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Self-hosting Best Practices

This page outlines the best practices for deploying, managing, and maintaining Appsmith in a production environment. Following these recommendations ensures high availability, security, performance, and smooth upgrades.

Platform selection and deployment​

Selecting the right platform and deployment method is crucial for the scalability and reliability of your Appsmith instance.

  • Platform recommendations:

    • Appsmith works best on AMD and ARM architectures across cloud providers like AWS, Azure, GCP, and DigitalOcean. For more information, see Installation guides.
    • The preferred method for production environments is Kubernetes, as it supports high availability and scalability, managing Appsmith's dependencies like MongoDB and Redis within Kubernetes pods without requiring external instances. For more information, see Kubernetes Installation guide.
    • If using serverless platforms such as AWS ECS, external instances of MongoDB and Redis must be provisioned, with MongoDB Atlas and Elasticache recommended. For more information, see AWS ECS Installation guide.

  • Instance recommendations:

    • Minimum instance size: t3.medium or equivalent. This should scale well for hundreds of users.
    • For 500 concurrent users, we recommend t3.large or larger instances.
    • Free disk space: Always ensure at least 10-15GB of free space.
    • Node separation: For better data safety, keep separate node groups for MongoDB, Redis, Postgres, and the Appsmith pod in Kubernetes.

Environment configuration​

Proper instance and environment configuration ensures reliability, performance, and easier maintenance.

  • Set up separate instances for Production, Staging, and Development to avoid testing or upgrade impacts on production.

  • To ensure that Appsmith remains available during traffic spikes, configure high availability. For Kubernetes follow the High Availability Setup on Kubernetes guide. For AWS ECS, refer to the High Availability Setup on AWS ECS guide, and for Google Cloud Run, High Availability Setup on Google Cloud Run guide.

  • Ensure you have an NFS persistent volume setup and has allocated at least 3GB of persistent storage for Appsmith. When using AWS Fargate as a deployment platform, ensure you've set up AWS EFS as a persistent volume. For more information, see Upgrade to AWS EFS guide.

  • Avoid spot instances for MongoDB, Redis, and Postgres as the spot instances are unexpectedly terminated. Always opt for reserved or dedicated instances to ensure data persistence.

  • Enable logging to monitor Appsmith for errors. If using AWS ECS, enable CloudWatch logging for easy retrieval of Appsmith logs.

  • Integrate with BetterUptime or UptimeRobot to track the uptime and availability of your Appsmith instance. You may also choose to use Supervisor to monitor Appsmith. For more information, see Configure Monitoring Tool guide.

Security and authentication​

Ensuring the security of your Appsmith instance is vital for protecting sensitive data and maintaining compliance.

  • Federated authentication: Disable form login and configure federated authentication methods such as Google OAuth or SAML SSO.

  • SMTP server configuration: Set up an SMTP server for email verification during new sign-ups and password reset requests.

  • AWS security: If using AWS EC2, ensure that IMDsv2 is configured to protect against SSRF attacks. Refer to IMDsv2 Configuration for more details.

  • Form login: If form login is enabled, ensure email verification is required, and disable open signups to allow users to sign up only through invitations.

  • HTTPS & Subdomains: Enable HTTPS for your Appsmith instance and deploy it under a subdomain such as appsmith.<yourdomain>.com.

Backup and recovery management​

Regular backups and recovery plans are critical to prevent data loss and ensure smooth recovery in case of failures.

  • Regular backups:

    • Enable scheduled backups to run nightly on all your instances. For more information, see Schedule automatic backup reference.
    • Use the appsmithctl backup command to create backups of your production and staging environments. For detailed backup configuration, refer to the Backup Instance guide.
    • Enable automatic backups and store them on S3 to ensure easy recovery. For more information on syncing backups to S3, see the Sync Backup to S3 guide.

  • Back up configuration files:

    • Always back up configuration files such as /appsmith-stacks/configuration/docker.env.
    • When deployed on Kubernetes, back up the values.yaml or store it in version control to recover configurations after a disaster.

Upgrades​

Having a proper upgrade strategy ensures that your environment remains up-to-date with the latest features and security patches.

  • Backup your environment and configuration files before upgrading. For more information, see the [Backup and recovery management(#backup-and-recovery-management) section.
  • Verify whether you need to Upgrade to Checkpoint Version (v1.9.2) before proceeding.
  • To stay up-to-date, enable auto-updates. For more information, see the Schedule Automatic Updates guide.
  • It’s recommended to update your Appsmith instance every 2 weeks, or as needed for new features or security patches.
  • Always upgrade Staging or Development environments first and thoroughly test all apps (in both edit and view modes) before upgrading Production.
  • Backup your Production instance before the upgrade.For more information, see the Backup Instance guide.
  • If you notice any degradation in your experience after the upgrade, restore the backup and reach out to support. For more information, see Support at Appsmith.

See also​