTP at the application creation, a free FS Bucket has been created with an ID matching your application’s ID.

You will find the FTP credentials in the configuration tab of this particular FS Bucket.

Just follow the instructions of your FTP Software to send code to Clever Cloud.

Refer to our Quick Start - FTP deployment for more details.

More configuration

Need more configuration? To run a script at the end of your deployment? To add your private SSH key to access private dependencies?

Go check the Common configuration page.

You may want to have an advanced usage of your application, in which case we recommend you to read the Administrate documentation section.

If you can’t find something or have a specific need like using a non supported version of a particular software, please reach out to the support.

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