Deploy on AWS

This tutorial will guide you through setting up a production-ready Meilisearch instance on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using an EC2 instance.

Meilisearch Cloud is the recommended way to run Meilisearch in production environments.

Prerequisites

An AWS account
An EC2 instance running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Amazon Linux 2023
An SSH key pair to connect to that instance
A security group allowing inbound traffic on ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), and 443 (HTTPS)

AWS has extensive documentation on launching EC2 instances and connecting via SSH.

Step 1: Install Meilisearch

Log into your EC2 instance via SSH and update the system packages:

Ubuntu
Amazon Linux

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install curl -y

sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install curl -y

Next, use curl to download and run the Meilisearch command-line installer:

curl -L https://install.meilisearch.com | sh

Move the binary file into /usr/local/bin to make it accessible from anywhere:

sudo mv ./meilisearch /usr/local/bin/

Step 2: Create system user

Running applications as root exposes you to unnecessary security risks. Create a dedicated user for Meilisearch:

sudo useradd -d /var/lib/meilisearch -s /bin/false -m -r meilisearch

Give the new user ownership of the Meilisearch binary:

sudo chown meilisearch:meilisearch /usr/local/bin/meilisearch

Step 3: Create a configuration file

Create the directories where Meilisearch will store its data:

sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/meilisearch/data /var/lib/meilisearch/dumps /var/lib/meilisearch/snapshots
sudo chown -R meilisearch:meilisearch /var/lib/meilisearch
sudo chmod 750 /var/lib/meilisearch

For production workloads, consider using an EBS volume for data storage. This allows for easy snapshots and volume resizing.

Download the default configuration file:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/latest/config.toml | sudo tee /etc/meilisearch.toml > /dev/null

Edit /etc/meilisearch.toml and update the following lines, replacing MASTER_KEY with a secure 16-byte string:

env = "production"
master_key = "MASTER_KEY"
db_path = "/var/lib/meilisearch/data"
dump_dir = "/var/lib/meilisearch/dumps"
snapshot_dir = "/var/lib/meilisearch/snapshots"

Remember to choose a safe master key.

Step 4: Run Meilisearch as a service

Create a systemd service file to run Meilisearch as a background service:

sudo cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service
[Unit]
Description=Meilisearch
After=systemd-user-sessions.service

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/meilisearch
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/meilisearch --config-file-path /etc/meilisearch.toml
User=meilisearch
Group=meilisearch
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Reload systemd, then enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable meilisearch
sudo systemctl start meilisearch

Verify the service is running:

sudo systemctl status meilisearch

You should see a message confirming your service is active and running.

Step 5: Secure and finish your setup

5.1. Configure security groups

Ensure your EC2 security group allows:

Port 22 for SSH access
Port 80 for HTTP traffic
Port 443 for HTTPS traffic

You can configure this in the AWS Console under EC2 > Security Groups.

5.2. Set up a reverse proxy with Nginx

Install Nginx:

Ubuntu
Amazon Linux

sudo apt install nginx -y

sudo yum install nginx -y

Remove the default configuration and create a new one for Meilisearch:

sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default 2>/dev/null || true
sudo tee /etc/nginx/conf.d/meilisearch.conf > /dev/null << EOF
server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;
    server_name your_domain;
    location / {
        proxy_pass  http://localhost:7700;
    }
}
EOF

Replace your_domain with your actual domain name (or use _ as a catch-all if you don’t have one yet). Enable and restart Nginx:

sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

5.3. Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

Before enabling HTTPS, ensure you have a domain name pointing to your EC2 instance’s public IP address.

Install certbot:

Ubuntu
Amazon Linux

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

sudo yum install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Run certbot to obtain and configure your SSL certificate:

sudo certbot --nginx

Follow the prompts to enter your email, agree to the Terms of Service, and select your domain. Choose to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS when prompted. Verify automatic renewal is configured:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Conclusion

Your Meilisearch instance is now running on AWS EC2 with:

A dedicated system user for security
Automatic restart via systemd
Nginx reverse proxy
HTTPS encryption via Let’s Encrypt

For high-availability setups, consider using an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of multiple EC2 instances.

Comparisons

Migration

Self-hosting

Demos

Under the hood

Other resources

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install Meilisearch

Step 2: Create system user

Step 3: Create a configuration file

Step 4: Run Meilisearch as a service

Step 5: Secure and finish your setup

5.1. Configure security groups

5.2. Set up a reverse proxy with Nginx

5.3. Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

Conclusion

​Prerequisites

​Step 1: Install Meilisearch

​Step 2: Create system user

​Step 3: Create a configuration file

​Step 4: Run Meilisearch as a service

​Step 5: Secure and finish your setup

​5.1. Configure security groups

​5.2. Set up a reverse proxy with Nginx

​5.3. Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

​Conclusion

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install Meilisearch

Step 2: Create system user

Step 3: Create a configuration file

Step 4: Run Meilisearch as a service

Step 5: Secure and finish your setup

5.1. Configure security groups

5.2. Set up a reverse proxy with Nginx

5.3. Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

Conclusion