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Deploy Castopod on AlmaLinux VPS This article provides a production-ready, step-by-step guide to deploy Castopod on AlmaLinux VPS using Nginx + PHP-FPM + MariaDB + HTTPS. What is Castopod? Castopod is an open-source podcast hosting platform designed to give podcasters control over their content while supporting the latest podcasting innovations, such as Podcasting 2.0 features. It's a self-hosted solution, meaning that users can install and run Castopod on their own servers, offering them full ownership of their podcasts and data, unlike hosted platforms where the hosting service owns the platform infrastructure (which creates a vendor lock-in scenario for podcaster). Additionally, Castopod supports federation via ActivityPub, the decentralized social networking protocol, also known as the Fediverse. This means podcasts hosted on Castopod can be followed and interacted with from compatible social networks, broadening the reach and engagement of podcast content. Pre-requisites Minimum VPS specs (recommended): AlmaLinux 9 2 vCPU 2 GB RAM (4 GB ideal) 20+ GB NVMe storage Root or sudo access A domain or subdomain (e.g. podcast.example.com) How to Deploy Castopod on AlmaLinux VPS To deploy Castopod on AlmaLinux VPS, follow the steps below: Prepare the AlmaLinux VPS Update the system and install core utilities: dnf update -y dnf install -y epel-release unzip wget curl firewalld nano systemctl enable --now firewalld Open HTTP and HTTPS: firewall-cmd --permanent --add-servicehttp firewall-cmd --permanent --add-servicehttps firewall-cmd --reload Install Nginx dnf install -y nginx systemctl enable --now nginx Verify: curl http://localhost Install PHP (Required Extensions) Castopod requires PHP 8.1+. Enable Remi repository: dnf install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-9.rpm dnf module reset php -y dnf module enable php:remi-8.2 -y Install PHP and extensions: dnf install -y \ php php-fpm php-mysqlnd php-intl php-mbstring php-xml \ php-gd php-curl php-zip php-opcache php-cli Start PHP-FPM: systemctl enable --now php-fpm Install MariaDB dnf install -y mariadb-server systemctl enable --now mariadb Secure the database: mysql_secure_installation Create Castopod Database mysql -u root -p CREATE DATABASE castopod CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; CREATE USER 'castopod'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'STRONG_PASSWORD'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON castopod.* TO 'castopod'@'localhost'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT; Download Castopod cd /var/www wget https://code.castopod.org/-/project/2/uploads/db9596e195aa5c9eb652427a0060c253/castopod-1.14.1.zip unzip castopod-1.14.1.zip mv castopod podcast chown -R nginx:nginx podcast chmod -R 755 podcast Configure PHP Permissions chcon -R -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /var/www/podcast setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1 Configure Nginx Virtual Host Create config: nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/podcast.conf server { listen 80; server_name podcast.example.com; root /var/www/podcast/public; index index.php; client_max_body_size 2G; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string; } location ~ \.php$ { include fastcgi_params; fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name; } location ~* \.(mp3|m4a|ogg|wav)$ { expires 30d; add_header Cache-Control "public"; } } Test and reload: nginx -t systemctl reload nginx Install HTTPS (Let’s Encrypt) dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx certbot --nginx -d podcast.example.com Enable auto-renewal: systemctl enable certbot-renew.timer Web Installer (Final Setup) Open in browser: https://podcast.example.com Provide: Database name: castopod Database user: castopod Password: STRONG_PASSWORD Admin email & password Podcast metadata Complete installation. Optimize for Production PHP Tuning Edit: nano /etc/php.ini Recommended: memory_limit 512M upload_max_filesize 2048M post_max_size 2048M max_execution_time 300 Restart PHP: systemctl restart php-fpm Enable Background Jobs (Recommended) Castopod relies on scheduled tasks. crontab -u nginx -e * * * * * php /var/www/podcast/spark castopod:scheduled Optional Enhancements Object storage (S3-compatible) for episode media CDN for audio delivery Redis for caching Fail2Ban for admin protection Daily database + media backups HTTP/3 (QUIC) via Nginx + Cloudflare Common Troubleshooting 502 Bad Gateway PHP-FPM not running Socket mismatch (/run/php-fpm/www.sock) Uploads failing Increase client_max_body_size Check PHP upload limits SELinux blocking access audit2allow -w -a Final Notes You now have a secure, scalable Castopod deployment on AlmaLinux suitable for: Independent podcasters Hosting providers Media networks White-label podcast platforms Conclusion You now know how to deploy Castopod on AlmaLinux VPS.

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