teamplify 0.9.0

Teamplify on-premise runner

Teamplify runner

Teamplify is a personal assistant for your development team. It helps you track work progress and notify your team about situations that may require their attention. It is available in the cloud or as an on-premise installation.

This package is the installer and runner for the on-premise version.

• System requirements
  • On Ubuntu, be sure to install pip3
  • Hardware
• Installing
  • Installing on Linux
  • Installing on Mac OS X
• Configuration
  • Where are configuration files located?
  • A reference of all configuration options
• Starting and stopping the service
• What to do after the first run?
  • Creating an admin account
• Updating Teamplify
• Backup and restore
• A Sample maintenance script
• Uninstall
• Troubleshooting
  • Teamplify won't start
  • Email delivery issues
  • The connection is refused or not trusted in SSL-enabled mode
  • Other
• License

System requirements

Teamplify is designed to run on Linux. For demonstration purposes, it should also deploy on Mac OS X. Windows is not supported.

Before you install, make sure that your system has the following components:

• Docker version 1.13 and above;
• Docker Compose V2;
• Python 3.6 and above;
• pip for Python 3

To check that the required versions are installed, run these commands (shown with example output):

$ docker -v
Docker version 18.06.1-ce, build e68fc7a215d7133c34aa18e3b72b4a21fd0c6136
$ python3 --version
Python 3.7.2
$ pip3 --version
pip 9.0.3 from /usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages (python 3.7)

On Ubuntu, be sure to install pip3

On most systems, Python 3 comes with pip3 pre-installed. However, in Ubuntu Python 3 and pip3 are installed separately. To install pip3 run:

$ sudo apt install python3-pip

Important: after installing, exit the terminal and re-open it. This forces the terminal to update its path configuration, so that you can find the command line tools installed with pip3 in your $PATH.

Hardware

As a default server configuration, we recommend 4GB of RAM, 2 CPU cores, and 30 GB of disk space (SSD is strongly recommended). For most small-to-medium organizations (up to a few dozen people), this should be enough. Larger workloads, however, may need more resources. The recommended strategy is to start with the default server configuration and scale up or down depending on the workload.

Installing

Installing on Linux

After installing Docker, check Docker's post-installation steps for Linux. You probably want to make sure that you can run Docker commands without sudo, and that Docker is configured to start on boot.

Install the latest version of Teamplify runner with pip:

$ pip3 install -U teamplify

Installing on Mac OS X

On Mac OS X, we recommend installing Teamplify in a Python virtual environment located in your home directory. This is because Teamplify needs to mount its configuration files into Docker containers. By default on Mac OS X, only the /Users folder is shared with Docker.

1. Create a new Python virtual environment for Teamplify in your home directory:

$ python3 -m venv ~/.venv/teamplify

2. Activate it:

$ source ~/.venv/teamplify/bin/activate

3. At this point, a pip command is linked to the virtual environment that you just created. Install Teamplify runner with pip:

$ pip install teamplify

Configuration

Teamplify requires a configuration file to run.

1. Run the following command to create the initial file:

$ teamplify configure

This creates a configuration file with default settings in your home directory: ~/.teamplify.ini. You can specify the location of your file with the --config option.

2. Use your text editor to adjust the contents of this file. You need to specify the following parameters:

• product_key in the [main] section
• host and port in the [web] section

Other parameters are optional and can keep their default values. You can review them at the reference of all configuration options

Where are configuration files located?

When you run teamplify configure, it creates a configuration file. Typically, this file is at ~/.teamplify.ini.

However, that is not the only possible location. Teamplify searches the following locations (listed from highest priority to lowest priority):

1. First, it checks the location specified in the --config parameter in the command line. Example:

   $ teamplify --config /path/to/configuration/file start
   

2. An environment variable named TEAMPLIFY_CONF. Example:

   $ TEAMPLIFY_CONF=/path/to/configuration/file teamplify start
   

3. In the home directory of the current user: ~/.teamplify.ini;

4. At /etc/teamplify/teamplify.ini.

A reference of all configuration options

[main]

• product_key - the product key of your installation. This is required. To get the product key, please email us at [e-mail];

