AWS EC2 Deployment

How to deploy OpenOps on an AWS EC2 instance

This guide is for testing and evaluation purposes only and is not intended for production deployments. Please reach out to us at [e-mail] if you’d like to learn how to set up OpenOps in a production environment.

This guide explains how to install the OpenOps Docker Compose release on a newly created EC2 instance.

It assumes you have appropriate permissions on an existing AWS account.

Initial deployment

Create a new EC2 instance

1. On the EC2 home page, click Launch Instance:
2. Choose a name for your instance and configure the following settings:
   • Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image)
     • Choose Ubuntu as the instance image, as it simplifies Docker installation. Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS was the latest available version when this guide was written.
     • Keep 64-bit (x86) as the instance architecture.
   • Instance type. The t3.large instance type provides decent performance. You can choose a different type according to your needs, but it’s not recommended to select a size smaller than t3.medium.
   • Key pair (login). Creating a new SSH key pair is recommended but not mandatory.
   • Network settings. Allow SSH traffic from your own IP address:
   • Configure storage. Choose 50GB to ensure you have enough space for Docker images and databases.
3. In the Summary section on the right, click Launch instance:
4. Once the instance is launched, navigate to instance details by clicking the instance ID:
5. Configure the network settings and open the necessary ports:
   1. Open the Security tab, then click on the security group.
   2. Click Edit inbound rules.
   3. Add two new rules by clicking Add rule each time:
      1. In the first rule, for Type, choose HTTP, and under Source, select My IP.
      2. In the second rule, for Type, choose SSH. Click the text field next to Source, and search for ec2-instance-connect. Select the prefix list with the full name similar to com.amazonaws.us-east-1.ec2-instance-connect, depending on your region. This allows you to connect to the instance via AWS CloudShell. The resulting set of inbound rules should look like this:
   4. Click Save rules to finish the configuration.

Connect to the instance with CloudShell

1. Back in the instance details view of your EC2 instance, and click Connect.
2. In the Connect view, use default connection settings and click Connect again, then wait for CloudShell to initialize an in-browser session.

Install OpenOps

Run the following command in your terminal to install, update, configure and run OpenOps:

curl -fsS https://openops.sh/install | sh

Alternatively, you can follow the manual installation steps:

Show Installing OpenOps manually

1. Install the unzip utility:
   sudo apt install unzip
   
2. Create a new directory and download the OpenOps release files:
   mkdir -p openops && cd openops && \
   wget https://github.com/openops-cloud/openops/releases/download/0.6.16/openops-dc-0.6.16.zip && \
   unzip -o openops-dc-0.6.16.zip && cp -n .env.defaults .env
   
3. Update the application URL to use the instance’s external IP address:
   EXTERNAL_IP=$(curl -4 -s ifconfig.co)
   sed -i "s|http://localhost|http://$EXTERNAL_IP|g" .env
   
4. Open the .env file in the OpenOps installation folder. Change the values of the following variables that represent credentials. Do it now, as you won’t be able to change these values after the initial deployment:
   • OPS_OPENOPS_ADMIN_EMAIL: the email of your OpenOps installation’s root admin account.
   • OPS_OPENOPS_ADMIN_PASSWORD: the password of your OpenOps installation’s root admin account.
   • OPS_POSTGRES_USERNAME: the username of the Postgres database that OpenOps uses.
   • OPS_POSTGRES_PASSWORD: the password of the Postgres database that OpenOps uses.
   • OPS_ANALYTICS_ADMIN_PASSWORD: the password of the OpenOps Analytics admin account (the username is hardcoded to admin).
5. Install Docker using Snap:
   sudo snap install docker
   
6. Pull the images and start the Docker containers:
   sudo COMPOSE_PARALLEL_LIMIT=4 docker compose pull -q && sudo docker compose up -d
   
   If you encounter a rate limit, rerun the pull command. Note that pulling images may take several minutes.

If you did not update credentials in the .env file, the default username is [e-mail] and the password is please-change-this-password-1.

