capistrano-ops - Comprehensive DevOps Utility for Rails 🛠️

The capistrano-ops gem is a valuable library, tailor-made for Rails DevOps professionals, offering an array of beneficial scripts to streamline and enhance operations with Capistrano. The focus is on seamless integration with Capistrano version 3 and above.

Table of Contents

Click to expand

• Main Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Script overview
• Usage
  • Optional Settings for backup task
  • use with whenever/capistrano
• Configuration
• Slack integration
• Webhook integration
• Notification level
• Backups
  • Backup provider
• Logrotate
  • Configuration
  • Usage
• Wkhtmltopdf Setup
• Contributing
• License

Main Features:

🗃️ Database and Storage Backups:

• Create, pull, and manage backups of your Postgres database and server storage.
• Delegation of old backup removal for both Postgres database and server storage.

🛠️ Configuration Management:

• Compare application.yml files between local and server environments using figaro_yml:compare.
• Fetch server environment variables set via Figaro with figaro_yml:get.
• Copy local application.yml to the server with figaro_yml:setup. This task automatically triggers figaro_yml:backup before proceeding.
• Create a backup of the server's application.yml with figaro_yml:backup. This is automatically executed before figaro_yml:setup to ensure a recovery point is available.
• Roll back to the previous application.yml on the server using figaro_yml:rollback. This can be used to quickly revert changes made by figaro_yml:setup if needed.

📜 Logging and Task Management:

• Real-time viewing of Rails server logs.
• Real-time viewing of sidekiq logs.
• Showcase the server app's crontab generated with the 'whenever' gem.
• Ability to invoke server-specific rake tasks.

🔔 Notification Integrations:

• Set up notifications through Slack or generic Webhooks.
• Customize notification levels (info/error).

⚙️ Backup Settings Customization:

• Define the number of backups retained, both locally and externally.
• Toggle backup tasks and external backups.
• S3 integration for backup storage, including customization of bucket, region, and endpoint details.

📅 Schedule Tasks:

• Couple with the 'whenever' gem to schedule daily backup creation and old backup removal.

🔗 Slack & Webhook Integrations:

• Integrate seamlessly with Slack or use webhooks for notifications, alerting you on essential operations or any potential issues.

☁️ Backup Providers:

• S3 and other S3-compatible services are supported to ensure your data remains secure and accessible.

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Requirements

'capistrano', '~> 3.0'
'whenever' # for scheduling tasks
'figaro' # for environment variables if you use figaro_yml tasks

# hint: if you use other aws-sdk gems, its possible that you have to update them too

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Installation

Add the gem to your Gemfile after setting up Capistrano group:

group :development do
  gem 'capistrano', require: false
end

gem 'capistrano-ops'

Then bundle and add it to your Capfile

# Capfile

require 'capistrano/ops'

or if you want to use only specific tasks one or more of the following:

# Capfile


require 'capistrano/ops/backup' # backup:database:create, backup:database:pull, backup:storage:create, backup:storage:pull
require 'capistrano/ops/figaro_yml' # figaro_yml:compare, figaro_yml:get, figaro_yml:setup, figaro_yml:backup, figaro_yml:rollback
require 'capistrano/ops/invoke' # invoke:rake
require 'capistrano/ops/logrotate' # logrotate:enable, logrotate:disable, logrotate:check
require 'capistrano/ops/logs' # logs:rails, logs:sidekiq, logs:sidekiq:info, logs:sidekiq:error
require 'capistrano/ops/whenever' # whenever:show_crontab

