AWS Tendenci AMI User Guide

Log in to your Site

Once your instance is up and running, wait for a few minutes then enter the public IP of your instance provided by AWS into your browser. You will see your Tendenci site at https://instance-public-ip.(replace instance-public-ip with your instance public IP)

To log in to the default admin account, go to https://instance-public-ip/login/ (replace instance-public-ip with your instance public IP).

You will need your instance ID, which is viewed in your AWS console, to fill in your login credentials:

username: tendenci-the-last-5-characters-of-your-instance-ID (replace "the-last-5-characters-of-your-instance-ID" with the last 5 characters of your instance ID).

password: your-instance-ID (this is your instance ID)

For example, assume your instance ID is i-5cg8md2r601a12345. Since the last 5 characters are "12345", then username is tendenci-12345, and password is i-5cg8md2r601a12345. You can find your Instance ID in your AWS console.

Note that public IP addresses are dynamic, meaning they change if you stop/start your instances. If your domain name is not ready yet, make sure the Site URL setting is updated accordingly https://instance-public-ip/settings/site/global/#id_siteurl.

SSH to your Instance

To connect to your instance via SSH, use 'ubuntu' as the username and your Amazon private key. Note that both root and password based logins are disabled.

Open your shell/terminal
1. sudo chmod 400 ~/.ssh/your-private-key-name.pem
2. ssh -i ~/.ssh/your-private-key-name.pem ubuntu@your-instance-public-ip

Change Password

You can change the password by going to your profile -> options -> Change Password. You'll need to log in again because the system will log you out once you have changed your own password.

If you forgot your password and your site hasn't had email set up yet, you can use the command line command to change password. After you connected your instance via SSH, run the command "changepassword".

cd /var/www/tendenci_site
source /srv/tendenci_site/bin/activate
python manage.py changepassword tendenci

Keep your Instance Secure and Updated

Your instance is based on Ubuntu 18.04 provided by Amazon AWS. It is configured to automatically install security updates. And the firewall (ufw) is turned on by default. Ultimately, it's your responsibility to keep you instance secure and updated.

Tendenci Update

When you log in as a superuser, if you see the tendenci update alert, you can update it with these commands.

cd /var/www/tendenci_site
source /srv/tendenci_site/bin/activate
python manage.py update_tendenci
# reboot server
reboot

Website Setup Checklist

1. Have a domain name and update the site URL setting at https://www.yoursitedomain/settings/site/global/#id_siteurl

2. Secure your site through SSL encryption (you can get a free TLS/SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt)

3. Set up Email.
Mail can be sent using AWS SES or any SMTP host (for example, Mailgun). To set up email, please refer to the instructions under the "Email Settings" block in the conf/settings.py on your site.

4. Set up Newsletter by following the instructions in conf/settings.py.

5. Set up Google reCaptcha for your forms https://www.tendenci.com/help-files/how-use-google-recaptcha-tendenci-site/

6. Set up Online Payment (stripe is recommended). To set up online payment for your site, please visit this guide.

7. Update your site settings https://www.yoursitedomain/settings/site/global/

8. Update the look and feel of your site with Theme Editor. (If you're done with the templates edit, turn on template caching for better performance).

9. Add content to your site. Here are some helpful tips: https://www.yoursitedomain/getting-started/.

For more info, please check out the docs at https://tendenci.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ and Help files at https://www.tendenci.com/help-files/.