Fresns on Ubuntu 24.04 on Azure User Guide

Overview

Fresns is an open source, self hosted community and social network platform. It is a content and social engine with a web admin control panel and an open API, built so a single backend can drive a forum, a microblog or a full social network across the web, mobile apps and mini programs. Members hold accounts and profiles, publish posts and comments, follow each other, join groups and interact, while operators manage content, members, roles, languages and policies from the control panel. It is built on the Laravel framework and backed by MariaDB, and it is extended through a plugin, theme and app marketplace rather than by forking the core.

This cloudimg image is a complete, hardened Fresns appliance on a fully patched Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base. Apache 2 serves port 80 and dispatches PHP to a PHP 8.3 FPM pool; MariaDB 10.11 listens only on the loopback interface. The interface is configured in English, and there is no default login anywhere in the image: the MariaDB root password, the application database password, the Laravel application key and the Fresns administrator password are all generated uniquely on the first boot of each VM. The web server is held back until that first boot has finished, so the Fresns installer is never exposed. Your database and your application tier each live on their own dedicated Azure data disk. Backed by 24/7 cloudimg support.

What is included:

• Fresns v3.8.1, the current upstream release, licensed Apache-2.0
• Apache 2.4 on port 80, dispatching PHP to PHP FPM over a unix socket
• PHP 8.3 FPM with every extension Fresns and Laravel require, including mysqli, pdo_mysql, mbstring, gd, intl, bcmath, zip, curl, gmp and opcache
• MariaDB 10.11, bound to 127.0.0.1 only and never exposed to the network
• Composer 2, so the control panel's plugin, theme and app management works out of the box
• The Fresns scheduler (php artisan schedule:run) as a managed systemd timer, as upstream requires in production
• Interface language set to English
• A per VM Fresns administrator password, a per VM Laravel application key, a per VM application database password and a per VM MariaDB root password, recorded in a root only file
• A /cloudimg-status.php page that proves Apache, PHP FPM and MariaDB are all working together
• Two dedicated Azure data disks: one for the database at /var/lib/mysql, one for the application at /var/www
• apache2.service, php8.3-fpm.service, mariadb.service and fresns-scheduler.timer as enabled systemd units
• An unauthenticated /healthz endpoint for Azure Load Balancer health probes
• 24/7 cloudimg support

Prerequisites

• An Azure subscription with permission to create virtual machines
• An SSH key pair for administrative access to the VM
• A network security group allowing inbound TCP 22 (SSH) and TCP 80 (HTTP) from the addresses you will use

Step 1 - Deploy from the Azure Marketplace

Search the Azure Marketplace for Fresns on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS by cloudimg, choose Create, and select the Standard_B2s size or larger. Provide your SSH public key for the azureuser account and allow inbound ports 22 and 80.

Step 2 - Deploy from the Azure CLI

az vm create \
  --resource-group my-resource-group \
  --name fresns-01 \
  --image cloudimg:fresns:default:latest \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --public-ip-sku Standard

# Then open HTTP to the addresses you will browse from:
az vm open-port --resource-group my-resource-group --name fresns-01 --port 80

Step 3 - Confirm Fresns is running

SSH to the VM and confirm every tier is up. Apache deliberately does not start until the first boot service has written this VM's configuration, so the units being active is also the proof that first boot completed.

systemctl is-active apache2 php8.3-fpm mariadb fresns-firstboot fresns-scheduler.timer
ss -tln | grep -E ':80 |:3306 '

Expected output:

active
active
active
active
active
LISTEN 0      80         127.0.0.1:3306      0.0.0.0:*
LISTEN 0      511                *:80              *:*

Apache is listening on port 80 for the world, while MariaDB is bound to 127.0.0.1:3306 and is never reachable off the box.

Step 4 - Retrieve this VM's credentials

Every password is unique to this VM and was generated on first boot. They are written to a root only file:

sudo cat /root/fresns-credentials.txt

Expected output (passwords shown masked here):

FRESNS_URL=http://<public-ip>
FRESNS_ADMIN_PANEL_URL=http://<public-ip>/fresns/admin
FRESNS_STATUS_URL=http://<public-ip>/cloudimg-status.php

# Sign in to the Fresns admin panel with these:
FRESNS_ADMIN_EMAIL=admin@fresns.local
FRESNS_ADMIN_PASSWORD=********

# The application database (MariaDB listens on 127.0.0.1:3306 only, never off-box):
FRESNS_DB_NAME=fresns
FRESNS_DB_USER=fresns
FRESNS_DB_PASSWORD=********
FRESNS_MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD=********

The administrator signs in with the email admin@fresns.local and the generated FRESNS_ADMIN_PASSWORD. You can change the administrator email and add more administrators from the control panel once you are signed in.

Step 5 - Sign in to the Fresns control panel

Browse to http://<public-ip>/fresns/admin. The control panel sign in page is served in English. Enter the administrator email and the FRESNS_ADMIN_PASSWORD from the credentials file, and choose Enter.

Step 6 - Explore the community dashboard

After signing in you land on the Fresns dashboard. It shows the running version, the live counts of accounts, users, groups, hashtags, geotags, posts and comments read straight from the database, the installed extensions (admins, app keys, plugins, themes and apps), and the system information for this VM.

