Deploying Production Whimsy.apache.org

The production whimsy.apache.org server is managed by Puppet, and is automatically udpated whenever commits are made to the master branch of this repository. Thus code changes here are reflected in the production server within a few minutes. In the event of a major server crash, the infra team simply re-deploys the whole VM from Puppet.

Committers: please test changes to end-user critical scripts before committing to master!

To deploy a completely new whimsy VM, see Manual Steps.

Configuration Locations

Application developers may need to know where different things are configured:

• Most httpd config is in the puppet definition whimsy-vm*.apache.org.yaml
• SVN / git updaters and definitions of checkout directories are in repository.yml
• Cron jobs are configured by whimsy_server/manifests/cronjobs.pp, which call various Public JSON scripts
• Public JSON generation comes from various www/roster/public_*.rb scripts
• Misc server config is executed by whimsy_server/manifests/init.pp
• LDAP configured in whimsy-vm*.apache.org.yaml

How Production Is Updated

• When Puppet updates the whimsy VM, it uses modules/whimsy_server/manifests/init.pp to define the ‘whimsy-pubsub’ service which runs tools/pubsub.rb
• pubsub.rb watches for any commits from the whimsy git repo at gitbox.apache.org
• When it detects a change, it tells Puppet to update the VM as a whole
• Puppet then updates various svn/git repositories, ensures required tools and setup is done if there are other changes to dependencies, and when needed restarts most services that might need a restart
• Puppet also does a rake update to update various gem or ruby settings

Thus, in less than 5 minutes from any git push, the server is running the new code!

Production Configuration

The Whimsy VM runs Ubuntu 16.04 and is fully managed by Puppet using the normal methods Apache infra uses for managing servers. Note however that management of Whimsy code and tools is a PMC responsibility.

The puppet definition is contained in the following files:

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet/blob/deployment/data/nodes/whimsy-vm4.apache.org.yaml (Includes modules, software, vhosts, ldap realms, and httpd.conf)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet/blob/deployment/modules/vhosts_whimsy/lib/puppet/parser/functions/preprocess_vhosts.rb (macro functions used above)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet/blob/deployment/modules/whimsy_server/manifests/init.pp (Defines various tools and directories used in some tools)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet/blob/deployment/modules/whimsy_server/manifests/cronjobs.pp (Cronjobs control when /public/*.json is built and code and mail updates)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet/blob/deployment/modules/whimsy_server/manifests/procmail.pp

Before pushing any changes here, understand the Apache Infra puppet workflow and test:

• https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INFRA/Git+workflow+for+infrastructure-puppet+repo To understand the high-level workflow for puppet changes.

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet-kitchen#readme

  • addition to Make modules useable step:

       rm -rf zmanda_asf
       mkdir -p zmanda_asf/manifests
       echo "class zmanda_asf::client (){}" > zmanda_asf/manifests/client.pp
    

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-puppet/blob/deployment/modules/vhosts_whimsy/README.md This details the changes to default puppet we use for Whimsy.

Manual Steps

The following additional steps are required to get a new Whimsy VM up and running - these are only needed for a new deployment.

• Ensure that the IP address is static, and has been added to the list of allowed mail relays

• Run the following command to create an SSL cert (see tutorial for details):

  • /x1/srv/git/letsencrypt/letsencrypt-auto --apache -d whimsy.apache.org -d whimsy4.apache.org -d whimsy-vm4.apache.org -d whimsy-test.apache.org

• The SVN settings should now be set up in whimsy-vm5 and later (Puppet 6)

• Update the following cron scripts under https://svn.apache.org/repos/infra/infrastructure/apmail/trunk/bin:

  • listmodsubs.sh - add the new host
  • whimsy_qmail_ids.sh - add the new host
  • the old hosts should be removed sometime after switchover. This approach requires two edits to the files but ensures that the rsync has been tested for the new host and allows the new host to be better tested

• Add the following mail subscriptions:

  • Subscribe svnupdate@whimsy-vm4.apache.org to board-commits@apache.org.
  • Subscribe svnupdate@whimsy-vm4.apache.org to committers-cvs@apache.org.
  • Subscribe svnupdate@whimsy-vm4.apache.org to foundation-commits@apache.org.
  • Subscribe board@whimsy-vm4.apache.org to board@apache.org.
  • Subscribe members@whimsy-vm4.apache.org to members@apache.org.
  • Add secretary@whimsy-vm4.apache.org to the secretary@apache.org alias.

• Using the www-data user, copy over the following directories from the previous whimsy-vm* server:

  • /srv/agenda
  • /srv/icla
  • /srv/mail/board
  • /srv/mail/members
  • /srv/mail/secretary

• Verify that email can be sent to non-apache.org email addresses.

  • Run testmail.rb

• if pip3 show img2pdf doesn't show version 0.3.1 or later:

  • Run pip3 install --upgrade img2pdf

N.B. Just prior to switchover, ensure that the file /srv/mail/secretary/YYYYMM.yml for the current month is copied (or merged?) across. This contains the status for mails handled by the Secretary workbench.