# Deploying to VMs & Bare Metal

> Source: `src/content/docs/deploy/vm-and-bare-metal.mdx`
> Canonical URL: https://rivet.dev/docs/deploy/vm-and-bare-metal
> Description: Deploy your RivetKit app to any Linux VM or bare metal host.

---
## Steps

### Prerequisites

- A Linux VM or bare metal server with SSH access
- Your RivetKit app
  - If you don't have one, see the [Quickstart](/docs/actors/quickstart) page or our [Examples](https://github.com/rivet-dev/rivet/tree/main/examples)
- Access to the [Rivet Cloud](https://dashboard.rivet.dev/) or a [self-hosted Rivet Engine](/docs/general/self-hosting)

### Upload Your App

- Build your RivetKit app locally
- Copy the build output to your server (example):

```bash
scp -r ./dist user@server:/opt/rivetkit-app
```

Place the files somewhere readable by the service user, such as `/opt/rivetkit-app`.

### Set Environment Variables

After creating your project on the Rivet dashboard, select VM & Bare Metal as your provider. You'll be provided `RIVET_ENDPOINT` and `RIVET_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT` environment variables to use in the next step.

### Create the systemd Service

Create `/etc/systemd/system/rivetkit-app.service`:

```ini
[Unit]
Description=RivetKit App
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/opt/rivetkit-app
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node server.js
Restart=on-failure
Environment=RIVET_ENDPOINT=<your-rivet-endpoint>
Environment=RIVET_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT=<your-rivet-public-endpoint>

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
```

Replace the environment values with those from the Rivet dashboard and adjust paths to match your deployment.

### Start the Service

Reload systemd units and start the service:

```bash
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now rivetkit-app.service
```

### Connect to Rivet

1. Ensure your server is accessible via a public URL (e.g. `https://my-app.example.com`)
2. On the Rivet dashboard, paste your URL with the `/api/rivet` path into the connect form (e.g. `https://my-app.example.com/api/rivet`)
3. Click "Done"

If you front your app with a reverse proxy or load balancer (NGINX, HAProxy, Caddy, AWS ALB/NLB, etc.), raise its idle / read timeout to at least 1 hour (`3600` seconds). Rivet envoys connect to your app over long-lived WebSockets, and clients (browsers, SDKs) do the same. Default proxy timeouts (typically 30 to 60 seconds) drop these connections and cause reconnect storms.

Examples:

- **NGINX**: `proxy_read_timeout 3600s;` and `proxy_send_timeout 3600s;` in the relevant `location` block.
- **HAProxy**: `timeout client 1h` and `timeout server 1h` in the matching frontend / backend.
- **AWS ALB / NLB**: set the load balancer attribute `idle_timeout.timeout_seconds = 3600`.

## Operating

### Restart

Restart the service after deploying new builds or environment changes:

```bash
sudo systemctl restart rivetkit-app.service
```

### Logs

Follow realtime logs when debugging:

```bash
sudo journalctl -u rivetkit-app.service -f
```

_Source doc path: /docs/deploy/vm-and-bare-metal_