You can confirm the administrator can sign in from the command line as well. Run this on the VM:

CJ=$(mktemp)
TOKEN=$(curl -s -c "$CJ" http://127.0.0.1/fresns/admin | grep -oE 'name="_token" value="[^"]+"' | head -1 | cut -d'"' -f4)
curl -s -o /dev/null -b "$CJ" -c "$CJ" \
  --data-urlencode "accountName=<FRESNS_ADMIN_EMAIL>" \
  --data-urlencode "password=<FRESNS_ADMIN_PASSWORD>" \
  --data-urlencode "_token=$TOKEN" http://127.0.0.1/fresns/admin
curl -s -o /dev/null -w 'dashboard: HTTP %{http_code}\n' -b "$CJ" http://127.0.0.1/fresns/dashboard
rm -f "$CJ"

Expected output:

dashboard: HTTP 200

An HTTP 200 on the dashboard confirms the per VM administrator password authenticated through the real login form; before signing in, the same dashboard request is redirected to the login page.

Step 7 - Manage your members

Open Operations and then the accounts area to manage the community's members. The account created on first boot is your administrator; from here you add, search, suspend and role assign members as your community grows.

Step 8 - Configure your site

Open Settings to configure your site: its name and description, the default and enabled languages, the storage back end for uploads, the content and interaction policies and the API clients. This is where you tailor the platform to your community before opening it up.

To publish a front end that your members browse (a website theme or a mobile client), install a Fresns front end engine or theme from Extends in the control panel. Fresns keeps the backend and the front end decoupled, so the same community backend on this VM can drive a website today and a mobile app tomorrow.

Step 9 - Verify the stack end to end

The image ships a status page that proves all three tiers in a single request: Apache served it, PHP FPM executed it, and MariaDB answered a real query against the Fresns schema.

curl -sI http://127.0.0.1/healthz | head -1
curl -s http://127.0.0.1/cloudimg-status.php | grep -oE 'FRESNS_STATUS_OK|MariaDB [0-9.]+[-A-Za-z0-9]*|PHP [0-9.]+ via [a-z-]+'

Expected output:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
FRESNS_STATUS_OK
MariaDB 10.11.14-MariaDB-0ubuntu0
PHP 8.3.6 via fpm-fcgi

FRESNS_STATUS_OK is printed only when Apache, PHP FPM and MariaDB have all answered.

Step 10 - Component versions

apache2 -v | head -1
php -v | head -1
mariadb --version

Expected output:

Server version: Apache/2.4.58 (Ubuntu)
PHP 8.3.6 (cli) (built: Jul 16 2026 18:30:41) (NTS)
mariadb  Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.11.14-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using  EditLine wrapper

Fresns itself is v3.8.1, running on the Laravel framework.

Step 11 - Where your data lives

Your database and your application tier each have their own dedicated ext4 data disk, so they are independently resizable and survive an OS disk swap.

df -h /var/lib/mysql /var/www
findmnt -no SOURCE,TARGET,FSTYPE /var/lib/mysql /var/www
grep bind-address /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/*.cnf

Expected output:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdc         20G  197M   19G   2% /var/lib/mysql
/dev/sdd         20G   61M   19G   1% /var/www
/dev/sdc /var/lib/mysql ext4
/dev/sdd /var/www ext4
/etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/99-cloudimg-fresns.cnf:bind-address = 127.0.0.1

Step 12 - Review the database accounts

On box database maintenance needs no password, because root@localhost authenticates through the unix socket. The network accounts each carry a per VM password, and there are no anonymous accounts.

sudo mariadb -N -B -e "SELECT User, Host, plugin FROM mysql.user WHERE User IN ('root','fresns') ORDER BY User, Host;"
sudo mariadb -N -B -e "SELECT COUNT(*) AS tables_in_fresns FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='fresns';"

Expected output:

fresns  127.0.0.1   mysql_native_password
fresns  localhost   mysql_native_password
root    127.0.0.1   mysql_native_password
root    ::1 mysql_native_password
root    localhost   unix_socket
62

The application connects as the least privilege fresns user, which only has rights on the fresns database. Only root@localhost (socket) can administer the whole server, and it is not reachable over the network.

Language and regional settings

The control panel and the shipped instance are set to English. You can add and switch languages, and set the default language for the panel and for your community, under Settings in the control panel. Fresns is fully internationalised, so you can run your community in any language you enable.

Enabling HTTPS with Let's Encrypt

For a production deployment, put a certificate in front of Fresns. Point a DNS name at the VM's public IP, open port 443 in the network security group, then:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache
sudo certbot --apache -d your-domain.example

Certbot obtains a certificate, configures the Apache virtual host for HTTPS and sets up automatic renewal. After enabling HTTPS, update your site URL in the control panel settings (and Laravel's APP_URL in /var/www/fresns/.env) to the https:// address so that generated links are correct, then reload Apache.

Security notes

• There is no default login in the image. The MariaDB root password, the application database password, the Laravel application key and the Fresns administrator password are all generated uniquely on this VM's first boot.
• Apache does not start until first boot has written this VM's configuration and marked the install complete, so the Fresns installer is never exposed on a fresh VM.
• MariaDB is bound to 127.0.0.1 only. Keep it that way; the application reaches it over the loopback interface.
• The application's .env file (which holds the database password and the application key) lives outside the web root and is denied over HTTP.
• Keep the network security group tight: expose port 80 (and 443 once you enable TLS) only to the addresses that need it, and restrict SSH to your own IP.
• Keep the VM patched with sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade.

Support

cloudimg images are backed by 24/7 support. If you have any questions about this image, contact support@cloudimg.co.uk.