fab-manager/doc/production_readme.md

Install Fab-manager in production with docker-compose

This document will guide you through all the steps needed to set up your Fab-manager app on a production server, based on a solution using Docker and Docker-compose.

In order to make it work, please use the same directories structure as described in this guide in your Fab-manager app folder. You will need to be root through the rest of the setup.

Table of contents

1. Preliminary steps
   1.1. Setup the server
   1.2. Setup the domain name
   1.3. Connect through SSH
   1.4. Prepare the server
   
2. Install Fab-manager
   
3. Docker utils
4. Update Fab-manager
   4.1. Steps
   4.2. Upgrade to the last version
   4.3. Upgrade to a specific version

Preliminary steps

Setup the server

There are many hosting providers on the internet, providing affordable virtual private serveurs (VPS). Here's a non exhaustive list:

• DigitalOcean
• OVH
• Amazon
• Gandi
• Ikoula
• 1&1
• GoDaddy
• and many others...

Choose one, depending on your budget, on the server's location, on the uptime guarantee, etc.

You will need at least 2GB of addressable memory (RAM + swap) to install and use Fab-manager. We recommend 4 GB RAM for larger communities.

Supported operating systems are Ubuntu LTS 16.04+ and Debian 8+ with an x86 64-bits architecture. This might work on other linux systems, and CPU architectures but this is untested for now, and we do not recommend for production purposes.

Choose one and install docker on it:

• Install Docker on Debian
• Install Docker on Ubuntu

Then install Docker Compose

Set up the domain name

There are many domain name registrars on the internet, you may choose one that fit your needs. You can find an exhaustive list on the ICANN website

1. Once done, buy a domain name on it
2. Replace the IP address of the domain with the IP address of your VPS (This is a DNS record of type A)
3. Do not try to access your domain name right away, DNS are not aware of the change yet so WAIT and be patient.
4. You may want to bind the subdomain www. to your main domain name. You can achieve this by creating a DNS record of type CNAME.

Connect through SSH

You can already connect to the server with this command: ssh root@server-ip. When DNS propagation will be done, you will be able to connect to the server with ssh root@your-domain-name.

Prepare the server

Before installing Fab-manager, we recommend you to:

• Upgrade your system
• Set up the server timezone
• Add at least 2 GB of swap memory
• Protect your SSH connection by forcing it through an RSA key

You can run the following script as root to easily perform all these operations:

\curl -sSL prepare-vps.sleede.com | bash

Install Fab-manager

Run the following command to install Fab-manager. This script will guide you through the installation process by checking the requirements and asking you the configuration elements.

\curl -sSL setup.fab.mn | bash

OR, if you don't want to install Fab-manager in /apps/fabmanager, use the following instead:

\curl -sSL setup.fab.mn | bash -s "/my/custom/path"

Fab-manager for small configurations

If your server machine is not powerful, you can lower the system requirements by uninstalling ElasticSearch. In order to remove ElasticSearch, you must first disable the statistics module from Customization > General > Modules.

Then, you can remove the elasticsearch service from the docker-compose.yml file and restart the whole application:

docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d

Disabling ElasticSearch will save up to 800 Mb of memory.

Docker utils

Below, you'll find a collection of useful commands to control your instance with docker-compose. Before using any of these commands, you must first cd into the app directory.

• Read again the environment variables and restart

docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d

• Open a bash prompt in the app context

docker-compose exec fabmanager bash

• Show services status

docker-compose ps

• Example of command passing env variables

docker-compose run --rm -e VAR1=xxx -e VAR2=xxx fabmanager bundle exec rails my:command

Easy upgrade

Starting with Fab-manager v4.5.0, you can upgrade Fab-manager in one single easy command, that automates the procedure below. To upgrade with ease, using this command, read the GitHub release notes of all versions between your current version, and the target version.

You MUST append all the arguments of the easy upgrade commands, for each version, to the command you run.

E.g. If you upgrade from 1.2.3 to 1.2.5, with the following release notes:

## 1.2.4
\curl -sSL upgrade.fab.mn | bash -s -- -e "VAR=value"
## 1.2.5
\curl -sSL upgrade.fab.mn | bash -s -- -c "rails fablab:setup:command"

Then, you'll need to perform the upgrade with the following command:

\curl -sSL upgrade.fab.mn | bash -s -- -e "VAR=value" -c "rails fablab:setup:command"

Update Fab-manager

This procedure updates Fab-manager to the most recent version by default. If you upgrade Fab-manager from a version >= 4.5.0, we recommend using the easy upgrade script above instead.

⚠ If you are upgrading from a very outdated version, you must first upgrade to v2.8.3, then to v3.1.2, then to 4.0.4, then to 4.4.6 and finally to the last version

⚠ With versions < 4.3.3, you must replace bundle exec rails with bundle exec rake in all the commands above

Steps

When a new version is available, follow this procedure to update Fab-manager app in a production environment, using docker-compose. You can subscribe to this atom feed to get notified when a new release comes out.

1. go to your app folder

   cd /apps/fabmanager

2. pull last docker images

   docker-compose pull

3. stop the app

   docker-compose stop fabmanager

4. remove old assets

   rm -Rf public/packs/ public/assets/

5. compile new assets

   docker-compose run --rm fabmanager bundle exec rails assets:precompile

6. run specific commands

   Do not forget to check if there are commands to run for your upgrade. Those commands are always specified in the CHANGELOG and prefixed by [TODO DEPLOY]. They are also present in the releases page.

   Those commands execute specific tasks and have to be run manually. You must prefix the commands starting by rails... or rake... with: docker-compose run --rm fabmanager bundle exec. In any other cases, the other commands (like those invoking curl \curl -sSL... | bash) must not be prefixed. You can also ignore commands only applicable to development environnement, which are prefixed by (dev) in the CHANGELOG.

7. restart all containers

     docker-compose down
     docker-compose up -d
   

You can check that all containers are running with docker-compose ps.

Upgrade to the last version

It's the default behaviour as docker-compose pull command will fetch the latest versions of the docker images. Be sure to run all the specific commands listed in the CHANGELOG between your actual, and the new version in sequential order. Example: to update from 2.4.0 to 2.4.3, you will run the specific commands for the 2.4.1, then for the 2.4.2 and then for the 2.4.3.

Upgrade to a specific version

Edit your /apps/fabmanager/docker-compose.yml file and change the following line:

image: sleede/fab-manager

For example, here we want to use the v3.1.2:

image: sleede/fab-manager:release-v3.1.2

Then run the normal upgrade procedure.