Ubuntu 14.04 x64 or 12.04 x64. Ideally have a domain ready to point to your host. It's designed for and is probably best to use a fresh VM. The bootstrapper will install everything it needs.
You may also wish to take a look at the [advanced installation](http://progrium.viewdocs.io/dokku/advanced-installation) document for additional installation options.
Set up a domain and a wildcard domain pointing to that host. Make sure `/home/dokku/VHOST` is set to this domain. By default it's set to whatever hostname the host has. This file is only created if the hostname can be resolved by dig (`dig +short $(hostname -f)`). Otherwise you have to create the file manually and set it to your preferred domain. If this file still is not present when you push your app, dokku will publish the app with a port number (i.e. `http://example.com:49154` - note the missing subdomain).
Now you can deploy apps on your Dokku. Let's deploy the [Heroku Node.js sample app](https://github.com/heroku/node-js-sample). All you have to do is add a remote to name the app. It's created on-the-fly.
Dokku only supports deploying from its master branch, so if you'd like to deploy a different local branch use: ```git push progrium <local branch>:master```
Right now Buildstep supports buildpacks for Node.js, Ruby, Python, [and more](https://github.com/progrium/buildstep#supported-buildpacks). It's not hard to add more, [go add more](https://github.com/progrium/buildstep#adding-buildpacks)!
Please check the documentation for your particular build pack as you may need to include configuration files (such as a Procfile) in your project root.
Typically an application will require some environment variables to run properly. Environment variables may contain private data, such as passwords or API keys, so it is not recommend to store them in your application's repository.
Dokku provides easy TLS/SPDY support out of the box. This can be done app-by-app or for all subdomains at once. Note that whenever TLS support is enabled SPDY is also enabled.
To enable TLS connection to to one of your applications, copy or symlink the `.crt`/`.pem` and `.key` files into the application's `/home/dokku/:app/tls` folder (create this folder if it doesn't exist) as `server.crt` and `server.key` respectively.
Redeployment of the application will be needed to apply TLS configuration. Once it is redeployed, the application will be accessible by `https://` (redirection from `http://` is applied as well).
To enable TLS across all apps, copy or symlink the `.crt`/`.pem` and `.key` files into the `/home/dokku/tls` folder (create this folder if it doesn't exist) as `server.crt` and `server.key` respectively. Then, enable the certificates by editing `/etc/nginx/conf.d/dokku.conf` and uncommenting these two lines (remove the #):
The nginx configuration will need to be reloaded in order for the updated TLS configuration to be applied. This can be done either via the init system or by re-deploying the application. Once TLS is enabled, the application will be accessible by `https://` (redirection from `http://` is applied as well).
**Note**: TLS will not be enabled unless the application's VHOST matches the certificate's name. (i.e. if you have a cert for *.example.com TLS won't be enabled for something.example.org or example.net)
The [HSTS header](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security) is an HTTP header that can inform browsers that all requests to a given site should be made via HTTPS. dokku does not, by default, enable this header. It is thus left up to you, the user, to enable it for your site.
Beware that if you enable the header and a subsequent deploy of your application results in an HTTP deploy (for whatever reason), the way the header works means that a browser will not attempt to request the HTTP version of your site if the HTTPS version fails.
**Note**: If you are upgrading from a revision prior to [27d4bc8c3c](https://github.com/progrium/dokku/commit/27d4bc8c3c19fe580ef3e65f2f85b85101cd83e4), follow the instructions in [this wiki entry](https://github.com/progrium/dokku/wiki/Migrating-to-Dokku-0.2.0).
You can use [Github Issues](https://github.com/progrium/dokku/issues), check [Troubleshooting](https://github.com/progrium/dokku/wiki/Troubleshooting) on the wiki, or join us on [freenode in #dokku](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23dokku)