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Install DTaaS on a Production Server

The installation instructions provided in this README are ideal for hosting the DTaaS as web application for multiple users.

Design

An illustration of the docker containers used and the authorization setup is shown here.

Traefik OAuth

In the new application configuration, there are two OAuth2 applications.

Requirements

The installation requirements to run this docker version of the DTaaS are:

Docker with Compose Plugin

It is mandatory to have Docker installed on your computer. We highly recommend using Docker Desktop.

Domain name

The DTaaS software is a web application and is preferably hosted on a server with a domain name like foo.com. It is also possible to use an IP address in place of domain name.

OAuth Provider

Gitlab Instance - The DTaaS uses Gitlab OAuth2.0 authorization for user authorization. You can either have an on-premise instance of gitlab, or use gitlab.com itself.

User Accounts

Create user accounts in the linked gitlab instance for all the users.

OAuth2 Application Registration

The multi-user installation setup requires dedicated authorization setup for both frontend website and backend services. Both these authorization requirements are satisfied using OAuth2 protocol.

  • The frontend website is a React single page application (SPA).
  • The details of Oauth2 app for the frontend website are in client docs.
  • The Oauth2 authorization for backend services is managed by Traefik forward-auth. The details of this authorization setup are in server docs.

Based on your selection of gitlab instance, it is necessary to register these two OAuth2 applications and link them to your intended DTaaS installation.

Please see gitlab oauth provider documentation for further help with creating these two OAuth applications.

Download Release Package

The software is available for as a zip package. Please download and unzip the same. A new DTaaS-v0.5.0 folder gets created. The rest of the installation instructions assume that you are using Windows/Linux/MacOS terminal in DTaaS-v0.5.0 folder.

Tip

  1. The filepaths shown here follow Linux OS. The installation procedures also work with Windows OS.
  2. The description below refers to filenames. All the file paths mentioned below are relatively to the top-level DTaaS directory.

Configuration

Three following configuration files need to be updated.

Docker Compose

The docker compose configuration is in deploy/docker/.env.server. it is a sample file. It contains environment variables that are used by the docker compose files. It can be updated to suit your local installation scenario. It contains the following environment variables.

Edit all the fields according to your specific case.

URL Path Example Value Explanation
DTAAS_DIR '/Users/username/DTaaS' Full path to the DTaaS directory. This is an absolute path with no trailing slash.
SERVER_DNS foo.com The server DNS, if you are deploying with a dedicated server. Remember not use http(s) at the beginning of the DNS string
OAUTH_URL gitlab.foo.com The URL of your Gitlab instance. It can be gitlab.com if you are planning to use it for authorization.
CLIENT_ID 'xx' The ID of your server OAuth application
CLIENT_SECRET 'xx' The Secret of your server OAuth application
OAUTH_SECRET 'random-secret-string' Any private random string. This is a password you choose for local installation.
username1 'user1' The gitlab instance username of a user of DTaaS
username2 'user2' The gitlab instance username of a user of DTaaS
CLIENT_CONFIG '/Users/username/DTaaS/deploy/config/client/env.js' Full path to env.js file for client

Tip

Important points to note:

  1. The path examples given here are for Linux OS. These paths can be Windows OS compatible paths as well.
  2. The Server DNS can also be an IP address. However, for proper working it is neccessary to use the same convention (IP/DNS) in the CLIENT_CONFIG file as well.

Website Client

The frontend React website requires configuration which is specified via a filename provided in CLIENT_CONFIG variable of deploy/docker/.env.server file.

The CLIENT_CONFIG file is in relative directory of deploy/config/client/env.js.

Further explanation on the client configuration is available in client config.

Tip

There is a default OAuth application registered on https://gitlab.com for client. The corresponding OAuth application details are:

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REACT_APP_CLIENT_ID: '1be55736756190b3ace4c2c4fb19bde386d1dcc748d20b47ea8cfb5935b8446c',
REACT_APP_AUTH_AUTHORITY: 'https://gitlab.com/',

This can be used for test purposes. Please use your own OAuth application for secure production deployments.

Create User Workspace

The existing filesystem for installation is setup for files/user1. A new filesystem directory needs to be created for the selected user.

Please execute the following commands from the top-level directory of the DTaaS project.

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cp -R files/user1 files/username

where username is one of the selected usernames. This command needs to be repeated for all the selected users.

Configure Authorization Rules for Backend Authorization

The Traefik forward-auth microservices requires configuration rules to manage authorization for different URL paths. The deploy/docker/conf.server file can be used to configure the authorization for user workspaces.

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rule.onlyu1.action=auth
rule.onlyu1.rule=Path(`/user1`)
rule.onlyu1.whitelist = user1@localhost

rule.onlyu1.action=auth
rule.onlyu1.rule=Path(`/user2`)
rule.onlyu1.whitelist = user2@localhost

Please change the usernames and email addresses to the matching user accounts on the OAuth provider (either https://gitlab.foo.com or https://gitlab.com).

Caveat

The usernames in the deploy/docker/.env.server file need to match those in the deploy/docker/conf.server file.

Traefik routes are controlled by the deploy/docker/.env.server file. Authorization on these routes is controlled by the deploy/docker/conf.server file. If a route is not specified in deploy/docker/conf.server file but an authorisation is requested by traefik for this unknown route, the default behavior of traefik forward-auth kicks in. This default behavior is to enable endpoint being available to any signed in user.

If there are extra routes in deploy/docker/conf.server file but these are not in deploy/docker/.env.server file, such routes are not served by traefik; it will give 404 server response.

Access Rights Over Files

Warning

The default setting in docker compose file exposes all user files at http://foo.com/lib/files. All files of all the users are readable-writable by all logged in users. The compose.server.yml file needs to updated to expose another directory like common assets directory.

If you wish to reduce this scope to only common assets, please change,

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  libms:
    image: intocps/libms:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ${DTAAS_DIR}/deploy/config/lib.docker:/dtaas/libms/.env
      - ${DTAAS_DIR}/files/common:/dtaas/libms/files

The change in the last line. The ${DTAAS_DIR}/files got replaced by ${DTAAS_DIR}/files/common. With this change, only common files are readable-writable by all logged in users.

Run

The commands to start and stop the appliation are:

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docker compose -f compose.server.yml --env-file .env.server up -d
docker compose -f compose.server.yml --env-file .env.server down

To restart only a specific container, for example `client``

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docker compose -f compose.server.yml --env-file .env.server up -d --force-recreate client

Use

The application will be accessible at: http://foo.com from web browser. Sign in using your account linked to either gitlab.com or your local gitlab instance.

All the functionality of DTaaS should be available to your users through the single page client now.

You may have to click Sign in to Gitlab on the Client page and authorize access to the shown application.

Adding a new user

Please see the add new user to add new users.

References

Image sources: Traefik logo, ml-workspace, reactjs, gitlab