Deploying Production Whimsy.apache.org

The production whimsy.apache.org server is managed by Puppet, and is automatically updated 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
• Various other config-like settings are in CONFIGURE.md

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 20.04 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 (these are private files and need a login):

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-p6/blob/production/data/nodes/whimsy-vm6.apache.org.yaml (Includes modules, software, vhosts, ldap realms, and httpd.conf)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-p6/tree/production/modules/vhosts_whimsy/lib/puppet/functions (macro functions used above)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-p6/blob/production/modules/whimsy_server/manifests/init.pp (Defines various tools and directories used in some tools)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-p6/blob/production/modules/whimsy_server/manifests/cronjobs.pp (Cronjobs control when /public/*.json is built and code and mail updates)

• https://github.com/apache/infrastructure-p6/blob/production/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-p6/blob/production/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

• Set up a new SSL cert: this can be done using some files that should be set up by Puppet. You will need root access to whimsy.apache.org as well in order to set up the challenge.

  • run /root/getcert.sh; this will prompt for input using /root/authenticator.sh and cleanup using /root/cleanup.sh

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

• check that board-agenda-websocket.service is running:

  • sudo systemctl status board-agenda-websocket.service - this should show the service is running and has been up for some while
  • curl -N localhost:34234 - should produce ‘curl: (52) Empty reply from server’ or similar
  • if curl replies with something else, check that the service is still running (and has not just been restarted)
  • if the syslog contains a message of the form: ‘Sep 24 13:09:07 whimsy-vm6 ruby[3435205]: what(): Encryption not available on this event-machine’ then it will be necessary to re-install the gem eventmachine If the service still does not start, try stopping and starting it: sudo systemctl stop/start board-agenda-websocket.service

• 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
  • make sure that the host is added to the known_hosts file on hermes (e.g. rsync whimsy-vmN.apache.org: and agree to the prompt if the hash is correct; must be done from the apmail account)
  • 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 (see apmail/trunk/bin/whimsy_subscribe.sh):

  • Subscribe board@whimsy-vmN.apache.org to board@apache.org.
  • Subscribe members@whimsy-vmN.apache.org to members@apache.org.
  • Subscribe www-data@whimsy-vmN.apache.org to private-allow@whimsical.apache.org. (Cron daemon)
  • Subscribe root@whimsy-vmN.apache.org to private-allow@whimsical.apache.org. (Cron daemon)
  • Subscribe root@whimsy-vmN.apache.org to notifications@whimsical.apache.org. (Cron daemon)
  • Add secretary@whimsy-vmN.apache.org to the secretary@apache.org alias.

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

  • Run testmail.rb

• check that mail is being delivered to the /srv/mail directory tree

• check that mail subscriptions are being updated under /srv/subscriptions

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

  • Run pip3 install --upgrade img2pdf

• Ensure that gitpubsub is working. Check that updates to whimsy git are pulled within 5 minutes or less

• Synchronising data: Whimsy keeps some data locally on the server. This needs to be copied across prior to switchover. Using the www-data user, copy over the following directories from the previous whimsy-vm server:

  • /srv/agenda
  • /srv/icla
  • /srv/gpg - this contains the public key ring used to check ICLA signatures
  • /srv/mail - Note that the /srv/mail/* directories will in general be different between hosts This is because the final delivery routes will vary. However, rather than try and merge the files, it is simpler to do a full copy.

Mail server configuration

The mail server is unlikely to change, but if it does, rsync auth will need to be set up.

• generate an SSH keypair for the apmail login:
  • sudo -Hiu apmail
  • ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521
• copy the public key from .ssh/id_ecdsa.pub to the Puppet file data/nodes/whimsy-vm6.apache.org.yaml under the whimsy_server::procmail::apmail_keycontent key.