• update_channel - the application distribution channel to use. The recommended setting is stable. With the stable channel, you should expect a few updates per month. Please note that Teamplify doesn't update itself automatically unless you've explicitly configured it to do so. See the Updates and Maintenance script sections below;

• send_crash_reports - possible values are yes and no, defaults to yes. When set to yes, the system automatically sends application crash reports to our team. We recommend keeping this option enabled as it helps us to detect bugs faster and ship fixes for them more quickly;

[web]

⚠️ Please note that the built-in SSL option with certificates from Let's Encrypt requires standard ports for HTTP and HTTPS: port = 80 and ssl_port = 443. This requirement comes from the Let's Encrypt HTTP-01 challenge, which does not support custom ports. However, you can still use custom HTTP and HTTPS ports if you provide your own SSL certificates or use an external proxy with use_ssl = external.

• host - domain name on which the Teamplify web interface will be running. It must be created in advance, and pointed to the server where you have installed Teamplify;
• port - the port on which Teamplify web interface will be running, the default is 80. If use_ssl is set to builtin and no SSL certificates path is specified then 80 is the only allowed option;
• use_ssl - SSL mode. Possible values are no, builtin, and external, defaults to no. When set to builtin, Teamplify will serve HTTPS requests on the port specified in the ssl_port option below. All HTTP traffic will be redirected to this port. If you're hosting Teamplify behind a proxy or load balancer that is already configured for SSL support, please set this parameter to external, and also make sure that your proxy correctly sets X-Forwarded-Proto HTTP header. In this case, Teamplify will handle HTTP requests on the port number specified in the port option and redirect insecure requests to https://<host>:<ssl_port>.
• ssl_port - the port on which Teamplify web interface will be running when SSL is enabled, the default is 443. If use_ssl is set to builtin and no SSL certificates path is specified, then 443 is the only allowed option;
• ssl_certs (optional) - a path to a directory which contains SSL certificates. The directory must contain certificate (.crt) and key (.key) files for the domain specified in the host option above. The filenames must be equal the domain name. For example, if the domain is example.com, the filenames must be example.com.crt and example.com.key. If no path is specified, Teamplify runner will use Let's Encrypt to generate and renew SSL certificates for the domain that you specified in the host parameter above.

[runner]

[db]

• host - defaults to builtin_db, that is, using the DB instance that is shipped with Teamplify. You can also switch to an external MySQL 5.7 compatible database by providing its hostname instead of builtin_db and specifying other DB connection parameters below;
• name - the database name to use. Must be teamplify if builtin_db is used;
• port - the database port. Must be 3306 for builtin_db;
• user - DB user. Must be root for builtin_db;
• password - DB password. Must be teamplify for builtin_db;
• backup_mount - a path to a directory on the server which will be mounted into the built-in DB instance container. It is used as a temporary directory in the process of making and restoring backups;

[email]

• address_from - email address used by Teamplify in the FROM field of its email messages. It could be either a plain email address or an email address with a display name, like this: Teamplify <[e-mail]>;
• smtp_host - hostname of an SMTP server used to send emails. Defaults to builtin_smtp which means using the SMTP server that is shipped with Teamplify. Built-in SMTP for Teamplify is based on Postfix, and it is production-ready. However, if you plan to use it, we strongly recommend that you add the address of Teamplify's server to the SPF record of the domain used in the address_from setting to prevent Teamplify emails from being marked as spam. Or, you can configure Teamplify to use an external SMTP server by providing its hostname instead of builtin_smtp and configuring other SMTP connection settings below;
• smtp_protocol - SMTP protocol to use. Can be plain, ssl, or tls. Must be plain if you use builtin_smtp;
• smtp_port - SMTP port to use. Must be 25 for builtin_smtp;
• smtp_user - username for the SMTP server. Must be blank for builtin_smtp;
• smtp_password - password for the SMTP server. Must be blank for builtin_smtp;

[crypto]

• signing_key - the random secret string used by Teamplify for signing cookies and generating CSRF protection tokens. It is automatically generated when you run teamplify configure, and typically you don't need to change it unless you think that it may be compromised. In such cases, replace it with another 50-character random string made of Latin characters and numbers (please note that this will force all existing users to log in to the system again).

