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---
title: Operations handbook
---
## Understanding app and server configuration
Co-op Cloud stores per-app configuration in the `$USER/.abra/servers` directory, on whichever machine you're running `abra` on (by default, your own workstation).
The format of these configuration files is the same environment variable syntax used by Docker (with the `env_file:` statement in a `docker-compose.yml` file, or the `--env-file` option to `docker run`) and `direnv`:
```
abra app example_wordpress config
TYPE=wordpress
DOMAIN=wordpress.example.com
## Domain aliases
EXTRA_DOMAINS=', `www.wordpress.example.com`'
LETS_ENCRYPT_ENV=production
...
```
`abra` doesn't mind if `~/.abra/servers`, or any of its subdirectories, is a [symlink], so you can keep your app definitions wherever you like!
```
mv ~/.abra/servers/ ~/coop-cloud
ln -s ~/coop-cloud ~/.abra/servers
```
### Backing up your app configuration
Just make sure the `~/.abra/servers` is included in the configuration of your favourite backup tool.
You can optionally also backup `~/.abra/apps`, if you'd like to keep an exact copy of the application versions you currently have deployed. Otherwise, they'll be automatically downloaded the first time you run an `abra app...` command.
You don't need to worry about `~/.abra/vendor` or `~/.abra/src` directories, which will be likewise recreated automatically as and when you need them.
<a id="version-control"></a>
### Version-control your app configs (using git)
Because `~/.abra/servers` is a collection of plain-text files, it's easy to keep your backup configuration in a version control system (we use `git`, others would almost certainly work).
This is particularly recommended if you're collaborating with others, so that you can all run `abra app...` commands without having to maintain your own separate, probably-conflicting, configuration files.
In the simple case where you only have one server configured with `abra`, or everyone in your team is using the same set of servers, you can version-control the whole `~/.abra/servers` directory:
```
cd ~/.abra/servers
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial import"
```
!!! warning "Test your revision-control self-discipline"
`abra` does not yet help keep your app definitions are up-to-date.
Make sure to run `git add` / `git commit` after making configuration changes, and `cd ~/.abra/servers && git pull` before running `abra app...` commands.
Patches to add some safety checks and auto-updates would be very welcome! 🙏
### Collaborating with multiple teams
In a more complex situation, where you're using Co-op Cloud to manage several servers, and you're collaborating with different people on different servers, you can set up **a separate repository for each subdirectory in `~/.abra/servers`**, or even a mixture of single-server and multi-server repositories:
```
ls -l ~/.abra/servers
# Example.com's own app configuration:
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 user user 49 Oct 30 22:42 swarm.example.com -> /home/user/Example/coop-cloud-apps/swarm.example.com
# Configuration for one of Example.com's clients – part of the same repository:
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 user user 49 Oct 30 22:42 swarm.client.com -> /home/user/Example/coop-cloud-apps/swarm.client.com
# A completely separate project, part of a different repository:
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 user user 49 Oct 30 22:42 swarm.demonstration.com -> /home/user/Demonstration/coop-cloud-apps
```
To make setting up these symlinks easier, you might want to include a simple installer script in your configuration repositories.
We don't have a public example of this yet, but something like this should do the trick:
1. Save this as `Makefile` in your repository:
```
# -s symlink, -f force creation, -F don't create symlink in the target dir
link:
@mkdir -p ~/.abra/servers/
@for SERVER in $$(find -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "[!.]*"); do \
echo ln -sfF "$$(pwd)/$${SERVER#./}" ~/.abra/servers/ ; \
ln -sfF "$$(pwd)/$${SERVER#./}" ~/.abra/servers/ ; \
done
```
This will set up symlinks from each directory in your repository to a correspondingly-named directory in `~/.abra/servers` – if your repository has a `swarm.example.com` directory, it'll be linked as `~/.abra/servers/swarm.example.com`.
2. Tell your collaborators (e.g. in the repository's `README`), to run `make` in their repository check-out.
!!! warning "You're on your own!"
