I've been running a Pharo application since August last year, initially setup with everything inside a Docker swarm (database, reverse proxy and Pharo workers for the UI and REST API).
I wanted to give Docker a try because I thought it was going to be "better". After having some issues with the Swarm networking affecting PostgreSQL connections [1], I ended up having a hybrid that is not the best of both worlds (I wouldn't say it's the worst either). So my summary is that unless you have several host machines, having a "swarm" is completely overkill and brings more friction than anything else. The plus of docker is that from Gitlab everytime I push a commit to master, a new docker image is created and I can update things smoothly on the server by pulling the image and upgrading the stack service. "Whenever I have time" I plan to make the reverse proxy external to docker (I currently use traefik as a container), and just keep the database and Pharo workers as docker containers. As for the stability, I only shut it down for upgrades, but in February I tried with a single VM+image serving everything (just to measure real use) and albeit it was a little slower, it handled everything perfectly [2] without a single hiccup. Regards, [1] https://twitter.com/emaringolo/status/1296635983358763010 [2] https://twitter.com/emaringolo/status/1360247046553362432 Esteban A. Maringolo On Fri, Apr 2, 2021 at 6:33 AM Tim Mackinnon <tim@testit.works> wrote: > > Thanks Sanjay - you have reminded me that I have some similar notes somewhere > (now located) that did the command line foo to get things running - looking > at mine there was quite a big of dance to provide a way to gracefully stop > and start the image so that you can easily and automatically redeploy your > changes (read: use Github actions or Gitlab CI). > > So I’m curious on whether Docker is now sufficiently stable stable/easy/cheap > to make it a viable alternative - and whether that is also cost efficient. > > Pablo wrote a recent blog post on running Pharo in Docker using the BA images > - https://thepharo.dev/2021/02/24/running-pharo-9-in-docker/ - but while easy > on the surface, if anything goes wrong - there seems to be very little debug > output to know what has happened (I’ll post separately on this - as I’m > looking at comparing options here). > > With Docker options, I notice that dockerize.io (not used, just a quick > search) - has a micro plan for $2/m - but is 500mb ram enough (there is a $5 > one for 1gm ram). > > Or - I stick with DigitalOcean and roll my own like before - and perhaps that > has got a bit simpler. > > I’m still curious what the wider community is doing. > > > Tim > > On 2 Apr 2021, at 05:43, Sanjay Minni <s...@planage.com> wrote: > > Hi Tim > > Here are my notes on installing Pharo in a DigitalOcean Ubuntu droplet. > I usually go thru a Windows Command prompt box having installed xfec4 in the > ubuntu droplet, but the command line connect and graphical remote may be > easier for a Linux users. my ssh public key is also in the DO droplet > Now the first step for me is a installing Pharo launcher thru command line > and then everything is thru graphical interface > > Installing and checking Pharo-Launcher, Installing Pharo 8 64 bit from > pharo.org (instructions as on Pharo.org) > 1. In Windows 10 command prompt connect thru > ssh root@<Droplet-ip> > 2. cd > 3. curl -o pharo-launcher.zip -L > https://files.pharo.org/pharo-launcher/linux64 > 4. unzip pharo-launcher.zip > or thru the GUI-> extract here > (pharo-launcher files will be extracted in ./pharo-launcher) > Now while connected to the linux graphical interface thru windows remote > terminal and in the GUI > 5. Create a icon on desktop thru right-click “Create Launcher” for > pharo-launcher > 6. Create pharo images thru pharo-launcher > > hope this is of use > > Sanjay Minni > > On Thu, 1 Apr 2021 at 16:31, Tim Mackinnon <tim@testit.works> wrote: >> >> Hi everyone - its been a few year since I last hosted a little Pharo web app >> - and the last time I did, Sven pointed me to DigitalOcean and creating a >> tiny instance and configuring an Ubuntu server and then copying a pharo >> image on to that. It recall it wasn’t too bad, albeit a bit fiddly… >> >> Now several years later - I can’t recall the exact steps, and vaguely recall >> there was something about 32bit vs 64bit setup etc - but am wondering if >> things have advanced a bit and whether its much simpler these days? I’ve >> seen references to Docker images for Pharo, and am wondering if now that is >> a prime time way to easily get a small demo application up and running with >> minimal fuss. >> >> Does anyone have advice - or something to point me to? >> >> Ideally I want to hook something up in Gitlab CI do deploy to this thing >> automatically (this is where I got to a few years ago - but in picking >> things back up I am hoping this has all got much simpler). >> >> Tim > >