[worker]

• slim_count - number of workers doing background tasks, such as sending notifications and emails. The default setting is 1, which is sufficient for most organizations.
• fat_count - the number of workers synchronizing resources, such as repositories, chats, issues, etc. If you have a lot of resources or it takes a long time to sync them, you can increase this parameter. Essentially, it controls how many resources are synchronized in parallel. The default setting is 2.

Starting and stopping the service

After you have created the configuration file, start Teamplify with:

$ teamplify start

On the first run, the application has to download and configure many Docker images. For this reason, the first run might take a while to start.

After the command completes, open Teamplify in your browser using the host and the port that you provided in the [web] section of the configuration. After starting the service, it might take a minute or two before it finally comes online.

If you have problems starting Teamplify, please see the Troubleshooting section below.

If you need to stop Teamplify, run:

$ teamplify stop

After running Teamplify for the first time, follow the instructions to create an admin account

There's also a convenient command to stop the service and start it again. This is useful when applying changes made to the configuration:

$ teamplify restart

What to do after the first run?

After the first run, you need to create an admin account.

Creating an admin account

After the application first starts, run the following command:

$ teamplify createadmin --email <admin@email> --full-name <Full Name>

Please check the output to make sure that no errors occurred.

With the createadmin command, you can create as many admin account as you want. However, after creating the first one, it might be more convenient to create the others through the Teamplify UI.

Updating Teamplify

Teamplify installation consists of the Teamplify runner and the Teamplify product itself, which ships in the form of Docker images. We recommend that you use the most recent version to keep up with the latest features and bugfixes. The update process consists of two steps:

1. Update Teamplify runner:

   $ pip3 install -U teamplify
   

2. Update Teamplify itself:

   $ teamplify update
   

The update command automatically detects if a new version has been downloaded and, if necessary, restarts the service. Because a service restart causes a short downtime, you should ideally update in periods of low user activity. The update command restarts the service only when necessary. If no update has been downloaded, there is no restart and therefore no service interruption.

Backup and restore

Teamplify stores your data in a MySQL database. As with any other database, it might be a good idea to make backups from time to time.

To back up the built-in Teamplify database, run:

$ teamplify backup [optional-backup-file-or-directory]

If launched without parameters, it makes a gzipped backup of the DB and stores it in the current working directory, under a name in the format:

• teamplify_<current-date>.sql.gz,
  • for example, teamplify_2019-01-31_06-58-57.sql.gz.

You may specify the directory or file path where you'd like to save your backup.

To restore the built-in Teamplify database from a gzipped backup, run:

$ teamplify restore <path-to-a-backup-file>

Please note that the commands above work with only a built-in database. If you're running Teamplify with an external database, you need to use tools for backups or restores that connect to that database directly.

A Sample maintenance script

Backing up the data and keeping the software up-to-date are routine operations. We recommend automating these processes. Below is a sample script you can use to do so.

1. Create a file named teamplify-maintenance.sh with the following contents:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Backups directory:
BACKUP_LOCATION=/backups/teamplify/

# How many days should we store the backups for:
BACKUP_STORE_DAYS=14

# Back up Teamplify DB and update Teamplify:
mkdir -p $BACKUP_LOCATION && \
    pip3 install -U teamplify && \
    teamplify backup $BACKUP_LOCATION && \
    teamplify update

# If the update was successful, clean up old backups:
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  find $BACKUP_LOCATION -type f -mmin +$((60 * 24 * $BACKUP_STORE_DAYS)) \
      -name 'teamplify_*.sql.gz' -execdir rm -- '{}' \;
fi

# The final step is optional but recommended. Add your code so that would
# sync contents of $BACKUP_LOCATION to a physically remote location.
#
#   ... add your backups sync code below:

In the code above, adjust the path for $BACKUP_LOCATION and the value for $BACKUP_STORE_DAYS as necessary. At the end of the script, you can add your own code that would sync your backups to a remote location. This is an optional but highly recommended precaution that would help you recover your backup in the case of a disaster. For example, you can use aws s3 sync to upload the backups to AWS S3.

