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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.

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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.

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Step 1: Install Meilisearch

Log into your EC2 instance via SSH and update the system packages: 
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt 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/

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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

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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.

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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.

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Step 5: Secure and finish your setup

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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.

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5.2. Set up a reverse proxy with Nginx

Install Nginx: 
sudo apt 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

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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: 
sudo apt 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

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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.