Skip to content

DEPLOY.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
106 lines (86 loc) · 4.38 KB

DEPLOY.md

File metadata and controls

106 lines (86 loc) · 4.38 KB
Raw

Deploying the coordinator

The coordinator is the only always-on piece (control plane: login, groups, metadata, signaling). It holds no file data and no keys.

Two ways to make it reachable from the internet:

  • Option A — Cloudflare Tunnel (no account, no card; runs on a machine you own). Easiest; great for development. See below.
  • Option B — Oracle Cloud Always Free VM (a real always-on server; needs a card for signup verification). See further down.

Scope note: a public coordinator gives you a global control plane — members on any network can sign in, see groups, and share invites. It does not by itself enable cross-network file transfer: chunk transfer still uses the embedded node's HTTP endpoints (same-LAN only) until the WebRTC transport (Phase 3) lands. Deploying this is the prerequisite that lets us build + test that next.

Option A — Cloudflare Tunnel (no cloud account, no card)

Run the coordinator on your own machine and expose it with a free Cloudflare "quick tunnel" — a public HTTPS URL with WebSocket support, no signup required.

  1. Install cloudflared (one-time): https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-tunnel/downloads/ (Windows: winget install --id Cloudflare.cloudflared; macOS: brew install cloudflared).
  2. Set secrets once in backend/.env (JWT_SECRET, NODE_SECRET).
  3. Run both with one command (from the repo root): 
    npm run tunnel
    This starts the coordinator on :5000 and, once it's up, opens the tunnel. cloudflared prints a URL like https://<random>.trycloudflare.com.
  4. Point the app at that URL: Settings → Connection. Done — reachable anywhere.

Caveats: the coordinator is only online while this machine + tunnel run, and the quick-tunnel URL changes each restart. For an always-on, stable home, either run this on a spare device (old laptop / Raspberry Pi) left on, or use Option B.

Option B — Oracle Cloud Always Free VM

Runs it free, 24/7, on an Oracle Cloud "Always Free" VM via Docker.

1. Create the VM

  • Oracle Cloud → Compute → Instances → Create.
  • Shape: Ampere A1 (ARM), Always Free eligible (generous: up to 4 OCPU / 24 GB). The AMD "Micro" shape also works but has only 1 GB RAM.
  • Image: Ubuntu 22.04.
  • Download the SSH key. Note the instance's public IP.

2. Open port 5000 (two layers — this is the usual gotcha)

Oracle blocks inbound traffic at both the cloud firewall and the OS firewall.

  • Cloud: VCN → the instance's subnet → Security List → Add Ingress Rule: Source 0.0.0.0/0, IP Protocol TCP, Destination port 5000.
  • OS (on the VM, over SSH): 
    sudo iptables -I INPUT 6 -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 5000 -j ACCEPT
sudo netfilter-persistent save

3. Install Docker (on the VM)

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER && newgrp docker   # optional: run docker without sudo

4. Get the code + set secrets

git clone https://github.com/sohaibirfann/Distributed-File-System.git
cd Distributed-File-System/backend

# Secrets — generate strong random values. docker compose reads this .env
# for ${VAR} substitution (it is NOT baked into the image).
cat > .env <<EOF
JWT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
NODE_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
EOF

5. Run it

docker compose up -d --build      # first build compiles better-sqlite3; takes a few min
docker compose logs -f            # watch it boot ("Backend running on port 5000")

SQLite metadata persists in the coordinator-data volume across restarts/redeploys.

6. Verify

curl http://localhost:5000/api/health           # on the VM
curl http://<PUBLIC_IP>:5000/api/health          # from your machine → {"ok":true,...}

7. Point the desktop app at it

In the app: Settings → Connection (or the first-run setup screen) → http://<PUBLIC_IP>:5000. The connection dot in the title bar should go green.

Notes

  • HTTP only for now (raw IP, no cert). Fine for the API + Socket.io. For HTTPS later: point a domain at the IP and front it with Caddy (auto Let's Encrypt) or Nginx, then use https://your.domain.
  • Updating: git pull && docker compose up -d --build.
  • The NODE_SECRET here must match what each member's app/node uses to register (read from backend/.env in dev; configured per-install otherwise).