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vorotamoroz e17979e457 Correct setup and server operation guidance

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Setup CouchDB on fly.io

This is how to configure fly.io and CouchDB on it for Self-hosted LiveSync.

Warning

It is your instance. In Obsidian, we have files locally. Hence, do not hesitate to destroy the remote database if you feel something have got weird. We can launch and switch to the new CouchDB instance anytime¹.

Note

What and why is the Fly.io?
At some point, we started to experience problems related to our IBM Cloudant account. At the same time, Self-hosted LiveSync started to improve its functionality, requiring CouchDB in a more natural state to use all its features.

Fly.io charges according to current account and resource usage, including Machines, persistent volumes, and network usage. Check Fly.io pricing and the pricing documentation before deploying. A time-limited trial does not provide ongoing free hosting.

Required materials

A valid credit or debit card.

Setup CouchDB instance

A. Very automated setup

Open setup-flyio-on-the-fly-v2.ipynb.
Press the Open in Colab button.
Choose a region and run all blocks (Refer to video).
1. If you do not have the account yet, the sign-up page will be shown, please follow the instructions. The Official document is here.
Copy the Setup-URI and Use it in the Obsidian.
You have been synchronised. Use the Setup-URI in subsequent devices.

For steps 4 and 5, see Set up the first device, then Add another device for subsequent devices.

Note

Save your own generated connection details and Setup URI securely. This is a historical Colab output example from 2024; its values are illustrative and will differ for each deployment. Replace all example credentials before deployment.
-- YOUR CONFIGURATION --
URL     : https://billowing-dawn-6619.fly.dev
username: billowing-cherry-22580
password: misty-dew-13571
region  : nrt

B. Scripted Setup

Please refer to the document of deploy-server.sh.

C. Manual Setup

Used in the text	Meaning and where to use	Memo
`<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB USERNAME>`	Username	Choose a unique value using only letters and numbers.
`<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB PASSWORD>`	Password	Generate a strong, unique password for this instance.
nrt	Region to make the instance	We can use any region near us.

Choose an available, unique Fly.io application name and replace both credential placeholders before deployment. Historical output below illustrates the command responses; use your own application name, hostname, and credentials.

1. Install flyctl

Mac or Linux

$ curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

Windows

$ iwr https://fly.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex

$ fly auth signup

$ fly auth login

For more information, please refer to Sign up and Sign in.

3. Make a configuration file

Make fly.toml from template fly.template.toml.
We can simply copy and rename the file. The template is on utils/flyio/fly.template.toml
Decide the instance name, initialize the App, and set credentials.

Tip

The name billowing-dawn-6619 is randomly decided name, and it will be a part of the CouchDB URL. It should be globally unique. Therefore, it is recommended to use something random for this name.

Explicit naming is very good for humans. However, we do not often get the chance to actually enter this manually (have designed so). This database may contain important information for you. The needle should be hidden in the haystack.

$ fly launch --name='<YOUR UNIQUE APP NAME>' --env="COUCHDB_USER=<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB USERNAME>" --copy-config=true --detach --no-deploy --region nrt --yes
$ fly secrets set COUCHDB_PASSWORD='<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB PASSWORD>'

4. Deploy

$ flyctl deploy 
An existing fly.toml file was found
Using build strategies '[the "couchdb:latest" docker image]'. Remove [build] from fly.toml to force a rescan
Creating app in /home/vorotamoroz/dev/obsidian-livesync/utils/flyio
We're about to launch your app on Fly.io. Here's what you're getting:

Organization: vorotamoroz              (fly launch defaults to the personal org)
Name:         billowing-dawn-6619     (specified on the command line)
Region:       Tokyo, Japan             (specified on the command line)
App Machines: shared-cpu-1x, 256MB RAM (specified on the command line)
Postgres:     <none>                   (not requested)
Redis:        <none>                   (not requested)

Created app 'billowing-dawn-6619' in organization 'personal'
Admin URL: https://fly.io/apps/billowing-dawn-6619
Hostname: billowing-dawn-6619.fly.dev
Wrote config file fly.toml
Validating /home/vorotamoroz/dev/obsidian-livesync/utils/flyio/fly.toml
Platform: machines
✓ Configuration is valid
Your app is ready! Deploy with `flyctl deploy`
Secrets are staged for the first deployment
==> Verifying app config
Validating /home/vorotamoroz/dev/obsidian-livesync/utils/flyio/fly.toml
Platform: machines
✓ Configuration is valid
--> Verified app config
==> Building image
Searching for image 'couchdb:latest' remotely...
image found: img_ox20prk63084j1zq

