Ruby on Rails with Sia and Auth0

Repository: ovrclk/akash-on-rails
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 set up 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
    and db
    .
  • 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 it as a base for a new project

• Clone the repository to your own Github account.
• Rename any occurrence 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.