Code with Abdullah - Full-Stack Development & DevOps

Overview / Landing

This enterprise-grade static website, codewithabdullah.site, exemplifies robust web hosting architecture using modern DevOps practices. It serves as a showcase for full-stack development and server administration expertise.

Hosting Flow: Domain → DNS → VPS → Nginx → index.html

Domain: codewithabdullah.site, registered and managed via Namecheap for seamless DNS control.

DNS: A record configured to resolve to the VPS public IPv4 (e.g., 159.65.123.45), with IPv6 support for enhanced accessibility.

VPS: Contabo Cloud VPS on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, providing scalable, high-performance infrastructure.

Nginx: Configured as the edge web server, serving static assets from /var/www/codewithabdullah.site with optimized caching and security headers.

index.html: A self-contained, production-ready single file incorporating inline CSS and JavaScript for zero dependencies.

Server Status Indicators

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Nginx 1.24.0 HTTPS Enforced UFW Firewall Fail2Ban Active

Portfolio

As a seasoned full-stack developer and DevOps engineer from Faisalabad, Pakistan, Abdullah brings enterprise-level expertise in building scalable applications and secure infrastructures. With a focus on JavaScript ecosystems and cloud deployments, he delivers solutions that drive business value.

Core Skills

MERN Stack

Mastery in MongoDB for data persistence, Express.js for API routing, React for dynamic UIs, and Node.js for runtime efficiency. Proven in e-commerce platforms handling 10k+ daily users.

Next.js & React Native

Advanced SSR/SSG with Next.js for SEO-optimized sites; cross-platform mobile apps via React Native, including offline-first architectures with Redux.

Backend & Database

Express.js for RESTful/GraphQL APIs; MongoDB schema design and aggregation pipelines for complex queries in high-traffic environments.

DevOps & Hosting

Expertise in VPS provisioning, Linux administration (Ubuntu/Debian), CI/CD with GitHub Actions, and containerization basics with Docker.

Professional Experience

Senior Full-Stack Developer

Freelance & Agency | 2023–Present

Led development of 15+ MERN-based SaaS applications, integrating real-time features with Socket.io and deploying to AWS/Contabo with 99.99% uptime.

DevOps Specialist

Remote for Tech Startup | 2021–2023

Architected Nginx reverse proxies for microservices, automated SSL with Certbot, and optimized VPS resources reducing costs by 40% via load balancing.

Mobile & Web Developer

Local Firm | 2019–2021

Delivered React Native apps for iOS/Android with MongoDB backends, focusing on secure authentication and push notifications for 50k+ user bases.

VPS Hosting

Powered by Contabo's Cloud VPS, this setup delivers enterprise reliability at an affordable scale. Contabo's infrastructure ensures high availability and performance for demanding web applications.

NVMe SSD Storage

Lightning-fast NVMe drives provide sub-millisecond latencies, ideal for static sites and dynamic content delivery with minimal I/O bottlenecks.

Dedicated vCPU Cores

Exclusive vCPU allocation prevents noisy neighbor issues, guaranteeing consistent compute performance for CPU-intensive tasks like builds and queries.

24/7 Uptime SLA

99.9% uptime backed by redundant data centers across Europe and the US, with proactive monitoring to minimize disruptions.

Full Root Access

Complete SSH root privileges enable custom scripting, package management, and security hardening without vendor lock-in.

Scalable Resources

Instant upgrades for CPU, RAM (up to 64GB), and storage (up to 4TB) via intuitive control panel, supporting growth without migration downtime.

IPv4 & IPv6 Dual-Stack

Native support for both protocols ensures global reach, future-proofing against IPv4 exhaustion and enhancing CDN compatibility.

Nginx Architecture

Nginx serves as the high-performance web server in this architecture, leveraging its event-driven model for efficient static file serving and future proxy capabilities. Configurations follow best practices for modularity and security.

Server Blocks: Isolated virtual hosts per domain, defined in /etc/nginx/sites-available/ for clean separation.

Sites-Available vs. Sites-Enabled: Development configs in available; production links in enabled via symlinks for easy toggling.

Symbolic Links: Use ln -s to enable (e.g., ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/codewithabdullah.site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/), rm to disable without file deletion.

Reverse Proxy Setup: Configured for potential backend services, proxying requests to upstream Node.js apps on localhost:3000 with load balancing.

Sample Server Block Configuration

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;
    server_name codewithabdullah.site www.codewithabdullah.site;

    root /var/www/codewithabdullah.site;
    index index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    # Security Enhancements
    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN" always;
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    add_header Referrer-Policy "no-referrer-when-downgrade" always;
    add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self' http: https: data: blob: 'unsafe-inline'" always;

    # Gzip Compression
    gzip on;
    gzip_vary on;
    gzip_min_length 1024;
    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
}
            

Deployment: Validate with nginx -t, then systemctl reload nginx for zero-downtime updates.

SSL & Security

Security is embedded at every layer, from automated TLS certificates to hardened firewall rules, ensuring compliance with enterprise standards like OWASP Top 10.

Let's Encrypt Integration: Free, automated ACME protocol for 90-day certs, renewed via cron without manual intervention.

Certbot Automation: Installed via snapd; certbot --nginx -d codewithabdullah.site handles issuance and Nginx config updates.

HTTP to HTTPS Redirect: Server block forces 301 redirects, eliminating mixed-content risks.

UFW Firewall: Uncomplicated Firewall with strict rules: allow 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS); deny all else.

File Permissions: 644 for web files, 755 for directories; ownership set to www-data:www-data to prevent privilege escalation.

Comprehensive Security Checklist

Automated SSL renewal cron job: certbot renew --quiet
UFW status: deny incoming, allow SSH/HTTP/HTTPS only
Fail2Ban deployed: Monitors logs for brute-force attacks on SSH/Nginx
Unattended-upgrades enabled: Auto-patches security vulnerabilities
SSH hardened: Key-based auth, no root login, port 22 restricted by IP
Nginx non-root: Runs as www-data user/group with minimal privileges
Regular audits: Log rotation, vulnerability scans with Lynis