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diff --git a/doc/INSTALL.md b/doc/INSTALL.md index e466edd55..f39789936 100644 --- a/doc/INSTALL.md +++ b/doc/INSTALL.md @@ -1,3 +1,123 @@ +# Installation Script and AMI + +The easiest options for installating Alaveteli for evaluation +are to use our install script or to use the AMI (Amazon Machine +Image) to create an instance on Amazon EC2. These options are +described below. If you would prefer to install the site +manually, please go to the Manual Installation section below. + +## Installing from an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) + +To help people try out Alaveteli, we have created an AMI (Amazon +Machine Image) with a basic installation of Alaveteli, which you +can use to create a running server on an Amazon EC2 instance. +This creates an instance that runs in development mode, so we +wouldn't recommend you use it for a production system without +changing the configuration. + +If you haven't used Amazon Web Services before, then you can get +a Micro instance which will be +[free for a year](http://aws.amazon.com/free/). You will find +that a micro instance isn't powerful enough for anything other +very basic testing of Alaveteli, however. + +The AMI can be found in the EU West (Ireland) region, with the +ID ami-0f24c678 and name “Basic Alaveteli installation +2013-10-31”. You can launch an instance based on that AMI with +[this link](https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=eu-west-1#launchAmi=ami-0f24c678). + +When you create an EC2 instance based on that AMI, make sure +that you choose Security Groups that allows at least inbound +HTTP, HTTPS, SSH and, if you want to test incoming mail as well, +SMTP. + +When your EC2 instance is launched, you will be able to log in +as the `ubuntu` user. This user can `sudo` freely to run +commands as root. However, the code is actually owned by (and +runs as) the `alaveteli` user. After creating the instance, you +may want to edit a configuration file to customize the site's +configuration. That configuration file is +`/var/www/alaveteli/alaveteli/config/general.yml`, which can be +edited with: + + ubuntu@ip-10-58-191-98:~$ sudo su - alaveteli + alaveteli@ip-10-58-191-98:~$ cd alaveteli + alaveteli@ip-10-58-191-98:~/alaveteli$ nano config/general.yml + +Then you should restart the Thin webserver with: + + alaveteli@ip-10-58-191-98:~/alaveteli$ logout + ubuntu@ip-10-58-191-98:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/alaveteli restart + +If you find the hostname of your EC2 instance from the AWS +console, you should then be able to see the site at +`http://your-ec2-hostname.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com` + +If you have any problems or questions, please ask on the +[Alaveteli Google Group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alaveteli-dev) +or [report an issue](https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/issues?state=open). + +## Installing with the Installation Script + +If you have a clean installation of Debian squeeze or Ubuntu +precise, you can use an install script in our commonlib +repository to set up a working instance of Alaveteli. This is +not suitable for production (it runs in development mode, for +example) but should set up a functional installation of the +site. + +**Warning: only use this script on a newly installed server – it +will make significant changes to your server’s setup, including +modifying your nginx setup, creating a user account, creating a +database, installing new packages etc.** + +To download the script, run the following command: + + curl -O https://raw.github.com/mysociety/commonlib/master/bin/install-site.sh + +If you run this script with `sh install-site.sh`, you'll see its +usage message: + + Usage: ./install-site.sh [--default] <SITE-NAME> <UNIX-USER> [HOST] + HOST is only optional if you are running this on an EC2 instance. + --default means to install as the default site for this server, + rather than a virtualhost for HOST. + +In this case `<SITE-NAME>` should be `alaveteli`. `<UNIX-USER>` +is the name of the Unix user that you want to own and run the +code. (This user will be created by the script.) + +The `HOST` parameter is a hostname for the server that will be +usable externally – a virtualhost for this name will be created +by the script, unless you specified the `--default` option. This +parameter is optional if you are on an EC2 instance, in which +case the hostname of that instance will be used. + +For example, if you wish to use a new user called `alaveteli` +and the hostname `alaveteli.127.0.0.1.xip.io`, creating a +virtualhost just for that hostname, you could download and run +the script with: + + sudo sh install-site.sh alaveteli alaveteli alaveteli.127.0.0.1.xip.io + +([xip.io](http://xip.io/) is a helpful domain for development.) + +Or, if you want to set this up as the default site on an EC2 +instance, you could download the script, make it executable and +then invoke it with: + + sudo ./install-site.sh --default alaveteli alaveteli + +When the script has finished, you should have a working copy of +the website, accessible via the hostname you supplied to the +script. + +If you have any problems or questions, please ask on the +[Alaveteli Google Group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/alaveteli-dev) +or [report an issue](https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/issues?state=open). + +# Manual Installation + These instructions assume Debian Squeeze (64-bit) or Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (precise). [Install instructions for OS X](https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/wiki/OS-X-Quickstart) are under development. Debian Squeeze is the best supported @@ -9,7 +129,7 @@ As an aid to evaluation, there is an [Amazon AMI](https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/wiki/Alaveteli-ec2-ami) with all these steps configured. It is *not* production-ready. -# Get Alaveteli +## Get Alaveteli To start with, you may need to install git, e.g. with `sudo apt-get install git-core` @@ -25,7 +145,7 @@ master branch (which always contains the latest stable release): git checkout master -# Package pinning +## Package pinning You need to configure [apt-pinning](http://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences#Pinning-1) preferences in order to prevent packages being pulled from the debian wheezy distribution in preference to the stable distribution once you have added the wheezy repository as described