Standing Up Backstage

In this course, you will be installing your very own instance of Backstage. This will be a standalone version of the application, and you will be able to use:

• Your own instance of Backstage
• Authentication using GitHub
• An integration with your source control system
• A persistent database

This tutorial assumes a basic understanding of working on a Unix-based operating system, using tools like apt-get, npm, yarn, and curl. Docker knowledge is also helpful for making the most of your Backstage installation.

Prerequisites

There are a few development tools you will need to have installed on your computer to get started with Backstage.

• Access to a Unix-based operating system, such as Linux, MacOS, or Windows Subsystem for Linux
• A GNU-like build environment available at the command line. For example, on Debian/Ubuntu you will want to have the make and build-essential packages installed. On MacOS, you will want to run xcode-select --install to get the Xcode command line build tooling in place.
• An account with elevated rights to install the dependencies
• curl or Wget
• Node.js Active LTS Release
  • We recommend using nvm for this:
    • Install nvm
    • Install Node with nvm
• Yarn for dependency management
  • You will need to use Yarn classic to create a new project, but it can then be migrated to Yarn 3.
• Docker used for features such as Software Templates and Tech Docs
• Git for source control

Installing on a remote machine, VM, or using a firewall?

If the system is not directly accessible over your network, the following ports need to be opened: 3000, 7007.