As with the [simple repository set-up above](#version-control), `abra` doesn't yet help you update your version control system when you make changes, nor check version control to make sure you have the latest configuration.
Make sure to `commit` and `push` after you make any configuration changes, and `pull` before running any `abra app...` commands.
### Even more granularity?
The plain-text, file-based configuration format means that you could even keep the configuration for different apps on the same server in different repositories, e.g. having `git.example.com` configuration in a separate repository to `wordpress.example.com`, using per-file symlinks.
We don't currently recommend this, because it might set inaccurate expectations about the security model – remember that, by default, **any user who can deploy apps to a Docker Swarm can manage _any_ app in that swarm**.
[symlink]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symlink
## Running abra server side
If you're on an environment where it's hard to run Docker, or command-line programs in general, you might want to install `abra` on a server instead of your local computer.
To install `abra` on a different server than you'll be hosting your apps, just follow [getting started guide](/overview/) as normal.
If you want to install `abra` on the same server, there's one change.
Instead of providing your SSH connection details when you run `abra server add ...`, just use `default`:
```
abra server add default
```
!!! note "Technical details"
This will tell `abra` to look at the Docker system running on the server, instead of a remote one.
Make sure to back up your `~/abra/` directory on the server, or put it in version control, as well as other files you'd like to.
## Managing secret data
Co-op Cloud uses [Docker Secrets] to handle sensitive data, like database passwords and API keys, securely:
```
DOCKER_CONTEXT=swarm.example.com docker secret ls
example_mediawiki_db_password_v1
example_wordpress_db_password_v1
```
`abra` includes several commands to make it easier to manage secrets:
- `abra app <app> secret generate` -- to auto-generate a single secret, or all secrets defined by the app, and store them in the Docker Swarm store,
- `abra app <app> secret insert` -- to insert a single secret value from the Docker Swarm store,
- `abra app <app> secret delete` -- to remove a single secret, or all secrets defined in the app, from the Docker Swarm store.
<a id="versions"></a>
### Secret versions
You will notice `v1` in the example secret names above: like Docker Configs, Docker Secrets are [immutable], which means that their values can't be changed after they're set. To accommodate this, Co-op Cloud uses the established convention of "secret versions". Every time you change (rotate) a secret, you will insert it as a new version.
Because secret versions are managed per-instance by the people deploying their apps, secret versions are stored in the `.env` file for each app:
```
find -L ~/.abra/servers/ -name '*.env' -print0 | xargs -0 grep -h SECRET
OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET_VERSION=v1
RPC_SECRET_VERSION=v1
CLIENT_SECRET_VERSION=v1
...
```
If you try and add a secret version which already exists, Docker will helpfully complain:
```
abra app example_wordpress secret insert db_password v1 foobar
Error response from daemon: rpc error: code = AlreadyExists desc = secret example_wordpress_db_password_v1 already exists
```
By default, new app instances will look for `v1` secrets.
### Generating secrets automatically
You can generate secrets in one of two ways:
1. While running `abra app new <type>`, by passing `--secrets`
2. At any point once an app instance is defined, by running `abra app <app> secret generate ...` (see `abra help secret generate` for full options)
!!! note "How are secrets generated?"
Depending on how the app is configured, you will require the `pwqgen` (from `passwdqc`) and `pwgen` binaries by default, although you can specify your own password-generation app when running `abra <app> secret generate` by providing the `<cmd>` argument.
### Inserting secrets manually
For third-party API tokens, like OAuth client secrets, or keys for services like Mailgun, you will be storing values you already have as the appropriately-named Docker secrets. `abra` provides a convenient interface to the underlying `docker secret create` command:
```
abra app example_wordpress secret insert db_password v2 "your-secret-here"
```
### Rotating a secret
So, given how [secret versions](#versions) work, here's how you change a secret:
1. Find out the current version number of the secret, e.g. by running `abra app example_wordpress config`, and choose a new one. Let's assume it's currently `v1`, so by convention the new secret will be `v2`.
