dee-gmiterko/interlos-web

InterLoS website with online scoring system

Authors: Jan Papoušek and Jan Drábek

Maintenance: Jan Drábek me@jandrabek.cz

Requirements

PHP >= 7.0
PHP in configuration to run Nette framework, see http://doc.nette.org/cs/requirements
MySQL (or MariaDB) database

Hardware

With 100 teams and about 400 players, there is always an initial peak in load, however then it drops and starts raising in the second half of the competition (probably due to database cron job.)

Tested configuration: 4 CPU, 4 GB RAM virtual server.

Installation

Checkout this repository
Set WWW dir to /public/
Run composer install from root. When installing production server use --no-dev to use minified nette.
Copy /app/config/config.local.neon.example to /app/config/config.local.neon and overwrite parameters of config.neon (DB credentials...)
Make directories /temp and /log writable
Create database schema executing /resources/db/tables.sql and /resources/db/views.sql
Create temporary tables (by running CRON manually)

Config

Set mails which are used for sending mail
Set cron and admin keys (randomly generated long password)
Set database credentials
Set smtp delivery and test registration e-mails

Creating new contest

Create contest and set dates in table year: Name - year, like 2013, used for sorting to get latest year Registration start Registration end - beware of crossed dates Game start Game end - beware of crossed dates
Test registration by registering first team
To run

Cron example

# Každou minutu
* * * * * wget -O /dev/null http://interlos-devel.fi.muni.cz/cron/database?cron-key=xyh88QhcVIZNuOJFTtlX > /dev/null 2>&1
# Každých pět minut
*/5 * * * * wget -O /dev/null http://interlos-devel.fi.muni.cz/cron/database?cron-key=xyh88QhcVIZNuOJFTtlX > /dev/null 2>&1

Running the contest

Notify infrastructure operators about future usage (describe event, estimate number of people, describe amount of resources, request contact to technican which will be available)
Create series of task (ciphers, logical, programming) in table serie (fill to_show properly, to prevent answering before release whole series)
Populate table task with correct answers. Provide codes in upper case (just for case)
Update config - set page with in game information which will be shown below the header after the game beginning.
Udpate page with proper URLs where the files are hosted.
Run CRON job (generating statistics) /cron/database?admin-key=hesloproadmin OR /cron/database?cron-key=hesloprocron NEVER BOTH OF THEM
Run it! Test answering with testing team and then remove the answer in the database.
Monitor server performance.
Disable CRON jobs

The statistics are automatically hidden 30 minutes before game end. Admins can get access by appending ?admin-key=hesloproadmin to the URL.

Performance

Typical configuration before 2014 was 4 GB RAM, 4 CPUs which made the game totally ok for 150 teams. However there was a higher peak at game start due high IO.

In 2016 we used configuration with 6 GB RAM and 6 CPUs (just beacuse our limit have allowed that) and it was totally ok for 200 teams, not even high peak was visible at game start.

File hosting

Prepare at least two servers with Apache and PHP (.htaccess needed). Prepare and test them in advance, so links to all series will be available at least 30 minutes before (due to high load when game starts).

Revealing script

Prepare .htaccess file:

Deny from all
<FilesMatch "^$">
	Allow from all
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch "index.php">
	Allow from all
</FilesMatch>

Prepare index.php for each serie:

<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Prague');
if(new DateTime() >= new DateTime("2013-11-30 15:00:00")) {
	@rename(".htaccess",'.htaccess-old');
} else {
    die('Prvni sada bude zpristupnena az v 15:00.');
}
?>
Page content

Test:

that you can access index.php with index.php and / path
that PHP is running
that you cannot access other files in directory by direct path
that scripts works - renames .htaccess in proper time (permission to the parent dir must be set correctly).

After the contest

Disable CRON job.
Manually trigger (last) update of statistics.
Update homepage with results.
Commit whole year directory (archive also in-game information to the root of this folder; static html files recommended)
Save table with full statistics into static HTML (see previous yearXXXX).
Save list of teams into static HTML (see previous teamsYearXXXX).
Add entry to archive page about the year.

Developing locally

Use following setup for docker composition as we need real Apache and MySQL (as PHP built-in-server doesn't handle HTTPS, and with secure cookie flag you cannot use the system).

$ cd .                  # project root
$ nano .env             # IP address to bind (docker-machine vs native docker!)
$ docker-compose up

Then you have to manually install database via http://${IP}:8080 (see docker-compose.yml for credentials). Afterwards the application is available via https://${IP} and http://${IP} (should be redirected immediately).

Database is persistent between up & downs and stored in .mysql directory.

Various notes

MySQL database handles timestamp and datetime types differently (timestamp is stored in UTC, datetime "as is") then translation to current connection timezone is done see (https://www.eversql.com/mysql-datetime-vs-timestamp-column-types-which-one-i-should-use/).

dee-gmiterko / interlos-web