Alaveteli

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Cron jobs and Daemons

Alaveteli runs some processes as operating system daemons. This guide explains how to generate the daemon files and get them running.

From Alaveteli version 0.39 the crontab and init scripts use the erb file format, which is a standard templating format used by many Ruby applications.

Previously scripts use the ugly file format, which is a strange templating format used by mySociety.

The ugly format uses simple variable substitution. A variable looks like !!(*= $this *)!!.

Generate crontab

config/crontab-example contains the cron jobs that run on Alaveteli. Rewrite the example file to replace the variables, and then drop it in /etc/cron.d/ on the server.

Template Variables:

  • deploy_user: the user that the software runs as
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • mailto: The email address or local account that cron output will be sent to
    • setting an email address depends on your MTA having been configured for remote delivery.

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. This example sends cron output to the local alaveteli user. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake config_files:convert_crontab \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  MAILTO=alaveteli \
  CRONTAB=/var/www/alaveteli/config/crontab-example > /etc/cron.d/alaveteli
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/cron.d/alaveteli
chmod 754 /etc/cron.d/alaveteli

Note: If you are generating the crontab manually, rather than with this rake task, you will need to add a line to periodically check on each daemon you install following the instructions below, as follows, making sure to replace DAEMON_NAME with the name of the daemon file:

5,15,25,35,45,55 * * * * alaveteli systemctl is-active --quiet DAEMON_NAME || sudo systemctl start DAEMON_NAME

Generate application daemon

Generate a daemon based on the application server you installed. This allows you to use the native service command to stop, start and restart the application.

Passenger

Template Variables:

  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli
  • site: a string to identify your Alaveteli instance
  • user: the user that the software runs as

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake config_files:convert_init_script \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  SITE=alaveteli \
  SCRIPT_FILE=/var/www/alaveteli/config/sysvinit-passenger.example > /etc/init.d/alaveteli
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/init.d/alaveteli
chmod 754 /etc/init.d/alaveteli

Start the application:

service alaveteli start

Puma

Puma is a fast, multithreaded, and highly concurrent HTTP server for Ruby and Rack applications.

Template Variables:

  • deploy_user: the user that the software runs as
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_daemon \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  DAEMON=puma.service > /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-puma.service
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-puma.service
chmod 754 /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-puma.service

Enable the service:

systemctl enable alaveteli-puma.service

Start the application:

systemctl start alaveteli-puma.service

Sidekiq - Background job processor

Sidekiq is a background processing daemon that handles asynchronous tasks for Alaveteli.

Template Variables:

  • deploy_user: the user that the software runs as
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_daemon \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  DAEMON=sidekiq.service > /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-sidekiq.service
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-sidekiq.service
chmod 754 /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-sidekiq.service

Enable the service:

systemctl enable alaveteli-sidekiq.service

Start the background job queue:

systemctl start alaveteli-sidekiq.service

Generate alert daemon

This daemon sends out emails to users subscribed to updates from the site – known as tracks – when there is something new matching their interests

Template Variables:

  • deploy_user: the user that the software runs as
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_daemon \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  DAEMON=alert-tracks.service > /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-alert-tracks.service
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-alert-tracks.service
chmod 754 /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-alert-tracks.service

Enable the service:

systemctl enable alaveteli-alert-tracks.service

Start the alert tracks daemon:

systemctl start alaveteli-alert-tracks.service

Generate mail poller daemon (optional)

config/poll-for-incoming.service is another daemon, which is optional and not required unless you want to have Alaveteli poll a POP3 mailbox for incoming mail rather than passively accepting it via the mailin script. The setup for polling is described in the documentation for PRODUCTION_MAILER_RETRIEVER_METHOD, the config setting that switches it on. If you are using polling, this daemon will check the POP3 mailbox for new incoming emails. If you want to use polling, you should setup your install to deliver incoming mail for requests to the mailbox, rather than into the application.

Template Variables:

  • deploy_user: the user that the software runs as
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_daemon \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  DAEMON=poll-for-incoming.service > /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-poll-for-incoming.service
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-poll-for-incoming.service
chmod 754 /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-poll-for-incoming.service

Enable the service:

systemctl enable alaveteli-poll-for-incoming.service

Start the polling daemon:

systemctl start alaveteli-poll-for-incoming.service

Generate notifications daemon (optional)

config/send-notifications.service is the mechanism for sending digest notifications to Pro users. You should only enable this if you have enabled Alaveteli Pro.

Template Variables:

  • deploy_user: the user that the software runs as
  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert_daemon \
  DEPLOY_USER=alaveteli \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  DAEMON=send-notifications.service > /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-send-notifications.service
popd

chown root:alaveteli /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-send-notifications.service
chmod 754 /etc/systemd/system/alaveteli-send-notifications.service

Enable the service:

systemctl enable alaveteli-send-notifications.service

Start the notifications daemon:

systemctl start alaveteli-send-notifications.service

Generate logrotate configuation (optional)

config/logrotate-example contains an example configuration for logrotate, a utility that manages the automatic rotation and compression of log files. This tool is crucial for ensuring log files do not consume excessive disk space over time.

Template Variables:

  • vhost_dir: the full path to the directory where Alaveteli is checked out. e.g. If your checkout is at /var/www/alaveteli then set this to /var/www
  • vcspath: the name of the directory that contains the Alaveteli code. e.g. alaveteli

There is a rake task that will help to rewrite this file into one that is useful to you. Change the variables to suit your installation.

pushd /var/www/alaveteli
bundle exec rake RAILS_ENV=production config_files:convert \
  VHOST_DIR=/var/www \
  VCSPATH=alaveteli \
  FILE=config/logrotate-example > /etc/logrotate.d/alaveteli
popd