2. When the maintenance script is ready, make it executable with chmod +x teamplify-maintenance.sh.

3. Set the script to run as a daily cron job. Open the crontab schedule:

$ crontab -e

Append the following entry (remember to replace the path to the script):

0 3 * * * /path/to/the/script/teamplify-maintenance.sh

In the example above, the script is scheduled to run daily at 3 AM. See cron syntax for a detailed explanation. When ready, save and close the file.

Uninstall

If you'd like to uninstall Teamplify, use the following steps.

IMPORTANT: The uninstall procedure erases all data stored in Teamplify. Before doing this, consider making a backup.

1. Remove all Teamplify data, Docker images, volumes, and networks:

$ teamplify erase

2. Uninstall Teamplify runner:

$ pip3 uninstall teamplify

Troubleshooting

So what could possibly go wrong?

Teamplify won't start

Please check the following:

• The service won't start if the configuration file is missing or contains errors. In such cases, the teamplify start command will report a problem. Please inspect its output;

• There could be a problem with the domain name configuration. If the teamplify start command has completed successfully, you should see Teamplify's interface in the browser when you open an address specified in the host and port parameters in the [web] section of the Configuration. If that doesn't happen, i.e. if browser says that it can't find the server or the server is not responding, then most likely this is a problem with either the domain name or firewall configuration. Please make sure that the domain exists and points to the Teamplify server, and that the port is open in the firewall;

• If you see the "Teamplify is starting" message, you should give it a minute or two to come online. If nothing happens after a few minutes, there could be a problem during application start. Application logs may contain additional information:

  $ docker logs teamplify_app
  

  Please let us know about the problem and attach the output from the command above. You can either open an issue on Github, or contact us at [e-mail], or use the live chat on teamplify.com.

Email delivery issues

Emails can go to spam or sometimes aren't delivered at all. If you're running a demo version of Teamplify on your desktop at home, this is very likely to happen, since IPs of home internet providers have a large chance of being blacklisted in spam databases. We recommend that you try the following:

• If you're going to use the built-in SMTP server, consider running Teamplify on a server hosted in a data center or at your office, but not at home. Next, please make sure that you've added the IP of your Teamplify server to the SPF record of the domain used in address_from setting in the configuration file;

• Some email providers, for example, Google Mail, explicitly reject emails sent from blacklisted IPs. It might be helpful to examine SMTP server logs to see if that's what's happening:

  $ docker logs teamplify_smtp
  

• Alternatively, if you have another SMTP server that is already configured and can reliably send emails, you can configure Teamplify to use this server instead of the built-in SMTP. See [email] section in Configuration for details;

The connection is refused or not trusted in SSL-enabled mode

During the first start, Teamplify runner generates a temporary self-issued SSL certificate (not trusted) and then tries to create a valid certificate for your domain via Let's Encrypt that would replace the temporary one. Besides that, it also creates a new set of 2048-bit DH parameters to give your SSL configuration an A+ rating. This process is rather slow and may take a few minutes to complete. If you open Teamplify in your browser and see that the SSL connection can't be established or is not trusted, the problem may be caused by DH params or the SSL certificate generations that are still in progress. After DH params and the SSL certificate have been successfully generated, they are saved for future use and subsequent restarts of the server should be much faster.

If you have just started the server for the very first time, please give it a few minutes to complete the initialization and then refresh the page in your browser. If after a few minutes the browser reports that the connection is not trusted, it probably means that the certificate generation has failed. Please check the following:

1. That the domain that you specified in the host parameter can be resolved from the public Internet and is pointing to the server on which you have installed Teamplify;
2. That ports 80 and 443 are not blocked in the firewall.

It also might be helpful to check the logs:

$ docker logs teamplify_letsencrypt

Other

For any issue with Teamplify, we recommend that you try to check for updates first. We release updates frequently. It's quite possible that the problem that you encountered is already addressed in a newer version.

If these suggested solutions don't work, don't hesitate to open an issue on Github or contact us at [e-mail]. You can also use the live chat on teamplify.com. We're ready to help!

License

Teamplify runner is available under the MIT license. Please note that the MIT license applies to Teamplify runner only, but not to the main Teamplify product. Some Docker images downloaded by Teamplify runner will contain a proprietary code that is not open source and is distributed under its own terms and conditions.