below. @@ -41,7 +161,7 @@ In order to configure apt-pinning and to keep most packages coming from the Debi sudo cp /tmp/preferences /etc/apt/ rm /tmp/preferences -# Install system dependencies +## Install system dependencies These are packages that the software depends on: third-party software used to parse documents, host the site, etc. There are also packages @@ -70,7 +190,7 @@ Some of the files also have a version number listed in config/packages - check that you have appropriate versions installed. Some also list "|" and offer a choice of packages. -# Install Ruby dependencies +## Install Ruby dependencies To install Alaveteli's Ruby dependencies, we need to install bundler. In Debian, this is provided as a package (installed as part @@ -79,7 +199,7 @@ gem: sudo gem1.8 install bundler -# Install mySociety libraries +## Install mySociety libraries You will also want to install mySociety's common ruby libraries and the Rails code. Run: @@ -88,7 +208,7 @@ code. Run: to fetch the contents of the submodules. -## Packages customised by mySociety +### Packages customised by mySociety Debian users should add the mySociety debian archive to their `/etc/apt/sources.list` as described above. Doing this and following @@ -115,7 +235,7 @@ use the Debian package compiled by mySociety (see link in [issue 305](https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/issues/305)) -# Configure Database +## Configure Database There has been a little work done in trying to make the code work with other databases (e.g. SQLite), but the currently supported database is @@ -155,7 +275,7 @@ data that may not be valid UTF (for example, data originating from various broken email clients that's not 8-bit clean), it's safer to be able to store *anything*, than reject data at runtime. -# Configure email +## Configure email You will need to set up an email server (MTA) to send and receive emails. Full configuration for an MTA is beyond the scope of this @@ -167,13 +287,13 @@ so that you can see the mails in a browser - see http://mailcatcher.me/ for more details. Start mailcatcher by running `bundle exec mailcatcher` in your application directory. -## Minimal +### Minimal If you just want to get the tests to pass, you will at a minimum need to allow sending emails via a `sendmail` command (a requirement met, for example, with `sudo apt-get install exim4`). -## Detailed +### Detailed When an authority receives an email, the email's `reply-to` field is a magic address which is parsed and consumed by the Rails app. @@ -206,7 +326,7 @@ A well-configured installation of this code will separately have had Exim make a backup copy of the email in a separate mailbox, just in case. -# Set up configs +## Set up configs Copy `config/general.yml-example` to `config/general.yml` and edit to your taste. @@ -225,7 +345,7 @@ performance management system. By default, monitoring is switched off by the `agent_enabled: false` setting. See https://github.com/newrelic/rpm for instructions on switching on local and remote performance analysis. -# Deployment +## Deployment In the 'alaveteli' directory, run: @@ -253,7 +373,7 @@ Next we need to create the index for the search engine (Xapian): If this fails, the site should still mostly run, but it's a core component so you should really try to get this working. -# Run the Tests +## Run the Tests Make sure everything looks OK: @@ -265,7 +385,7 @@ workaround). You might be able to move on to the next step, depending on how serious they are, but ideally you should try to find out what's gone wrong. -## glibc bug workaround +### glibc bug workaround There's a [bug in glibc](http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=637239) @@ -276,7 +396,7 @@ it's not as of version `2.11.3-2`. Until it's fixed (e.g. `libc6 2.13-26` does work), you can get the tests to pass by setting `export LD_PRELOAD=/lib/libuuid.so.1`. -# Run the Server +## Run the Server Run the following to get the server running: @@ -288,7 +408,7 @@ localhost interface by adding ` --binding=127.0.0.1` The server should have told you the URL to access in your browser to see the site in action. -# Administrator privileges +## Administrator privileges The administrative interface is at the URL `/admin`. @@ -311,7 +431,7 @@ in the front end. It is possible completely to override the administrator authentication by setting `SKIP_ADMIN_AUTH` to `true` in `general.yml`. -# Cron jobs and init scripts +## Cron jobs and init scripts `config/crontab-example` contains the cronjobs run on WhatDoTheyKnow. It's in a strange templating format they use in mySociety. mySociety @@ -336,8 +456,20 @@ like `!!(*= $this *)!!`. The variables are: * `user`: the user that the software runs as * `site`: a string to identify your alaveteli instance -There is a dumb python script at `script/make-crontab` which you can -edit and run to do some basic substitution for you. +There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into +one that is useful to you, which can be invoked with: + + bundle exec rake config_files:convert_crontab \ + DEPLOY_USER=deploy \ + VHOST_DIR=/dir/above/alaveteli \ + VCSPATH=alaveteli \ + SITE=alaveteli \ + CRONTAB=config/crontab-example > crontab + +You should change the `DEPLOY_USER`, `VHOST_DIR`, `VCSPATH` and +`SITE` environment variables to match your server and +installation. You should also edit the resulting `crontab` file +to customize the `MAILTO` variable. One of the cron jobs refers to a script at `/etc/init.d/foi-alert-tracks`. This is an init script, a copy of @@ -360,7 +492,7 @@ discussion of where to find this program, and how you might replace it. This [one line script](https://gist.github.com/3741194) can install this program system-wide. -# Set up production web server +## Set up production web server It is not recommended to run the website using the default Rails web server. There are various recommendations here: @@ -409,7 +541,7 @@ Some [production server best practice notes](https://github.com/mysociety/alaveteli/wiki/Production-Server-Best-Practices) are evolving on the wiki. -# Upgrading Alaveteli +## Upgrading Alaveteli The developer team policy is that the master branch in git should always contain the latest stable release. Therefore, in production, @@ -437,7 +569,7 @@ You should always run the script `scripts/rails-post-deploy` after each deployment. This runs any database migrations for you, plus various other things that can be automated for deployment. -# Troubleshooting +## Troubleshooting * **Incoming emails aren't appearing in my Alaveteli install** |