# optionally and not included in require 'capistrano/ops'
require 'capistrano/ops/wkhtmltopdf' # setup wkhtmltopdf-binary on server

and initializers

# initializers/capistrano_ops.rb

# needed for the backup tasks
require 'capistrano/ops'

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Script overview

Script	Description
cap <environment> backup:create	creates backup of postgres database on the server (removed since v1.0.0)
cap <environment> backup:pull	download latest postgres backup from server (removed since v1.0.0)
cap <environment> backup:database:create	creates backup of postgres database on the server
cap <environment> backup:database:pull	download latest postgres backup from server
cap <environment> backup:storage:create	creates backup of storage on the server
cap <environment> backup:storage:pull	download latest storage backup from server
cap <environment> figaro_yml:setup	copy local application.yml to server application.yml
cap <environment> figaro_yml:compare	compare local application.yml with server application.yml
cap <environment> figaro_yml:get	shows env vars from server application.yml configured thru figaro
cap <environment> figaro_yml:backup	creates backup of server application.yml (keeps last 5 versions)
cap <environment> figaro_yml:rollback	rollback server application.yml to previous version
cap <environment> logs:rails	display server log live
cap <environment> logs:sidekiq	display sidekiq log live
cap <environment> logs:sidekiq:info	display sidekiq info log live
cap <environment> logs:sidekiq:error	display sidekiq error log live
cap <environment> whenever:show_crontab	display server app crontab generated with whenever
cap <environment> invoke:rake TASK=<your:task>	invoke rake task on server
cap <environment> logrotate:enable	enable logrotate for logfiles on server
cap <environment> logrotate:disable	disable logrotate for logfiles on server
cap <environment> logrotate:check	show logrotate status for logfiles on server
rake pg:dump	creates postgres database backup
rake pg:remove_old_dumps	remove old postgres backups
rake storage:backup	creates backup of storage
rake storage:remove_old_backups	remove old storage backups

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Usage

for all backup task you have to setup your database.yml properly:

production:

  database: database_name
  username: database_username
  password: database_password
  host: database_host
  port: database_port

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Optional Settings for backup task

env	description	type/options
NUMBER_OF_BACKUPS	number of backups to keep (default: 7)	number
NUMBER_OF_LOCAL_BACKUPS	number of backups to keep locally (default: nil)	number
NUMBER_OF_EXTERNAL_BACKUPS	number of backups to keep externally (default: nil)	number
BACKUPS_ENABLED	enable/disable backup task (default: Rails.env == 'production')	boolean
EXTERNAL_BACKUP_ENABLED	enable/disable external backup (default: false) (only if 'BACKUPS_ENABLED', needs additional setup)	boolean
KEEP_LOCAL_STORAGE_BACKUPS	keep local storage backups (default: true)	boolean
DEFAULT_URL	notification message title (default: "#{database} Backup")	string
NOTIFICATION_TYPE	for notification (default: nil)	string (webhook/slack)
NOTIFICATION_LEVEL	for notification (default: nil)	string (info/error)
SLACK_SECRET	for slack integration	string (e.g. xoxb-1234567890-1234567890-1234567890-1234567890)
SLACK_CHANNEL	for slack integration	string (e.g. C234567890)
WEBHOOK_URL	Webhook server to send message	e.g http://example.com
WEBHOOK_SECRET	Secret to send with uses md5-hmac hexdigest in headerx-hub-signature	---
BACKUP_PROVIDER	Backup provider (default: nil)	string (s3)
S3_BACKUP_BUCKET	S3 bucket name for backups	string
S3_BACKUP_REGION	S3 region for backups	string
S3_BACKUP_KEY	S3 access key for backups	string
S3_BACKUP_SECRET	S3 secret key for backups	string
S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT	S3 endpoint for backups (optional, used for other S3 compatible services)	string

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use with whenever/capistrano

install whenever gem and add this to your schedule.rb

# config/schedule.rb
# Use this file to easily define all of your cron jobs.
env :PATH, ENV['PATH']
set :output, -> { '2>&1 | logger -t whenever_cron' }

every :day, at: '2:00 am' do
  rake 'pg:dump'
  rake 'storage:backup'
end

every :day, at: '3:00 am' do
  rake 'pg:remove_old_dumps'
  rake 'storage:remove_old_backups'
end

add this to your capfile

# Capfile
require 'whenever/capistrano'

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Configuration

You can optionally specify the capistrano roles for the rake task (Defaults to :app):