Watch your deployment at https://fly.io/apps/billowing-dawn-6619/monitoring

Provisioning ips for billowing-dawn-6619
  Dedicated ipv6: 2a09:8280:1::37:fde9
  Shared ipv4: 66.241.124.163
  Add a dedicated ipv4 with: fly ips allocate-v4

Creating a 1 GB volume named 'couchdata' for process group 'app'. Use 'fly vol extend' to increase its size
This deployment will:
 * create 1 "app" machine

No machines in group app, launching a new machine

WARNING The app is not listening on the expected address and will not be reachable by fly-proxy.
You can fix this by configuring your app to listen on the following addresses:
  - 0.0.0.0:5984
Found these processes inside the machine with open listening sockets:
  PROCESS        | ADDRESSES                             
-----------------*---------------------------------------
  /.fly/hallpass | [fdaa:0:73b9:a7b:22e:3851:7f28:2]:22  

Finished launching new machines

NOTE: The machines for [app] have services with 'auto_stop_machines = true' that will be stopped when idling

-------
Checking DNS configuration for billowing-dawn-6619.fly.dev

Visit your newly deployed app at https://billowing-dawn-6619.fly.dev/

5. Apply CouchDB configuration

After the initial setup, CouchDB needs some more customisations to be used from Self-hosted LiveSync. It can be configured in browsers or by HTTP-REST APIs.

This section is set up using the REST API.

Prepare environment variables.

Mac or Linux:

export couchHost='https://<YOUR APP HOSTNAME>'
export couchUser='<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB USERNAME>'
export couchPwd='<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB PASSWORD>'

Windows

set couchHost 'https://<YOUR APP HOSTNAME>'
set couchUser '<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB USERNAME>'
set couchPwd '<YOUR UNIQUE COUCHDB PASSWORD>'
$creds = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes("${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"))

Perform cluster setup

Mac or Linux

curl -X POST "${couchHost}/_cluster_setup" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"action\":\"enable_single_node\",\"username\":\"${couchUser}\",\"password\":\"${couchPwd}\",\"bind_address\":\"0.0.0.0\",\"port\":5984,\"singlenode\":true}"  --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"

Windows

iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'POST' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds } "${couchHost}/_cluster_setup" -Body "{""action"":""enable_single_node"",""username"":""${couchUser}"",""password"":""${couchPwd}"",""bind_address"":""0.0.0.0"",""port"":5984,""singlenode"":true}"

Note: if the response code is not 200. We have to retry the request once again. If you run the request several times and it does not result in 200, something is wrong. Please report it.

Configure parameters

Mac or Linux

curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd/require_valid_user" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"true"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd_auth/require_valid_user" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"true"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/httpd/WWW-Authenticate" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"Basic realm=\"couchdb\""' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/httpd/enable_cors" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"true"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd/enable_cors" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"true"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd/max_http_request_size" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"4294967296"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/couchdb/max_document_size" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"50000000"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/cors/credentials" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"true"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"
curl -X PUT "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/cors/origins" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '"app://obsidian.md,capacitor://localhost,http://localhost"' --user "${couchUser}:${couchPwd}"

Windows

iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd/require_valid_user" -Body  '"true"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd_auth/require_valid_user" -Body  '"true"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/httpd/WWW-Authenticate" -Body  '"Basic realm=\"couchdb\""'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/httpd/enable_cors" -Body  '"true"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd/enable_cors" -Body  '"true"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/chttpd/max_http_request_size" -Body  '"4294967296"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/couchdb/max_document_size" -Body  '"50000000"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/cors/credentials" -Body  '"true"'
iwr -UseBasicParsing -Method 'PUT' -ContentType 'application/json; charset=utf-8' -Headers @{ 'Authorization' = 'Basic ' + $creds }  "${couchHost}/_node/nonode@nohost/_config/cors/origins" -Body  '"app://obsidian.md,capacitor://localhost,http://localhost"'

Note: Each of these should also be repeated until finished in 200.

6. Use it from Self-hosted LiveSync

Now the CouchDB is ready to use from Self-hosted LiveSync. Use your Fly.io app's hostname in URI, and the unique credentials configured above in Username and Password. The Database name could be anything you want. Please refer to Configure CouchDB manually on the first device.

Delete the Instance

If you want to delete the CouchDB instance, you can do that in fly.io Dashboard

If you have done with B. Scripted Setup, we can use delete-server.sh.

Actually, I am always building the database for reproduction of the issue like so. ↩︎

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