How to Set Up Caddy as a Web Server on Kamatera

Caddy is a modern web server and reverse proxy that is designed to be secure by default and easy to use. Unlike traditional web servers, Caddy simplifies web hosting with automatic HTTPS, a user-friendly configuration file (Caddyfile) and built-in features like static file serving, reverse proxying, and compression. 

With cross-platform support, Caddy runs seamlessly on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Docker. It automatically provisions SSL/TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt making secure web hosting effortless. Using a Caddyfile (configuration file), you can easily set up websites and proxies. Since it is written in Go programming language, Caddy is both memory-efficient and fast.

Caddy is ideal for developers, system administrators, and businesses looking for a hassle-free and secure web server. Its automation and minimal configuration make it a great choice for hosting websites, APIs, and microservices.

Kamatera offers a pre-configured Caddy server image that allows users to quickly set up and deploy their web applications. This guide will walk you through the steps to install and configure Caddy on Kamatera, ensuring a smooth and secure web hosting experience. 

First, let’s create an account on Kamatera.

Go to console.kamatera.com and sign up for an account by providing the following information:

1. Verify Your Email: Click the verification link sent to your email by Kamatera.
2. Password: Enter your password.
3. Repeat Password: Re-enter your password and click Create Account.

Access the Kamatera Management Console

1. Enter your username and password and click Login to access the management console.

2. Navigate to My Cloud on the left pane, select Servers, and click on Create New Server. Alternatively, you can click on Create New Server on the right pane. 

3. Choose Zone

Choose a zone from the following options:

• Asia
• North America
• Europe 
• Middle East

Note: For this setup, we used the Asia server domain to set up the Windows Server.

4. Choose An Image

Kamatera offers a variety of app and server images to help users set up preconfigured resources. Users can explore options such as:

• Server OS Images
• Desktop OS Images
• App Images
• Service Images 
• My Private Images

In this case, select Service Images and select Caddy.

Under Choose Version, select the latest version of Caddy.

Note: Always choose the latest version for the best features and security updates. 

Once the version is selected you will see the following message: 

“Caddy Web Server installed and ready to use with MySQL 8 and PHP-FPM 7.4 on Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS”.

5. Toggle the Detailed view button to enable you to view the detailed description, including the price.  

Note: For this use case, the following server specifications are used. Select the server specifications based on your requirements.

Choose Server Specs

6. Choose Networking

Users can select the network they wish to use, whether it is a public Internet network or a private local network.

Simple Mode:

Advanced Mode:

7. Advanced Configuration 

 Hide: to hide the advanced configuration. 

 Show: to see the advanced configuration.

8. Finalize Settings

Finalize settings by setting the password, re-validating it, selecting the number of servers, specifying the server’s name, and enabling the Power On Servers option.

Note: Once the user enters the details in Finalize Settings, they can select monthly or hourly billing, depending on their requirements.

9. Billing Cycle and Pricing

The user can choose between monthly billing cycle and hourly billing cycle.

Note: The Server Summary displays the location, operating system (including server specifications), add-on services, servers, and pricing.

Click Create Server.

10. Click on the Tasks Queue at the bottom, you can see that Caddy is being downloaded. 

11. Once the installation is successful, you will message as Success beside the server’s name and Caddy is reflected in the Server Management dashboard.  

Click Open, beside the Caddy server.

12. A new screen shows up, with the Overview tab in the center selected by default displays information like Power state, Guest OS, Zone, Public Internet (WAN), Server ID of the server and Configuration-Number of CPU. Memory Size, Disk 1.

 Next, click on Connect to connect to the server.

13. Now, click on Open Remote Console.

14. In the terminal, enter the username and password that you specified while creating the server (step-6). 

Once logged in, the system displays the System Description, including:

mySQL Server Address, mySQL Server Username, mySQL Server Password, mySQL Server config files location, PHP config files location, Caddy WebUI and Caddy configuration file location.

15. Open the browser and enter the Caddy Web UI URL: https://xx-xxx-xx-xxx.cloud-xip.com (provided in step 14).

You will see the following message displayed on the screen.

16. You can find detailed documentation and guides on Caddy, including various methods for installing it on your system, at https://caddyserver.com/docs/.

17. To find out which version of Caddy is installed on your server, you can use the following command: 

Command: caddy version

18. When you run Caddy without any arguments, it displays helpful information about the available commands and options. This is useful for learning how to use Caddy’s various features. 

Command: caddy

To see detailed usage of any command, you can run:

Command: caddy help <command>

For example: caddy help run

19. Before manually running Caddy, check its status and stop it if necessary to avoid conflicts.

20. Use /etc/caddy/Caddyfile (given in step-14) as your Caddy configuration file because it is the default location, ensuring smooth service management, automatic loading, and easier maintenance.

