Installing goax on a VPS

Generic guide for Linux VPS (Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, etc.).

1. Install goax

cd /opt
sudo git clone https://github.com/pforret/goax.git
sudo chmod +x /opt/goax/goax.sh
sudo ln -s /opt/goax/goax.sh /usr/local/bin/goax

2. Install goaccess

goax install

Or manually per distro:

Distro	Command
Ubuntu/Debian	sudo apt install goaccess
CentOS/RHEL	sudo yum install goaccess
Fedora	sudo dnf install goaccess
Arch	sudo pacman -S goaccess
Alpine	sudo apk add goaccess

3. Configure

cd /opt/goax
goax config

Common log locations:

Web server	Log path
Nginx (Debian)	/var/log/nginx/access.log
Nginx (CentOS)	/var/log/nginx/access.log
Apache (Debian)	/var/log/apache2/access.log
Apache (CentOS)	/var/log/httpd/access_log

4. Setup protected folder

sudo goax folder statsadmin

Nginx config

Add to your server block:

location /stats {
    auth_basic "Statistics";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
    alias /var/www/stats;
    index report.html;
}

Reload: sudo systemctl reload nginx

Apache config

Create /var/www/stats/.htaccess:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Statistics"
AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
Require valid-user

Enable mod_auth: sudo a2enmod auth_basic

Reload: sudo systemctl reload apache2

5. Generate report

sudo goax run

6. Setup cron

sudo crontab -e

# Hourly
0 * * * * /opt/goax/goax.sh run

# Daily at 3am
0 3 * * * /opt/goax/goax.sh run

# Every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * * /opt/goax/goax.sh run

Permissions

If running as non-root user, add to adm group:

sudo usermod -aG adm $USER

Or adjust log file permissions:

sudo chmod 644 /var/log/nginx/access.log