https://github.com/debiki/talkyard-prod-one

Talkyard production installation on one single server.
https://github.com/debiki/talkyard-prod-one

docker-compose talkyard

Last synced: 4 days ago
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Talkyard production installation on one single server.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/debiki/talkyard-prod-one
• Owner: debiki
• License: other
• Created: 2016-04-30T01:28:48.000Z (about 8 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2024-04-09T07:45:13.000Z (3 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-04-17T05:33:07.695Z (3 months ago)
• Topics: docker-compose, talkyard
• Language: Shell
• Homepage: https://www.talkyard.io/
• Size: 298 KB
• Stars: 255
• Watchers: 12
• Forks: 41
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE-MIT.txt

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• awesome-stars - debiki/talkyard-prod-one - Talkyard production installation on one single server. (Shell)

README

        
Talkyard production installation

================

For one single server: Debian 11 or 12 with at least 2 GB RAM.

Docker based installation. Automatic upgrades.

Automatic HTTPS cert (via LetsEncrypt).

One installation can host many sites.

You should be familiar with Linux, Bash and Git. Otherwise you might run into

problems. For example, there might be Git edit conflicts, if you and we change

the same file — then you need to know how to resolve those edit conflicts.

Also, knowing a bit about Docker can be good.

See https://www.talkyard.io/plans for alternatives to installing yourself.

Ask questions and report problems in **[the forum](http://www.talkyard.io/forum/latest/support)**.

This is beta software; there might be bugs.

### Security: *Private* server

Don't give people-you-don't-absolutely-trust ssh access to your Talkyard server.

The database files in `/opt/talkyard/data/rdb/` are accessible to people who can

ssh into the server, and log files in `/var/log/` are, too.

This'll change in Talkyard v1 (next year 2025?) — then we'll use Docker volumes instead.

### Install on your laptop?

Here's [a Vagrantfile here](scripts/Vagrantfile) if you want to test install on a laptop

— open the Vagrantfile in a text editor, and read, for details.

(It's old, maybe won't work.)

### Install behind an Nginx reverse proxy?

Skip this, unless you know what a "reverse proxy" is;

instead, continue below, the section "Install on a new server".

Now, if you _do_ want to install Talkyard on a Debian or Ubuntu server

with a Nginx reverse proxy in front of it, with a LetsEncrypt cert — then,

[here's a mini tutorial](https://www.talkyard.io/-389/talkyard-with-nginx-as-reverse-proxy-and-letsencrypt-for-https-mini-tutorial).

The steps 1, 2, 3 ... in that tutorial, are the steps 1, 2, 3 ... below.

### Install on a new server

The rest of this document is about how to install Talkyard on a new server.

Installation overview: You'll rent a virtual private server (VPS) somewhere, then download

and install Talkyard, then sign up for a send-emails service and configure email settings.

Then optionally configure OpenAuth login for Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub.

And off-site backups.

Dockerfiles, build scripts and source code are in another repo: https://github.com/debiki/talkyard.

Have a look in `./docker-compose.yml` (in this repo) for details and links.

Get a server and a Web address

----------------

Provision an Debian 11 or 12 server with at least 2 GB RAM, for example at [Digital Ocean](https://www.digitalocean.com/).

Point a domain name, say, `talkyard.your-website.com`, to the server IP address.

Installation instructions

----------------

(There's a troubleshooting document here: ./docs/troubleshooting.md )

1. Become root: `sudo -i`, then install Git and English: (can be missing, in minimal Debian builds)

       # As root:

       apt-get update

       apt-get upgrade

       apt-get -y install git vim locales

       apt-get -y install tree ncdu                # nice to have

       locale-gen en_US.UTF-8                      # installs English

       export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8  # starts using English (warnings are harmless)

1. Create big empty files that you can delete if your server runs out of disk:

       fallocate --length 250MiB /balloon-1-delete-if-disk-full

       fallocate --length 250MiB /balloon-2-delete-if-disk-full

       fallocate --length 250MiB /opt/balloon-3-delete-if-disk-full

       fallocate --length 250MiB /var/balloon-4-delete-if-disk-full

1. Download installation scripts: (you need to install in

   `/opt/talkyard/` for the backup scripts to work)

       cd /opt/

       git clone https://github.com/debiki/talkyard-prod-one.git talkyard

       cd talkyard

1. If you want & know what you're doing, comment out any swap from `/etc/fstab`, and run: `swapoff -a`.

1. Prepare the OS: install tools, enable automatic security updates, simplify troubleshooting,

   and make ElasticSearch work: (Consider reading the script first...)

       ./scripts/prepare-os.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

   (...If you don't want to run the whole script, you at least need to copy the

   sysctl `net.core.somaxconn` and `vm.max_map_count` settings in the script to your

   `/etc/sysctl.conf` config file — otherwise, the full-text-search-engine (ElasticSearch)

   won't work. Afterwards, run `sysctl --system` to reload the system configuration.)

