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This tutorial will guide you through setting up a production-ready Meilisearch instance on Microsoft Azure using a Virtual Machine.
Meilisearch Cloud is the recommended way to run Meilisearch in production environments.

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Prerequisites

  • An Azure account with an active subscription
  • A Virtual Machine running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  • An SSH key pair to connect to the VM
  • A Network Security Group (NSG) allowing inbound traffic on ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), and 443 (HTTPS)
Azure has extensive documentation on creating Linux VMs and connecting via SSH.

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Step 1: Install Meilisearch

Connect to your VM via SSH and update the system: 
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install curl -y
Download and run the Meilisearch installer: 
curl -L https://install.meilisearch.com | sh
Move the binary to make it accessible system-wide: 
sudo mv ./meilisearch /usr/local/bin/

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Step 2: Create system user

Create a dedicated user for running Meilisearch: 
sudo useradd -d /var/lib/meilisearch -s /bin/false -m -r meilisearch
Give the new user ownership of the Meilisearch binary: 
sudo chown meilisearch:meilisearch /usr/local/bin/meilisearch

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Step 3: Create a configuration file

Create data directories for Meilisearch: 
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/meilisearch/data /var/lib/meilisearch/dumps /var/lib/meilisearch/snapshots
sudo chown -R meilisearch:meilisearch /var/lib/meilisearch
sudo chmod 750 /var/lib/meilisearch
For production workloads, consider attaching a managed disk for data storage. This allows for easy snapshots and independent scaling of storage.
Download the default configuration file: 
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/latest/config.toml | sudo tee /etc/meilisearch.toml > /dev/null
Edit /etc/meilisearch.toml and update these settings, replacing MASTER_KEY with a secure 16-byte string: 
env = "production"
master_key = "MASTER_KEY"
db_path = "/var/lib/meilisearch/data"
dump_dir = "/var/lib/meilisearch/dumps"
snapshot_dir = "/var/lib/meilisearch/snapshots"
Remember to choose a safe master key.

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Step 4: Run Meilisearch as a service

Create a systemd service file: 
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service > /dev/null << EOF
[Unit]
Description=Meilisearch
After=systemd-user-sessions.service

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/var/lib/meilisearch
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/meilisearch --config-file-path /etc/meilisearch.toml
User=meilisearch
Group=meilisearch
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
Reload systemd, then enable and start the service: 
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable meilisearch
sudo systemctl start meilisearch
Verify the service is running: 
sudo systemctl status meilisearch

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Step 5: Secure and finish your setup

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5.1. Configure Network Security Group

In the Azure Portal, navigate to your VM’s Network Security Group and ensure you have inbound rules for:
  • Port 22 for SSH access
  • Port 80 for HTTP traffic
  • Port 443 for HTTPS traffic
You can also use Azure CLI: 
az network nsg rule create --resource-group myResourceGroup --nsg-name myNSG \
  --name allow-http --priority 100 --destination-port-ranges 80 --access Allow --protocol Tcp

az network nsg rule create --resource-group myResourceGroup --nsg-name myNSG \
  --name allow-https --priority 101 --destination-port-ranges 443 --access Allow --protocol Tcp

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5.2. Set up a reverse proxy with Nginx

Install Nginx: 
sudo apt install nginx -y
Remove the default configuration and create one for Meilisearch: 
sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
sudo tee /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/meilisearch > /dev/null << EOF
server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server;
    server_name your_domain;
    location / {
        proxy_pass  http://localhost:7700;
    }
}
EOF
Replace your_domain with your actual domain name (or use _ as a catch-all if you don’t have one yet). Restart Nginx: 
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

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5.3. Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

Before enabling HTTPS, ensure you have a domain name pointing to your VM’s public IP address. You can configure a static IP in the Azure Portal under your VM’s networking settings.
Install certbot: 
sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
Run certbot to obtain and configure your SSL certificate: 
sudo certbot --nginx
Follow the prompts to enter your email, agree to the Terms of Service, and select your domain. Choose to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS when prompted. Verify automatic renewal is configured: 
sudo certbot renew --dry-run

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Conclusion

Your Meilisearch instance is now running on Azure with:
  • A dedicated system user for security
  • Automatic restart via systemd
  • Nginx reverse proxy
  • HTTPS encryption via Let’s Encrypt
For high-availability setups, consider using Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets with an Azure Load Balancer.