2. Generate or insert the new secret:
```
abra app example_wordpress secret generate db_password v2
```
or
```
abra app example_wordpress secret insert db_password v2 "foobar"
```
3. Edit the app configuration to change which secret version the app will use:
```
abra app example_wordpress config
```
4. Re-reploy the app with the new secret version:
```
abra app example_wordpress deploy
```
### Storing secrets in `pass`
The Co-op Cloud authors use the [UNIX `pass` tool][pass] to share sensitive data, including Co-op Cloud secrets, and `abra <app> secret...` commands include a `--pass` option to automatically manage generated / inserted secrets:
```
# Store generated secrets in `pass`:
abra app new wordpress --secrets --pass
abra app example_wordpress secret generate --all --pass
# Store inserted secret in `pass`:
abra app example_wordpress secret insert db_password v2 --pass
# Remove secrets from Docker, and `pass`:
abra app example_wordpress secret rm --all --pass
```
This functionality currently relies on our specific `pass` structure; patches to make that configurable are very welcome!
## Networking
!!! note "So dark the con of Docker Networking"
Our understanding of Docker networking is probably wrong. We're working on it. Plz send halp :pray:
### Traefik networking
[Traefik](https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/) is our core web proxy, all traffic on a Co-op Cloud deployment goes through a running Traefik container. When setting up a new Co-op Cloud delpyment, `abra` creates a "global" [overlay network](https://docs.docker.com/network/overlay/) which traefik is hooked up to. This is the network that other apps use to speak to traefik and get traffic routed to them. Not every service in every app is also included in this network and hence not internet-facing (by convention, we name this network `internal`, see more below).
### App networking
By convention, the main `app` service is wired up to the "global" traefik overlay network. This container is the one that should be publicy reachable on the internet. The other services in the app such as the database and caches should be not be publicly reachable or visible to other apps on the same instance.
To deal with this, we make an additional "internal" network for each app which is namespaced to that app. So, if you deploy a Wordpress instance called `my_wordpress_blog` then there will be a network called `my_wordpress_blog_internal` created. This allows all the services in an app to speak to each other but not be reachable on the public internet.
### Avoiding service namespace conflicts
When referencing an `app` service in a config file, you should prefix with the `STACK_NAME` to avoid namespace conflicts (because all these containers sit on the traefik overlay network). You might want to do something like this `{{ env "STACK_NAME" }}_app` (using the often obscure dark magic of the Golang templating language). You can find examples of this approach used in the [Peertube recipe](https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/peertube/src/commit/d1b297c5a6a23a06bf97bb954104ddfd7f736568/nginx.conf.tmpl#L9).

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---
title: TODO
title: Operators Guide
---
TODO.

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---
title: Troubleshooting
---
## Configuring SSH
## CLI flag handling

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---
title: New operators tutorial
---
## The moving parts
Co-op Cloud is made up of a few simple, composable pieces. The system does not rely on any one specific implementation: each part may be replaced and/or extended as needed.
We want to build a reliable and long-term sustainable project and that means allowing for different implementations, open formats and a diverse project organisation.
Here are the main technical concepts listed below, once you [grok](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok) this, you grok the moving parts of the project.
### Libre software apps
Libre software apps are tools, websites & clients that you may already use in your daily life: [Nextcloud], [Jitsi], [Mediawiki], [Rocket.chat] and [many more]! These are tools that are created by volunteer communities who use [free software licenses] in order to build up the public software commons and offer more digital alternatives to [proprietary systems].
The communities who develop these softwares also publish them using [containers]. For example, here is the [Nextcloud hub.docker.com account] which allows end-users to quickly deploy a new Nextcloud instance. There is a growing consensus in the free software community that containers are a useful and time saving format for distribution.
Learn more about why we use containers [in the FAQ section](/faq/#why-containers).
