webERP

Prerequisites

You need an active Azure subscription, an SSH key pair, and a VNet with a subnet in the target region. Standard_B2s (2 vCPU / 4 GiB RAM) is a sensible starting point for a small team. Step up to Standard_D2s_v3 or larger for heavier production use.

Configure the NSG to allow inbound 22/tcp from your management network, 80/tcp for the application, and 443/tcp if you terminate TLS on the VM. The bundled MariaDB listens on 127.0.0.1 only, so port 3306 stays off the network.

Step 1 - Deploy from the Azure Marketplace

Sign in to the Azure Portal, choose Create a resource, search the Marketplace for webERP by SecureAnyCloud, and select Create.

On the Basics tab, pick your subscription, resource group, region and size. Under Administrator account, choose SSH public key and paste your key. Under Inbound port rules, allow SSH (22), HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443).

Select Review + create, then select Create.

Step 2 - Deploy from the Azure CLI

Accept the Marketplace terms and create the VM:

# Accept the Marketplace terms once per subscription (required before the first CLI deploy)
az vm image terms accept --urn sac1647283583153:weberp-ubuntu-24-04:default:latest
az vm create \
  --resource-group <your-rg> \
  --name weberp \
  --image sac1647283583153:weberp-ubuntu-24-04:default:latest \
  --size Standard_B2s \
  --admin-username azureuser \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --public-ip-sku Standard

Then open ports 80 and 443:

az vm open-port --resource-group <your-rg> --name weberp --port 80,443

Step 3 - Confirm the services are running

SSH in as azureuser and confirm that nginx, PHP FPM, MariaDB and the first-boot service are all active. MariaDB listens only on 127.0.0.1:3306, while nginx serves webERP on port 80.

systemctl is-active nginx php8.3-fpm mariadb weberp-firstboot

ss -tlnp | grep -E ':80 |:3306 ' | sed 's/ */ /g'

Step 4 - Retrieve the per-VM administrator password

Every VM generates its own webERP administrator password on first boot. It writes the password, along with the login user, the company name and the application URL, to a root-only credentials file. Read the file with sudo:

sudo cat /root/weberp-credentials.txt

Sign in to webERP as user admin with the WEBERP_ADMIN_PASSWORD from this file, selecting the company weberp. On the VM itself, you can also run sudo mariadb to reach the database directly over the local socket without a password.

Step 5 - Sign in

Browse to http://<vm-public-ip>/. The webERP sign-in page opens. Leave Company set to webERP Company, then enter username admin and the password from Step 4.

You land on the webERP main menu, which organises the whole system into modules down the left side: Sales, Receivables, Purchases, Payables, Inventory, Manufacturing, General Ledger, Asset Manager and Setup.

Step 6 - Review the chart of accounts

Open General Ledger, then Maintenance, then General Ledger Accounts to view the chart of accounts. The image ships the English (UK) chart pre-loaded, ready for you to adjust to your business. Each account carries its code, name, account group, and whether it appears on the profit and loss statement or the balance sheet.

To maintain the account groups that organise the chart into assets, liabilities, income and expenses, open General Ledger, then Maintenance, then Account Groups.

Step 7 - Set up your company

Open Setup, then Company, then Company Preferences (also reachable as CompanyPreferences.php) to set your company name, address, base currency, tax authority and accounting preferences. Then work through Setup to add your bank accounts, tax rates, sales areas and item categories before you begin entering transactions.

Step 8 - Start transacting

webERP models the full accounting and trading cycle. Create customers and suppliers, raise sales and purchase orders, invoice them, and post receipts and payments. Every transaction posts automatically to the general ledger.

Use the Inquiries and Reports menu in each module for trial balances, aged debtors and creditors, and the balance sheet and profit and loss statements.

Step 9 - No known or default credentials

The SecureAnyCloud image never ships the well-known upstream admin / weberp default, and the demo database that carries it is not installed. The real per-VM administrator password is generated as a unique random secret on the first boot of every VM.

You can verify this with the built-in round-trip check. It confirms that the per-VM administrator signs in through webERP's own login form, while a blank password, the upstream admin / weberp default and common weak guesses are all rejected. The admin account is the webERP administrator:

sudo mariadb --protocol=socket -uroot -N weberp -e "SELECT CONCAT(userid,' (webERP administrator)') FROM www_users"

sudo bash /usr/local/sbin/weberp-cred-roundtrip.sh

Step 10 - Verify the stack and the clean company

Confirm the health endpoint, that the chart of accounts is loaded, and that the company ships clean with a single administrator and no demo customers or invoices. The MariaDB database lives at /var/lib/mysql on the OS disk, and webERP's code and company data live under /var/www/weberp:

curl -sI http://127.0.0.1/healthz | head -1

sudo mariadb -N -B weberp -e "SELECT CONCAT(COUNT(*),' GL accounts in the chart of accounts') FROM chartmaster"

sudo mariadb -N -B weberp -e "SELECT CONCAT(COUNT(*),' administrator; no demo customers or invoices') FROM www_users"

Adding your own domain and TLS

The appliance serves plain HTTP on port 80. For production, point a DNS record at your VM and obtain a certificate from Let's Encrypt:

sudo apt-get install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d <your-domain>

webERP derives its base URL from the request Host header. Once you reach the VM on your domain over HTTPS, the pages render correctly with no further change.

Backing up

Your business data consists of the webERP database plus any documents and images stored under the company directory. Dump the database and archive the company directory:

sudo mariadb-dump --protocol=socket -uroot weberp > /tmp/weberp-backup.sql
sudo tar czf /tmp/weberp-companies-backup.tar.gz -C /var/www/weberp companies

Copy both files off the VM on your usual schedule. To restore, load the SQL dump into the weberp database and unpack the archive to /var/www/weberp/companies.

Security notes

• Encrypt web traffic. webERP serves plain HTTP on port 80 out of the box. For anything beyond a trusted network, add your own domain and TLS as described above, or front the VM with Azure Application Gateway.
• Keep MariaDB private. The bundled MariaDB listens on 127.0.0.1 only and is never reachable from the network. Administer it through webERP or over SSH with sudo mariadb. The MariaDB root account uses socket authentication and has no password.
• Protect the administrator password. The password is unique per VM, and no known or blank credential authenticates. Keep /root/weberp-credentials.txt protected. To rotate the password, sign in and change it under Setup, then Maintenance, then User Maintenance. Alternatively, set a new one directly on the VM:

NEW_HASH=$(php -r "echo password_hash('<new-password>', PASSWORD_DEFAULT);")
sudo mariadb weberp -e "UPDATE www_users SET password='$NEW_HASH', blocked=0 WHERE userid='admin'"

• Protected files. nginx denies web access to config.php, the installer, and the sql, companies and doc trees, so configuration and data files are never reachable from the web.
• Keep the VM patched. Apply operating system updates regularly with sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. Unattended security updates are enabled by default.
• Restrict network access. Limit inbound 80/tcp and 443/tcp in your NSG to the networks that need access.

Trademark

webERP is an open-source project distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2. SecureAnyCloud packages the open-source webERP software independently, and this image is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the webERP project or its maintainers.

Support

SecureAnyCloud maintains this image and provides 24/7 support. For help deploying or operating webERP on Azure, contact us at secureanycloud.com.

Deploy on Azure

Launch webERP 5 Accounting ERP on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on Azure with 24/7 support from SecureAnyCloud.

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Need Help?

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sales@secureanycloud.com