You can now access the OpenOps application by navigating to the public IP address of your (e.g., http://20.20.20.20).

Network ports used by OpenOps

By default, OpenOps does not require any inbound ports other than the application port 80.

The following ports are used by bundled services and, in most cases, should not be exposed:

• 5432: The PostgreSQL database used by OpenOps. Expose this port only if you need direct database access, such as for connecting OpenOps to external analytics tools. Restrict access to a VPN or a trusted IP range.
• 6379: OpenOps’ internal Redis service. Expose this port only if required for debugging or monitoring purposes. Restrict access to a VPN or a trusted IP range.

External databases

To use external PostgreSQL or Redis databases, modify the relevant variables in the .env file. You can disable the corresponding containers by adding a profile in the docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  postgres:
    profiles: ["db"]

If you remove or disable the db profile in .env or in Docker Compose, that container won’t start.

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Enabling TLS

For production usage, it’s recommended to enable TLS (HTTPS). In addition to the security aspect, this also ensures that workflow templates load properly in all browsers.

Automatically

The easiest way to enable TLS is to use an OpenOps script that requests and sets up a TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt. Before running the script, make sure you have a domain name that points to your ‘s external IP address. If you’re configuring DNS right before running the script, you may need to wait for the DNS change to propagate.

1. Run the following command in your terminal:
   curl -fsS https://openops.sh/tls | sh
   
2. When prompted, enter a domain name that points to the external IP address of your .
3. When prompted, enter an email address to receive certificate-related notifications from Let’s Encrypt.

The script will use the Certbot library to request a certificate for your domain from Let’s Encrypt. It receives and saves the certificate, updates the OpenOps configuration file accordingly, and restarts OpenOps.

By default, the certificate expires in 3 months. See https://certbot.org/renewal-setup if you want to configure auto-renewal.

Manually

Alternatively, you can create a TLS certificate yourself. This lets you use DNS validation from Let’s Encrypt (rather than the HTTP validation the automatic script performs) or request a certificate from a different provider.

To set up TLS manually:

1. Obtain certificate and private key files from your certificate provider.
2. Upload the certificate files to your OpenOps installation under the tls directory:
   • <OpenOps installation path>/tls/cert.pem (certificate file)
   • <OpenOps installation path>/tls/key.pem (private key file)
3. Open the .env file in your OpenOps installation directory and update the following variables:
   • Set OPS_NGINX_CONFIG_FILE to nginx.gateway.tls.conf
   • Set OPS_PUBLIC_URL to the secure URL of your OpenOps installation (e.g. https://openops.example.com)

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Disabling host validation

By default, OpenOps does not allow workflows to call internal network addresses such as 127.0.0.1 or 192.168.0.0. This affects HTTP and SMTP actions, as well as webhook triggers. Host validation protects users from creating workflows that could accidentally or maliciously access internal services, scan networks, or escalate privileges.

You may need to disable this check in certain circumstances, such as in non-production deployments or when workflows intentionally interact with internal-only infrastructure.

To disable host validation, open the .env file in your installation folder and set the OPS_ENABLE_HOST_VALIDATION environment variable to false.

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Disabling this check removes an important safety guard and may allow workflows to access internal infrastructure. Use caution and avoid disabling it in production.

Configuring allowed SMTP ports

By default, OpenOps allows SMTP connections on ports 25, 465, 587, and 2525. Administrators can customize which SMTP ports are available by setting the OPS_SMTP_ALLOWED_PORTS environment variable in the .env file.

To configure allowed SMTP ports, open the .env file in your installation folder and set the OPS_SMTP_ALLOWED_PORTS variable to a comma-separated list of port numbers:

OPS_SMTP_ALLOWED_PORTS=25,465,587,2525

Port numbers must be valid TCP ports in the range 1-65535. At least one valid port must be configured. Invalid port numbers will be filtered out.

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Updating OpenOps to a newer version

See Updating OpenOps.

Support

Feel free to join our Slack community if you have any questions or need help with your installation.