Evolution API can be easily installed using the Node Version Manager (NVM). Follow these steps to set up your environment and start the Evolution API on your server.

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Install NVM

First, download and install Node.js. You can do this by running the following commands:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

Now, just point to the NVM directories and install Node:

# Load bash source into the environment
source ~/.bashrc

# Directories
export NVM_DIR="$([ -z "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME-}" ] && printf %s "${HOME}/.nvm" || printf %s "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/nvm")"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

# Install node:
nvm install v20.10.0 && nvm use v20.10.0

Confirm that NVM was successfully installed:

command -v nvm

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Clone the official GitHub repository to your private server.

git clone https://github.com/EvolutionAPI/evolution-api.git

Next, navigate to the folder where the project is located.

cd evolution-api
npm install

Now, let’s copy the env.yml file with the settings you need to edit.

cp src/dev-env.yml src/env.yml
nano src/env.yml

This command creates a copy of the default environment file.

Next, open the env.yml file in a text editor to enter your configuration settings. You can use nano, a command-line text editor, for this purpose:

nano src/env.yml

In the nano editor, navigate through the file and replace the default values with your specific settings. This can include database connection strings, API keys, server ports, etc.

To start the Evolution API, use the following command:

npm run build
npm run start:prod

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Install and Configure PM2

Use PM2 to install PM2 and start the manager for the API process:

npm install pm2 -g
pm2 start 'npm run start:prod' --name ApiEvolution
pm2 startup
pm2 save --force

pm2 start 'npm run start:prod' --name ApiEvolution -- start --node-args="--max-old-space-size=4096" --max-memory-restart 4G

If you want to ensure the API is running, simply use your browser to access http://localhost:8080. This should be the response from your browser:

{
    "status": 200,
    "message": "Welcome to Evolution API, it is working!",
    "version": "1.x.x",
    "documentation": "http://localhost:8080/docs"
}

EvolutionAPI has built-in Swagger endpoint documentation, which you can use to see all possible endpoints and test requests by accessing http://localhost:8080/docs.

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Nginx Configuration

First, let’s install, start, enable, and test the Nginx service on your private server.

apt-get install -y nginx
systemctl start nginx
systemctl enable nginx
systemctl status nginx

If the information “Active: active (running)” appears in green, it means that Nginx is running and you can proceed to the next step.

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Remove Default Nginx Configuration

First, remove the default site file that comes enabled with Nginx:

rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

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Create a new server block file in the directory

nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

Next, paste the Nginx configuration into the default.conf file:

server {
  listen 80;
  listen [::]:80;
  server_name _;
  root /var/www/html/;
  index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
  }

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
    include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
  }

# Long browser cache time can speed up repeat visits to your page
location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|gif|png|webp|svg|woff|woff2|ttf|css|js|ico|xml)$ {
       access_log off;
       log_not_found off;
       expires 360d;
  }

# disable access to hidden files
location ~ /\.ht {
      access_log off;
      log_not_found off;
      deny all;
  }
}

After making changes to the Nginx settings, it is essential to reload the Nginx service. This ensures that any modifications you have made are applied and become effective.

Run the following command in the terminal to reload Nginx:

systemctl reload nginx

Make the nginx user the owner of the web directory, by default, it is owned by the root user:

chown www-data:www-data /usr/share/nginx/html -R

Now, create a Virtual Host pointing to your subdomain by editing the api file:

cd ~
nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/api

Next, paste the Nginx configuration into the api file:

server {
  server_name replace-this-with-your-cool-domain.com;

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
  }
}

Create a symbolic link between the api and sites-enabled files:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/api /etc/nginx/sites-enabled

Next, validate the Nginx configuration for the subdomain:

nginx -t

Reload Nginx for the changes to take effect.

systemctl reload nginx

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Install Certbot for SSL Certificate

To secure your Evolution API with an SSL certificate, you can use Certbot. Install Certbot using the following command:

snap install --classic certbot

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Certify the API subdomain

certbot --nginx -d replace-this-with-your-cool-domain.com

You will be asked if you want to enter an email to receive notifications when the generated certificate is close to its expiration date.