Azure VM Deployment

How to deploy OpenOps on Azure Virtual Machines

This guide is for testing and evaluation purposes only and is not intended for production deployments. Please reach out to us at [e-mail] if you’d like to learn how to set up OpenOps in a production environment.

This guide explains how to install the OpenOps Docker Compose release on a newly created Azure VM.

You’ll need relevant permissions to create a new VM, edit its networking settings, and set up required permissions for Cloud Shell.

Initial deployment

Create a new virtual machine

1. Navigate to Create a virtual machine in Azure.
2. Name your machine and select the latest Ubuntu Server as the image. Choose a size with at least 2 CPUs and 8 GB of RAM. Other settings can be left as default.
3. Click Review + create at the bottom, then Create to create the machine. You will be asked to download the private key.
   You may see a warning about leaving port 22 (SSH) open. For production use, it’s recommended to open this port only to relevant IPs, depending on your network configuration. In this guide, we’re using CloudShell to connect to the machine, so the port needs to remain open.
4. Once the VM deployment is complete, click Go to resource.
5. From the deployment overview, navigate to Networking > Network settings.
6. Under Rules, click Create port rule, then select Inbound port rule:
7. In security rule settings:
   1. Enter 80 in the Destination port ranges text field.
   2. Using the Source dropdown, choose to open the port to everyone (default), to your personal IP address only, or to a preferred range.
   3. Enter a name for the rule in the Name text field.
   4. Click Add to create the rule.

Connect to the virtual machine with Cloud Shell

1. From the VM deployment overview, open the Overview tab, then click Connect and select Connect:
2. In the Connect view, expand More ways to connect. In the SSH using Azure CLI section, click Connect via Azure CLI:
3. In the SSH using Azure CLI overlay, click Configure + check access. Once the access check is complete, click Connect.
4. Choose Bash as the shell type. This will open Cloud Shell inside the Azure Portal.

Install OpenOps

Run the following command in your terminal to install, update, configure and run OpenOps:

curl -fsS https://openops.sh/install | sh

Alternatively, you can follow the manual installation steps:

Show Installing OpenOps manually

1. Install the unzip utility:
   sudo apt install unzip
   
2. Create a new directory and download the OpenOps release files:
   mkdir -p openops && cd openops && \
   wget https://github.com/openops-cloud/openops/releases/download/0.6.11/openops-dc-0.6.11.zip && \
   unzip -o openops-dc-0.6.11.zip && cp -n .env.defaults .env
   
3. Update the application URL to use the instance’s external IP address:
   EXTERNAL_IP=$(curl -4 -s ifconfig.co)
   sed -i "s|http://localhost|http://$EXTERNAL_IP|g" .env
   
4. Open the .env file in the OpenOps installation folder. Change the values of the following variables that represent credentials. Do it now, as you won’t be able to change these values after the initial deployment:
   • OPS_OPENOPS_ADMIN_EMAIL: the email of your OpenOps installation’s root admin account.
   • OPS_OPENOPS_ADMIN_PASSWORD: the password of your OpenOps installation’s root admin account.
   • OPS_POSTGRES_USERNAME: the username of the Postgres database that OpenOps uses.
   • OPS_POSTGRES_PASSWORD: the password of the Postgres database that OpenOps uses.
   • OPS_ANALYTICS_ADMIN_PASSWORD: the password of the OpenOps Analytics admin account (the username is hardcoded to admin).
5. Install Docker using Snap:
   sudo snap install docker
   
6. Pull the images and start the Docker containers:
   sudo COMPOSE_PARALLEL_LIMIT=4 docker compose pull -q && sudo docker compose up -d
   
   If you encounter a rate limit, rerun the pull command. Note that pulling images may take several minutes.

If you did not update credentials in the .env file, the default username is [e-mail] and the password is please-change-this-password-1.

You can now access the OpenOps application by navigating to the public IP address of your (e.g., http://20.20.20.20).

Network ports used by OpenOps

By default, OpenOps does not require any inbound ports other than the application port 80.

The following ports are used by bundled services and, in most cases, should not be exposed:

• 5432: The PostgreSQL database used by OpenOps. Expose this port only if you need direct database access, such as for connecting OpenOps to external analytics tools. Restrict access to a VPN or a trusted IP range.
• 6379: OpenOps’ internal Redis service. Expose this port only if required for debugging or monitoring purposes. Restrict access to a VPN or a trusted IP range.

Getting credentials for Azure connections

See this guide.

External databases

To use external PostgreSQL or Redis databases, modify the relevant variables in the .env file. You can disable the corresponding containers by adding a profile in the docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  postgres:
    profiles: ["db"]

If you remove or disable the db profile in .env or in Docker Compose, that container won’t start.

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Enabling TLS

For production usage, it’s recommended to enable TLS (HTTPS). In addition to the security aspect, this also ensures that workflow templates load properly in all browsers.

Automatically

The easiest way to enable TLS is to use an OpenOps script that requests and sets up a TLS certificate from Let’s Encrypt. Before running the script, make sure you have a domain name that points to your ‘s external IP address. If you’re configuring DNS right before running the script, you may need to wait for the DNS change to propagate.

1. Run the following command in your terminal:
   curl -fsS https://openops.sh/tls | sh
   
2. When prompted, enter a domain name that points to the external IP address of your .
3. When prompted, enter an email address to receive certificate-related notifications from Let’s Encrypt.

The script will use the Certbot library to request a certificate for your domain from Let’s Encrypt. It receives and saves the certificate, updates the OpenOps configuration file accordingly, and restarts OpenOps.

By default, the certificate expires in 3 months. See https://certbot.org/renewal-setup if you want to configure auto-renewal.

Manually

Alternatively, you can create a TLS certificate yourself. This lets you use DNS validation from Let’s Encrypt (rather than the HTTP validation the automatic script performs) or request a certificate from a different provider.

To set up TLS manually:

1. Obtain certificate and private key files from your certificate provider.
2. Upload the certificate files to your OpenOps installation under the tls directory:
   • <OpenOps installation path>/tls/cert.pem (certificate file)
   • <OpenOps installation path>/tls/key.pem (private key file)
3. Open the .env file in your OpenOps installation directory and update the following variables:
   • Set OPS_NGINX_CONFIG_FILE to nginx.gateway.tls.conf
   • Set OPS_PUBLIC_URL to the secure URL of your OpenOps installation (e.g. https://openops.example.com)

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Disabling host validation

By default, OpenOps does not allow workflows to call internal network addresses such as 127.0.0.1 or 192.168.0.0. This affects HTTP and SMTP actions, as well as webhook triggers. Host validation protects users from creating workflows that could accidentally or maliciously access internal services, scan networks, or escalate privileges.

You may need to disable this check in certain circumstances, such as in non-production deployments or when workflows intentionally interact with internal-only infrastructure.

To disable host validation, open the .env file in your installation folder and set the OPS_ENABLE_HOST_VALIDATION environment variable to false.

After making any changes to the .env file, restart the OpenOps containers:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Disabling this check removes an important safety guard and may allow workflows to access internal infrastructure. Use caution and avoid disabling it in production.

Updating OpenOps to a newer version

See Updating OpenOps.

Support

Feel free to join our Slack community if you have any questions or need help with your installation.