ovrclk / akash-on-rails

Ruby on Rails on Akash

Akash on Rails (Pinterest Clone)

Demo: pin.akash.host

This is an example Rails Pinterest clone hosted on Akash. There are a few extra features to make the most of decentralised hosting:

• Database backup/restore to Sia via Filebase
• User image uploads to Sia via Filebase
• Auth0 user authentication
• Cloudflare DNS and SSL
• Scheduled tasks using Whenever

Architecture

App container

• Runs the rails server and hosts the actual website.
• Connects to the Postgres container for a persistent database
• Hosts files on Filebase (Sia, Skynet and Storj hosting currently)
• Uses Auth0 for user login and registration

Cron container

• Auto-restores the Postgres database on boot, achieving persistent database through re-deploys
• Auto-backup of the database to Filebase every 15 minutes
• Crontab is defined using Whenever in schedule.rb
• Runs the same docker image as the rails application, but running cron instead of the rails server
• A standalone database backup/restore container is also available

Postgres container

• Runs a standard Postgres server docker image

Usage

Ultimately this repository is designed to provide a sensible example of hosting a rails application on Akash. There are a few ways to use it:

Run the application as-is on Akash with your own storage and Auth0 account

• Setup a free Cloudflare account and add your domain and set nameservers
• Setup a Filebase account and bucket.
  • Add a backups folder to your bucket.
  • You will need your bucket name, client ID and secret
• Sign up for an Auth0 account and setup an App.
  • Callback URL: https://yourdomain.com/auth/auth0/callback
  • Logout URL: https://yourdomain.com
  • You will need your Auth0 domain, client ID and secret
• Using the example deploy.yml, populate the environment variables with the values from Filebase and Auth0
• Deploy on Akash and get your app URL
• Point your domain to your app URL using a CNAME in Cloudflare
• Configure 'Full' SSL mode in Cloudflare
• Sign in to your website using Auth0. The first user created will be made an administrator

Use the relevant files in your own project

• Dockerfile
  • Rails ready Dockerfile
  • Installs the aws CLI tool to interact with Filebase
• scripts/run-app.sh
  • Precompiles rails assets
  • Runs the rails server
• scripts/run-scheduler.sh
  • Creates and restores the database
  • Runs rake db:migrate and db:seed
  • Sets the crontab using Whenever and runs the cron service
• scripts/restore-postgres.sh
  • Downloads latest backup from Filebase
  • Restore the DB if a backup was found
• scripts/backup-postgres.sh
  • Backs up the database to Filebase
  • Deletes backups older than KEEP_BACKUPS
• config/schedule.rb
  • Whenever cron schedule file to run scripts/backup-postgres.sh every 15 minutes
• config/initializers/shrine.rb
  • Configures Shrine within the application to use Filebase as an S3 host
• deploy.yml
  • Akash deploy manifest

Clone the repository and use as a base for a new project

• Clone the repository to your own Github account
• Rename any occurence of AkashOnRails, akash-on-rails and akash_on_rails to your own app name
• Change any app/models, app/controllers, app/views as required

Development

You can run the application locally using Docker compose.

Copy the .env.sample file to .env and populate

Run docker-compose up to build and run the application