1. Install Docker:

       ./scripts/install-docker-compose.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

1. Install a firewall, namely *ufw*: (and answer Yes to the question you'll get. You can skip this if

   you use Google Cloud Engine; GCE already has a firewall)

   Update 2021-04-04: It's better if you use `firewalld` instead — it's safer:

   Docker can bypas `ufw` rules, but not `firewalld` rules.

   Read more here: https://github.com/chaifeng/ufw-docker,

   and you can websearch: https://www.google.com/search?q=ufw+docker

   

       # It's better if you use firewalld instead of this:

       # (We'll edit the script in a while, so it'll use firewalld instead,

       # but currently it uses ufw)

       ./scripts/start-firewall.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

   Here's firewalld: https://firewalld.org/

1. Edit config values:

   ```

   nano conf/play-framework.conf  # fill in values in the Required Settings section

   nano .env                      # type a database password

   ```

   Note:

   - Set `talkyard.secure=true`, so HTTPS will work — unless you're testing

     on localhost; then set `talkyard.secure=false`.

   - If you don't edit `play.http.secret.key` in `play-framework.conf`,

     the server won't start.

   - A PostgreSQL database user, named *talkyard*, gets created automatically,

     by the *rdb* Docker container, with the password you type in the `.env` file.

     You don't need to do anything.

   - If you're using a non-standard port, say 8080 (which you do if you're using **Vagrant**),

     then comment in `talkyard.port=8080` in `play-framework.conf`.

1. Depending on how much RAM your server has (run `free -mh` to find out), choose one of these files:

   mem/1.7g.yml, mem/2g.yml, mem/3.6g.yml, ... and so on,

   and copy it to ./docker-compose.override.yml. For example, for

   a server with 2 GB RAM:

        cp mem/2g.yml docker-compose.override.yml

1. Install and start the latest version. This might take a few minutes

   the first time (to download Docker images).

        # This script also installs, although named "upgrade–...".

        ./scripts/upgrade-if-needed.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

   (This creates a new Docker network — you can choose the IP range; see the

   section *A New Docker Network* below.)

   Afterwards, you can type: `docker-compose ps` — you should then see a list

   of Docker containers in state Up (means they're running).

1. Schedule deletion of old log files, daily backups and deletion old backups,

   and automatic upgrades:

        ./scripts/schedule-logrotate.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

        ./scripts/schedule-daily-backups.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

        ./scripts/schedule-automatic-upgrades.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

1. Open a web browser; go to `https://talkyard.your website.com` — note: **https**

   not http.

   Your browser should show a warning about the connection _not_ being secure.

   Talkyard and LetsEncrypt will now start generating a HTTPS certificate for you.

   Wait 20 seconds, reload the page, and thereafter HTTPS should work.

   **(** If you'd look in the Nginx log, `tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log`,

   you'd see messages like:

   ```

   domain_whitelist_callback(): Should have cert: talkyard.example.com

   update_cert_handler(): order rsa cert for talkyard.example.com

   SSL_do_handshake() failed (SSL: error:... alert bad certificate: SSL alert number 42) while SSL handshaking

   Replying to ACME HTTP-01 challenge, server name: _, host: talkyard.example.com

   update_cert_handler(): new rsa cert for talkyard.example.com is saved

   ```

   (The "failed ... alert number 42" is fine

   — it's because, at that time, there wasn't yet any cert.) **)**

   However, if you're testing on localhost, or with Vagrant,

   instead go to , or , respectively.

   (And you'll need `talkyard.secure=false` in `play-framework.conf`).

1. In the browser, click _Continue_ and create an admin account

   with the email address you specified when you edited `play-framework.conf` earlier

   (see above).

   Follow the getting-started guide.

Everything will restart automatically on server reboot.

Next steps:

- Edit `/opt/talkyard/conf/sites-enabled-manual/talkyard-servers.conf` and redirect

  from HTTP to HTTPS.


  (If you for some reason want to run LetsEncrypt's Certbot yourself to generate

  a HTTPS cert, see [docs/setup-https.md](docs/setup-https.md),

  and have a look at the commented out `server {}` block at the bottom of

  `talkyard-servers.conf`.)

- Sign up for a send-email-service — see the section just below.

- Send an email to `hello at talkyard.io` so we get your address, and can

  inform you about security issues and major software

  upgrades that might require you to do something manually.

  Or subscribe to the Announcements category over at https://www.talkyard.io/forum/.

- Copy backups off-site, regularly. See the Backups section below.

- Configure Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub login,

    by creating OpenAuth apps over at their sites, and adding API keys and secrets

    to `play-framework.conf`. See below, just after the next section, about email.