# Defaults to [:app]
set :rake_roles, %i[db app]

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Slack integration

if you want to use slack integration you have to add this to your application.yml

NOTIFICATION_TYPE: 'slack'
SLACK_SECRET: '<your-slack-secret>'
SLACK_CHANNEL: '<your-slack-channel>'

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Webhook integration

if you want to use webhook integration you have to add this to your application.yml

NOTIFICATION_TYPE: 'webhook'
WEBHOOK_URL: '<your-webhook-url>'
WEBHOOK_SECRET: '<your-webhook-secret>'

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Notification level

if you want to use notification level you have to add this to your application.yml

NOTIFICATION_LEVEL: 'info' # default is 'error'

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Backups

if you want to configure the number of backups you have to add this to your application.yml

NUMBER_OF_BACKUPS: 7 # default is 7 (local + external)

to fine tune the number of local and external backups you can use this:

NUMBER_OF_LOCAL_BACKUPS: 7 # default is nil (local)
NUMBER_OF_EXTERNAL_BACKUPS: 7 # default is nil (local)

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Backup provider

if you want to use an external backup provider you have to add this to your application.yml

BACKUP_PROVIDER: 's3'
S3_BACKUP_BUCKET: '<your-s3-bucket>'
S3_BACKUP_REGION: '<your-s3-region>'
S3_BACKUP_KEY: '<your-s3-key>'
S3_BACKUP_SECRET: '<your-s3-secret>'
S3_BACKUP_ENDPOINT: '<your-s3-endpoint>' # optional, used for other S3 compatible services

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Logrotate

Logrotate is a utility designed for administrators who manage servers producing a high volume of log files to help them save some disk space as well as to avoid a potential risk making a system unresponsive due to the lack of disk space.

The capistrano-ops gem provides a set of tasks to manage logrotate on your server:

• cap <environment> logrotate:enable - This task enables logrotate for logfiles on the server.
• cap <environment> logrotate:disable - This task disables logrotate for logfiles on the server.
• cap <environment> logrotate:check - This task shows the logrotate status for logfiles on the server. ↑

Configuration

You can optionally specify the logrotate configuration file path (Defaults to /etc/logrotate.conf):

# Defaults to '/etc/logrotate.conf'
set :logrotate_path, '/path/to/your/logrotate.conf'

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Usage

To use logrotate, you need to have it installed on your server. If it's not installed, you can install it using the package manager of your system. For example, on Ubuntu, you can install it using apt:

sudo apt-get install logrotate

Once logrotate is installed, you can use the capistrano-ops tasks to manage it. ↑

Wkhtmltopdf Setup

This script is used to setup wkhtmltopdf-binary in your deployment environment for WickedPdf. It is designed to work with Capistrano.

The main task setup is hooked to run after the deploy:symlink:release task. It performs the following operations:

• unzip the necessary binary file

• set the binary file permissions

The script assumes, that you have a intializer file for wicked_pdf gem, which sets the path to the binary file. for example:

# config/initializers/wicked_pdf.rb
WickedPdf.config = {
  exe_path: "#{Bundler.bundle_path}/gems/wkhtmltopdf-binary-0.12.6.6/bin/wkhtmltopdf_ubuntu_18.04_amd64",
  # Attention: set the used binary file version also in the Gemfile
}

To use this script, include it in your Capistrano tasks and it will automatically run during deployment.

# Capfile
require 'capistrano/ops/wkhtmltopdf'

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Contributing

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/zauberware/capistrano-ops/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

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License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

This gem contains code/snippets from the following sources:

• capistrano-figaro-yml by Andy Chou under the MIT License
• capistranorb documentation

props to the original authors 🎉 check out their work too!

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