[nextcloud]: https://nextcloud.com
[jitsi]: https://jitsi.org
[mediawiki]: https://mediawiki.org
[rocket.chat]: https://rocket.chat
[many more]: /recipes/
[free software licenses]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
[nextcloud hub.docker.com account]: https://hub.docker.com/_/nextcloud
[proprietary systems]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software
[containers]: https://www.docker.com/resources/what-container
### The recipe packaging format
However, just having a container of an app is often not enough. The work required to deploy that app in a "production ready" setup is still too time intensive and often involves a duplication of effort. Each service provider needs to deal with the same problems: stable versioning, backup plan, secret management, upgrade plan, monitoring and the list goes on.
Individual free software projects can't take on all this responsibility. They provide the containers as is, in a secure and ready-to-go manner but it is up to service providers to worry about how the app is deployed.
Therefore, Co-op Cloud proposes a packaging format, which we refer to as a recipe, that describes the entire production state of the app in a single place. This format uses the existing [standards based compose specification].
This is a file format which is most commonly used by the [Docker compose] tool but Co-op Cloud **does not** require the use of Docker compose itself. Furthermore, as described below, we also don't rely on the actual Docker CLI itself either. We do however use a lot of the underlying libraries. We're happily `docker` & `docker-compose` CLI independent! Learn more about why we use the compose specification [in the FAQ section](/faq/#why-use-the-compose-specification).
[Each recipe] that Co-op cloud provides is described using the compose specification and makes use of the upstream project published container. This is the core of our approach to working with the ecosystem of free software communities. We want to maximise the chances of sharing work, knowledge and build solidarity through concrete co-operation.
[standards based compose specification]: https://compose-spec.io
[docker compose]: https://docs.docker.com/compose/
[each recipe]: /recipes/
### Container orchestrator
Once we have our app packaged as a recipe, we need a deployment environment. Production deployments are typically expected to support a number of features which give hosters and end-users guarantees for uptime, stability and scale.
The Co-op cloud makes use of [Docker swarm] as a deployment environment. It offers an approriate feature set which allows us to support zero-down time upgrades, seamless app rollbacks, automatic deploy failure handling, scaling, hybrid cloud setups and maintain a decentralised design.
Learn more about why we use Docker swarm [in the FAQ section](/faq/#why-docker-swarm).
[docker swarm]: https://docs.docker.com/engine/swarm/
### Command-line tool
Finally, with an app and deployment environment, we need a tool to read the recipe package format and actually deploy it to that environment. For this, we have developed and published the [abra] command-line tool.
`abra` aims at providing a simple command-line interface for managing your own Co-op Cloud. You can bootstrap machines with the required tools, create new apps, deploy them, back them up, restore them and so on. `abra` is written in [Go](https://go.dev/) and uses a lot of the libraries that the `docker` and `docker-compose` CLIs use but does not rely on them directly.
`abra` is our flagship command-line client but it does not need to be the only client. `abra` was designed in such a way that is complements a workflow which can still be done completely manually. If Co-op Cloud goes away tomorrow, our configuration commons would still be useful and usable.
[abra]: https://git.autonomic.zone/coop-cloud/abra
## Deploy your first app
In order to deploy an app you need two things:
1. a server (e.g. [Hetzner VPS](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud)), with 1. SSH access and 2. a public IP address
2. a DNS provider (e.g. [Gandi](https://www.gandi.net/en))
### Create a server
Co-op Cloud has itself near zero system requirements. You only need to worry about the system resource usage of your apps and the overhead of running containers with the docker runtime (often negligible. If you want to know more, see [this FAQ entry](/faq/#isnt-running-everything-in-containers-inefficient)).
We will deploy a new Nextcloud instance in this guide, so you will only need 1GB of RAM according to [their documentation](https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/installation/system_requirements.html). You may also be interested in this [FAQ entry](/faq/#arent-containers-horrible-from-a-security-perspective) if you are curious about security in the context of containers.