- Optionally, create more Talkyard sites hosted by this same Talkyard installation,

  see [docs/multisite-talkyard.adoc](docs/multisite-talkyard.adoc).

Configuring email

----------------

If you don't have a mail server already, then sign up for a transactional email

service, for example Mailgun, Elastic Email, SendGrid, Mailjet or Amazon SES.

(Signing up, and verifying your sender email address and domain, is a bit complicated

— nothing you do in five minutes.)

Then, configure email settings in `/opt/talkyard/conf/play-framework.conf`,

that is, fill in these values:

```

talkyard.smtp.host="..."

talkyard.smtp.port="587"

talkyard.smtp.requireStartTls=true

#talkyard.smtp.tlsPort="465"

#talkyard.smtp.connectWithTls=true

talkyard.smtp.checkServerIdentity=true

talkyard.smtp.user="..."

talkyard.smtp.password="..."

talkyard.smtp.fromAddress="[email protected]"

```

(Google Cloud Engine blocks outgoing ports 587 and 465 (at least it did in the past).

Probably you email provider has made other ports available for you to use,

e.g. Amazon SES: ports 2587 and 2465.)

OpenAuth login

----------------

You want login with Facebook, Gmail and maybe Twitter and GitHub to work? Here's how.

However, we haven't written easy to follow instructions for this yet.

Send us an email: `hello at talkyard.io`, mention OpenAuth, and we'll hurry up.

(There are very very brief instructions in this the markdown source but they might be out of date,

or there might be typos,

so they're hidden unless you are a tech person who knows how to view the source.)

Viewing log files

----------------

Change directory to `/opt/talkyard/`.

Then, view the application server logs like so: `./view-logs app`

or `./view-logs -f --tail 30 app`.  

The web server: `tail -f /var/log/nginx/{access,error}.log` (mounted on the Docker host in docker-compose.yml)  

The database: `less /var/log/postgres/LOG_FILE_NAME`  

The search engine: `./view-logs search`.

Upgrading to newer versions

----------------

If you followed the instructions above — that is, if you ran these scripts:

`./scripts/prepare-os.sh` and `./scripts/schedule-automatic-upgrades.sh`

— then your server should keep itself up-to-date, and ought to require no maintenance.

In a few cases you might have to do something manually, when upgrading.

Like, running `git pull` and editing config files, maybe running a shell script.

For us to be able to tell you about this, please send us an email at

`hello at talkyard.io`.

If you didn't run `./scripts/schedule-automatic-upgrades.sh`, you can upgrade

manually like so:

    sudo -i

    cd /opt/talkyard/

    ./scripts/upgrade-if-needed.sh 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

Backups

----------------

### Importing a backup

See [docs/how-restore-backups.md](./docs/how-restore-backup.md).

You can login to Postgres like so:

    sudo docker-compose exec rdb psql postgres postgres  # as user 'postgres'

    sudo docker-compose exec rdb psql talkyard talkyard  # as user 'talkyard'

### Backing up, manually

You should have configured automatic backups already, see the Installation

Instructions section above. In any case, you can backup manually like so:

    sudo -i

    cd /opt/talkyard/

    ./scripts/backup.sh manual 2>&1 | tee -a talkyard-maint.log

### Copy backups elsewhere

You should copy the backups to a safety off-site backup server, regularly.

Otherwise, if your main server suddenly disappears, or someone breaks into it

and ransomware-encrypts everything — you'd lose all data.

There's also a script you can copy-paste to that off-site backup server,

and run daily via Cron, to get notified via email if backups stop working

— but no, not yet implmented `[BADBKPEML]`.

See [docs/copy-backups-elsewhere.md](./docs/copy-backups-elsewhere.md).

A new Docker network

----------------

Talkyard creates its own Docker network, and assigns static IPs to the containers.

Otherwise, if a container restarts, Docker might give it a new IP,

and the other containers then couldn't find it it. —

Unless they're also restarted, so all things that have cached the old stale IP,

picks up the new IP instead. Or unless one starts using something like Traefik.

But static IPs is simpler.

You can choose the network IP range in the `.env` file — there's this variable:

```

INTERNAL_NET_SUBNET=172.26.0.0/25

```

Tips

----------------

If you start running out of disk, one reason can be old patches for automatic operating system security updates.

You can delete them to free up disk:

```

sudo apt autoremove --purge

```

Docker mounted directories

----------------

- `conf/`: Container config files, mounted read-only in the containers. Can add to a Git repo.

- `data/`: Directories mounted read-write in the containers (and sometimes read-only too). Not for Git.

License (MIT)

----------------

```

Copyright (c) 2016-2024 Kaj Magnus Lindberg.

Licensed under the MIT license, see `LICENSE-MIT.txt` — and this is for the

instructions and scripts in this repository only, not for Talkyard source code

or things in other repositories.

```