FlexIt Docker Deployment

This repository provides everything needed to deploy FlexIt using Docker. FlexIt is a highly powerful and flexible business intelligence and data transformation tool.

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Installation Instructions

1. Clone this repository

On your linux server, clone this repository to your selected folder:

git clone https://github.com/flexanalytics/flexit-docker-linux.git

If git is not installed, then run sudo apt update and sudo apt install git -y to install git, then retry the clone.

2. Configure Environment Variables

The repo's .env file defines project-level variables. Should you need to update ports or install versions, you can edit them there. Otherwise keep the defaults.

## -- frontend app setup -- ##
FLEXIT_PORT=3030
FLEXIT_VERSION=latest

## -- backend db setup -- ##
CONTENT_DB_VERSION=latest
DB_PORT=5432

## -- Optional nginx setup -- ##
USE_NGINX=false
CERT_PATH=/etc/nginx/certs
PUBLIC_DNS=myserver.mydomain.com
NGINX_HTTPS_PORT=443
NGINX_HTTP_PORT=80

See the Configure SSL section below for details on how to enable HTTPS/SSL. The above configuration uses the Nginx with your certs configuration, which would require you to set USE_NGINX=true and then the following:

1. The /etc/nginx/certs folder
2. The myserver.mydomain.com.crt certificate file under that folder
3. The myserver.mydomain.com.key private key file under that folder

3. Install The Software

To install the software, run the below script:

sudo ./install.sh

This will install the needed software and allow you to configure the backend credentials.

The application will automatically start after this script is complete. You may need to reboot the server if docker was not previously installed.

4. Access FlexIt

Visit the application at:

• First Install: http://localhost:<FLEXIT_PORT>
• After Optionally Configuring SSL: https://DNS_NAME

Configuring the application for production use

Configure SSL

There are 2 ways to configure SSL for the application:

1. Use FlexIt as the reverse proxy

1. Provide a certificate and key file. These files should be placed in a certs folder in the flex_config directory.

• The files should be named certificate.pem and privatekey.pem.

Note

You will have to restart the application after adding the certificate and key files.

sudo ./scripts/restart_server.sh
# or
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

After restarting the server, an administrator can navigate to Configuration > Server Settings and add the Host Name, as well as change the port to 443 and enable ssl.

2. Update the FLEXIT_PORT in .env to use port 443.

## -- frontend app setup -- ##
FLEXIT_PORT=443

3. Restart the application again.

sudo ./scripts/restart_server.sh
# or
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

4. Access the application at https://<dns_name_in_settings>.

2. Use the provided Nginx reverse proxy with your own certificate

1. Change the USE_NGINX flag from false to true in the .env file.

USE_NGINX=true

2. Provide a certificate and key file. These files should be placed in the $CERT_PATH folder that's configured in the .env file. If you're not sure where to put the certs folder, you can put them in /etc/nginx/certs, which may need to be created with the sudo mkdir -p /etc/nginx/certs/ command.

Note

The certificate and key files will need to have the naming convention of PUBLIC_DNS.crt and PUBLIC_DNS.key i.e. flexit.myserver.com.crt. More information can be found in the nginx proxy containers documentation here

3. Change the PUBLIC_DNS in the .env file to the domain name you want to use.

PUBLIC_DNS=your_domain_name

4. Restart the application. The restart_server script will detect the USE_NGINX flag and start a new container running nginx.

sudo ./scripts/restart_server.sh

3. Use the provided Nginx reverse proxy with a Let's Encrypt certificate

1. Change the USE_NGINX flag from false to true in the .env file.

USE_NGINX=true

2. Change the PUBLIC_DNS in the .env file to the domain name you want to use.

PUBLIC_DNS=your_domain_name

3. Change the CERT_EMAIL in the .env file to your email address.

CERT_EMAIL=your_email_address

4. Change the AUTO_MANAGE_CERTS in the .env file to true.

AUTO_MANAGE_CERTS=true

5. Restart the application. The restart_server script will detect the USE_NGINX and AUTO_MANAGE_CERTS flags and start a new container running nginx and the companion container.

sudo ./scripts/restart_server.sh

Installing a patch

The standard deployment pulls versions from the repo to deploy standard versions of FlexIt. If a patch is issued and you need to apply a non-standard FlexIt version, then you can follow these instructions to build the new image:

scp -i /path/to/flexitserver-privatekey.pem "/path/to/flexit/install/installers/flexit-linux-x64-installer.run" [email protected]:~/flexit-docker-deploy
ssh -i /path/to/flexitserver-privatekey.pem [email protected]
cd flexit-docker-deploy
sudo docker compose down
sudo docker rmi $(sudo docker images -q) #removes all docker images to clear up space
sudo docker compose build
sudo docker compose up --pull missing -d

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Additional Notes

Viewing Logs

To view logs for the FlexIt Frontend:

docker logs <container_name>

Stopping the Application

To stop the application:

./scripts/stop_server.sh

Restarting the Application

To restart the application:

sudo ./scripts/restart_server.sh

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Troubleshooting

1. FlexIt Frontend Not Starting

• Ensure docker is running:

  docker ps

• Review logs:

  docker logs flexit-analytics