### Wire up DNS
Typically, you'll need two A records, one to point to the VPS itself and another to support sub-domains for the apps. You can then support an app hosted on your root domain (e.g. `example.com`) and other apps on sub-domains (e.g. `foo.example.com`, `bar.example.com`). At time of writing, it is not possible to support multiple apps sharing the same domain.
Your entries in your DNS provider setup might look like the following.
@ 1800 IN A 116.203.211.204
*. 1800 IN A 116.203.211.204
Where `116.203.211.204` can be replaced with the IP address of your server.
### Bootstrap `abra`
You have two options for setting up your command-line client. You can install `abra` on your local development machine or remotely on the actual server. Please see
Once your DNS and Docker daemon are up, you can install [`abra`](https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/abra) locally on your developer machine and hook it up to your server.
Firstly, install `abra` locally.
```bash
curl https://install.abra.autonomic.zone | bash
```
The source for this script [is here](https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/abra/src/branch/main/scripts/installer/installer).
the installer will verify the checksum. If you want to download abra yourself, you can grab it from the [releases page](https://git.coopcloud.tech/coop-cloud/abra/releases) along with the checksums.txt file. If you decide to do this, please run:
```bash
grep $(sha256sum abra_[version]_[platform]) checksums.txt > /dev/null && echo "checksum OK"
```
if "checksum OK" appears in your terminal - you're good to go! otherwise, you have downloaded a corrupted file.
You may need to add the `~/.local/bin/` directory with your `$PATH` in order to run the executable.
```bash
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin
abra -h # check it works
```
Now you can connect `abra` with your new server.
```bash
abra server add example.com
```
Where `example.com` is replaced with your server DNS name.
!!! note "About SSH"
`abra` uses Docker's built-in SSH support to make a secure connection to a
remote Docker daemon, to deploy and manage apps from your local development
machine.
If you need to specify a non-standard port, and/or different username, for SSH,
add them as extra arguments:
```bash
abra server add -p example.com username 2222
```
The `-p` or `--provision` flag means that abra will initialise the [new single-host swarm](https://docs.docker.com/engine/swarm/key-concepts/) on your server.
You will now have a new `~/.abra/` folder on your local file system which stores all the configuration of your Co-op Cloud instance. You can easily share this as a git repository with others.
### Deploy Traefik
In order to have your Co-op cloud installation automagically provision SSL certificates, we will first install [Traefik](https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/). This tool is the main entrypoint for all web requests (e.g. like NGINX) and supports automatic SSL certificate configuration and other quality-of-life features which make deploying libre apps more enjoyable.
```bash
abra app new traefik
```
You will want to take a look at your generated configuration and tweak the `LETS_ENCRYPT_EMAIL` value:
```bash
abra app config traefik
```
Every app you deploy will have one of these `.env` files, which contains variables which will be injected into app configurations when deployed. Variables starting with `#` are optional, others are required.
```
abra app deploy traefik
```
### Deploy Nextcloud
And now we can deploy apps.
Let's create a new Nextcloud app.
```bash
abra app new nextcloud
```
And we need to generate secrets for the app: database connection password, root password and admin password.
```bash
abra app secret generate --all nextcloud
```
!!! warning
Take care, these secrets are only shown once on the terminal so make sure
to take note of them! `abra` makes use of the [Docker secrets](/secrets/)
mechanism to ship these secrets securely to the server and store them as
encrypted data.
Then we can deploy the Nextcloud.
```bash
abra app deploy nextcloud
```
We can watch to see that things come up correctly.
```bash
abra app ps nextcloud # status check
abra app logs nextcloud # logs watch
```
!!! note
Since Nextcloud takes some time to come up live, you can run the `ps`
command under `watch` like so.
```bash
watch abra app ps nextcloud
```
And you can wait until you see that all containers have the "Running" state.
Your `traefik` instance will detect that a new app is coming up and generate SSL certificates for it.