HOWTO: Websockets with SSL in Meteor + Looking for Meteor Developers for newly-funded startup+games

Friends,

Ever wonder how to get websockets working with SSL on your own server
deployments? Frustrated that all the material online gets SSL working, but
curiously ignores websocket-over-SSL functionality? Hate DISABLE_WEBSOCKETS?

Check out the instructions below for setting up SSL for meteor with
websocket support.

This was adapted from my DevOps bible for *workpop♥, *my jobs market
startup for hourly employees.

*We're built on meteor. Contact me at ben [ at ] workpop.com. Our investors
include but are not limited to SV Angel, Joe Lonsdale and Aaron Levie.
We're looking for front-end meteor developers.*

*I'm also looking for game developers interested in finishing PartyGame,
open sourced here - https://github.com/hiddenswitch/PartyGame-Web - for
$$$. It needs to be refreshed for Meteor 0.7 & Blaze, and it needs a native
iOS client.*

Check out https://github.com/hiddenswitch/Meteor-Unity for my Unity3D /
Mono / C# Meteor client with LocalCollection support.

1.

Install dependencies on your host machine. For ubuntu precise:

# Install apache2 for SSL, node
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/apache2
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo apt-get install -y python-software-properties python g++ make
sudo apt-get install nodejs libssl-dev git phantomjs
sudo apt-get install apache2=2.4.9-1+deb.sury.org~precise+1# Install meteor
curl https://install.meteor.com/ | sh# Install meteorite
sudo npm install -g meteorite

2.

Configure your certs. From
http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/5238/installing-an-ssl-certificate-in-apache?locale=en

sudo cp yourdomain.com.crt /etc/ssl/certs/yourdomain.com.crt
sudo cp yourdomain.key /etc/ssl/private/yourdomain.key
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apache2/ssl.crt
# This is your domain provider's certificate chain
sudo cp godaddy.crt /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/godaddy.crt

3.

Configure apache2 to proxy the SSL. An example configuration:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:80>
RewriteEngine on
ReWriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
# This allows DDP clients like ObjectiveDDP and Meteor-Unity to connect
RewriteRule ^/websocket wss://%{HTTP_HOST}/websocket [NC,R,L]
# This allows the meteor webapp to connect
RewriteRule ^/sockjs/(.*)/websocket wss://%{HTTP_HOST}/sockjs/$1/websocket [NC,R,L]
RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [NC,R,L]
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost _default_:443>
ServerAdmin youremail [ at ] example.com
ServerName https://yourdomain.com
## SSL Engine Switch:
# Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host.
SSLEngine on

## Proxy to port 3000 for Meteor apps
SSLProxyEngine On
ProxyRequests Off # Disable forward proxying
# This allows DDP clients like ObjectiveDDP and Meteor-Unity to connect
ProxyPass /websocket ws://localhost:3000/websocket
# This allows the meteor webapp to connect
ProxyPassMatch ^/sockjs/(.*)/websocket ws://localhost:3000/sockjs/$1/websocket
ProxyPass / http://localhost:3000/
ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:3000/
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/yourdomain.com.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/yourdomain.key
SSLCACertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl.crt/godaddy.crt

BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-6]" \
nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown \
downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
# MSIE 7 and newer should be able to use keepalive
BrowserMatch "MSIE [17-9]" ssl-unclean-shutdown

</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

4.

Copy the configuration file and run apache2:

sudo cp yourdomain-com.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/yourdomain-com.conf# Enable all the necessary apache modules
sudo a2enmod ssl
sudo a2enmod proxy
sudo a2enmod proxy_http
sudo a2enmod proxy_wstunnel
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo a2ensite yourdomain-com
sudo service apache2 reload
sudo service apache2 restart