Run the below command to edit the configuration file in Nano editor:

Command: sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

21. Below is the default configuration file used to generate the output when accessing the Caddy Web UI at: https://xx-xxx-xx-xxx.cloud-xip.com  (Step 15).

22. Modify the Configuration:

Inside the Caddyfile, add or update the following lines: 

localhost

respond “hello world from caddy”

or, if you are using a domain/IP address, replace localhost with your server’s public IP or domain:

xxx-xx-xxx-xx.cloud-xip.com

respond “hello world from caddy”

After editing, follow these steps to save the file:

• Press CTRL + X to exit Nano.
• Press Y to confirm saving changes.
• Press Enter to save and close the file.

23. After saving and closing the file, run the following command to start Caddy:

Command: caddy start

This command starts the Caddy server in the background, allowing it to serve requests based on the configuration in the Caddyfile.

MISSING IMAGE

24. Now, open your browser and enter localhost or the Caddy Web UI URL: https://xx-xxx-xx-xxx.cloud-xip.com (provided in Step 14) to view the changes made to the configuration file.

25. If you want Caddy to serve responses with the Content-Type header set to text/html, add the following line to your Caddyfile: 

header Content-Type text/html 

It ensures that the response is recognized as HTML by the browser.

After editing, follow these steps to save the file:

• Press CTRL + X to exit Nano.
• Press Y to confirm saving changes.
• Press Enter to save and close the file.

Whenever the config file is updated, always run the following command

Command: caddy start

26. To check whether the response is an HTML file, follow these steps:

• Open the Browser and enter localhost or your Caddy Web UI URL https://xx-xxx-xx-xxx.cloud-xip.com.
• Find an empty area on the page, right-click, and select Inspect from the menu.
• The Developer Tools panel will open. By default, it will be on the Elements tab, showing the rendered HTML structure of the page.
• If you see <html>, <head>, or <body> tags, it confirms that the response is in HTML format.

27. To format the text as a heading in Caddy’s response, you need to use the <h1> HTML tag inside the Caddyfile configuration. Here’s how to do it:

Inside the Caddyfile, add or update the following lines: 

localhost

header Content-Type text/html

respond “<h1>hello world</h1>”

or, if you are using a domain/IP address, replace localhost with your server’s public IP or domain:

xxx-xx-xxx-xx.cloud-xip.com

header Content-Type text/html

respond “<h1>hello world</h1>” 

After editing, follow these steps to save the file:

• Press CTRL + X to exit Nano.
• Press Y to confirm saving changes.
• Press Enter to save and close the file.

Now, start the server by running the following command:

Command: caddy start

28. Open the Browser and enter localhost or your Caddy Web UI URL https://xx-xxx-xx-xxx.cloud-xip.com  to see the updated changes.

The text will now appear as Heading 1.

29. In Caddy, you can define multiple sites within a Caddyfile by grouping them inside curly braces {}. Each site block specifies a different domain or port and contains its own configuration.

For example, update your Caddyfile as follows:

localhost {

    respond “Hello, world!”

}

localhost:2016 {

    respond “Goodbye, world!”

}

• localhost – This block defines a site that runs on the default HTTP port (80). When you access http://localhost, Caddy will respond with “hello world by caddy”.
• localhost:2016 – This block defines another site running on port 2016. When you access http://localhost:2016, Caddy will respond with “Goodbye World”.
  (or)xxx-xx-xxx-xx.cloud-xip.com {    respond “Hello, world!”} xxx-xx-xxx-xx.cloud-xip.com:2016 {    respond “Goodbye, world!”

  }

 After editing, follow these steps to save the file:

• Press CTRL + X to exit Nano.
• Press Y to confirm saving changes.
• Press Enter to save and close the file.

Now, start the server by running the following command:

Command: caddy start

30. The following command will start Caddy using the default Caddyfile (/etc/caddy/Caddyfile or Caddyfile in the current directory).

Command: caddy run

It starts the Caddy server with the specified Caddyfile and runs Caddy in the foreground, meaning it stays active in the terminal until you stop it manually. This command is typically used when starting Caddy manually for debugging.

31. The following command will apply the latest changes in the Caddyfile without interrupting running services.

Command: caddy reload

This command reloads the Caddy configuration without stopping the server and is used when you modify the Caddyfile and want to apply changes without restarting Caddy.
With Kamatera’s ready-to-use Caddy server image, setting up a server is quick and easy. By following this guide, you now have a working Caddy server ready to use.