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CRPI

Erp Single Server

ERP Single Server Example

In this use case we have a single server with a static IP attached to it. It can be used in scenarios where one powerful VM has multiple benches and applications or one entry level VM with single site. For single bench, single site setup follow only up to the point where first bench and first site is added. If you choose this setup you can only scale vertically. If you need to scale horizontally you’ll need to backup the sites and restore them on to cluster setup.

We will setup the following:

  • Install docker and docker compose v2 on linux server.
  • Install traefik service for internal load balancer and letsencrypt.
  • Install MariaDB with containers.
  • Setup project called erpnext-one and create sites one.example.com and two.example.com in the project.
  • Setup project called erpnext-two and create sites three.example.com and four.example.com in the project.

Explanation:

Single instance of Traefik will be installed and act as internal loadbalancer for multiple benches and sites hosted on the server. It can also load balance other applications along with frappe benches, e.g. wordpress, metabase, etc. We only expose the ports 80 and 443 once with this instance of traefik. Traefik will also take care of letsencrypt automation for all sites installed on the server. Why choose Traefik over Nginx Proxy Manager? Traefik doesn’t need additional DB service and can store certificates in a json file in a volume.

Single instance of MariaDB will be installed and act as database service for all the benches/projects installed on the server.

Each instance of ERPNext project (bench) will have its own redis, socketio, gunicorn, nginx, workers and scheduler. It will connect to internal MariaDB by connecting to MariaDB network. It will expose sites to public through Traefik by connecting to Traefik network.

Install Docker

Easiest way to install docker is to use the convenience script.

Terminal window
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | bash

Note: The documentation assumes Ubuntu LTS server is used. Use any distribution as long as the docker convenience script works. If the convenience script doesn’t work, you’ll need to install docker manually.

Install Compose V2

Refer original documentation for updated version.

Terminal window
DOCKER_CONFIG=${DOCKER_CONFIG:-$HOME/.docker}
mkdir -p $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins
curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.2.3/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins/docker-compose
chmod +x $DOCKER_CONFIG/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Prepare

Clone frappe_docker repo for the needed YAMLs and change the current working director of you shell to the cloned repo.

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/frappe/frappe_docker
cd frappe_docker

Create configuration and resources directory

Terminal window
mkdir ~/gitops

The ~/gitops directory will store all the resources that we use for setup. We will also keep the environment files in this directory as there will be multiple projects with different environment variables. You can create a private repo for this directory and track the changes there.

Install Traefik

Basic Traefik setup using docker compose.

Create a file called traefik.env in ~/gitops

Terminal window
echo 'TRAEFIK_DOMAIN=traefik.example.com' > ~/gitops/traefik.env
echo 'EMAIL=admin@example.com' >> ~/gitops/traefik.env
echo 'HASHED_PASSWORD='$(openssl passwd -apr1 changeit | sed 's/\$/\\\$/g') >> ~/gitops/traefik.env

Note:

  • Change the domain from traefik.example.com to the one used in production. DNS entry needs to point to the Server IP.
  • Change the letsencrypt notification email from admin@example.com to correct email.
  • Change the password from changeit to more secure.

env file generated at location ~/gitops/traefik.env will look like following:

TRAEFIK_DOMAIN=traefik.example.com
EMAIL=admin@example.com
HASHED_PASSWORD=$apr1$K.4gp7RT$tj9R2jHh0D4Gb5o5fIAzm/

Deploy the traefik container with letsencrypt SSL

Terminal window
docker compose --project-name traefik \
  --env-file ~/gitops/traefik.env \
  -f overrides/compose.traefik.yaml \
  -f overrides/compose.traefik-ssl.yaml up -d

This will make the traefik dashboard available on traefik.example.com and all certificates will reside in /data/traefik/certificates on host filesystem.

For LAN setup deploy the traefik container without overriding overrides/compose.traefik-ssl.yaml.

Install MariaDB

Basic MariaDB setup using docker compose.

Create a file called mariadb.env in ~/gitops

Terminal window
echo "DB_PASSWORD=changeit" > ~/gitops/mariadb.env

Note:

  • Change the password from changeit to more secure.

env file generated at location ~/gitops/mariadb.env will look like following:

DB_PASSWORD=changeit

Note: Change the password from changeit to more secure one.

Deploy the mariadb container

Terminal window
docker compose --project-name mariadb --env-file ~/gitops/mariadb.env -f overrides/compose.mariadb-shared.yaml up -d

This will make mariadb-database service available under mariadb-network. Data will reside in /data/mariadb.

Install ERPNext

Create first bench

Create first bench called erpnext-one with one.example.com and two.example.com

Create a file called erpnext-one.env in ~/gitops

Terminal window
cp example.env ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env
sed -i 's/DB_PASSWORD=123/DB_PASSWORD=changeit/g' ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env
sed -i 's/DB_HOST=/DB_HOST=mariadb-database/g' ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env
sed -i 's/DB_PORT=/DB_PORT=3306/g' ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env
sed -i 's/SITES=`erp.example.com`/SITES=\`one.example.com\`,\`two.example.com\`/g' ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env
echo 'ROUTER=erpnext-one' >> ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env
echo "BENCH_NETWORK=erpnext-one" >> ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env

Note:

  • Change the password from changeit to the one set for MariaDB compose in the previous step.

env file is generated at location ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env.

Create a yaml file called erpnext-one.yaml in ~/gitops directory:

Terminal window
docker compose --project-name erpnext-one \
  --env-file ~/gitops/erpnext-one.env \
  -f compose.yaml \
  -f overrides/compose.redis.yaml \
  -f overrides/compose.multi-bench.yaml \
  -f overrides/compose.multi-bench-ssl.yaml config > ~/gitops/erpnext-one.yaml

For LAN setup do not override compose.multi-bench-ssl.yaml.

Use the above command after any changes are made to erpnext-one.env file to regenerate ~/gitops/erpnext-one.yaml. e.g. after changing version to migrate the bench.

Load custom apps through json

In the frappe_docker/development directory find the apps-example.json file. Create a json file called apps.json in ~/gitops:

Terminal window
cp apps-example.json ~/gitops/apps.json

In the apps.json file, add the names of the applications that you want to use in the production environment:

[
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/erpnext",
    "branch": "version-14"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/hrms",
    "branch": "version-14"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/payments",
    "branch": "develop"
  },
  {
    "url": "https://github.com/frappe/ecommerce_integrations",
    "branch": "develop"
  }
]

Generate base64 string stored in the APPS_JSON_BASE64 environment variable from json file:

Terminal window
export APPS_JSON_BASE64=$(base64 -w 0 ~/gitops/apps.json)

Note:

  • url needs to be http(s) git url with token/auth in case of private repo.
  • add dependencies manually in apps.json e.g. add payments if you are installing erpnext
  • use fork repo or branch for ERPNext in case you need to use your fork or test a PR.

Build Image With Custom Apps

Execute next command from frappe_docker directory:

Terminal window
docker build \
  --build-arg=FRAPPE_PATH=https://github.com/frappe/frappe \
  --build-arg=FRAPPE_BRANCH=version-14 \
  --build-arg=PYTHON_VERSION=3.10.12 \
  --build-arg=NODE_VERSION=16.20.1 \
  --build-arg=APPS_JSON_BASE64=$APPS_JSON_BASE64 \
  -t=ghcr.io/user/repo/custom:1.0.0 \
  -f=images/custom/Containerfile .

Note:

  • FRAPPE_PATH and FRAPPE_BRANCH build args are optional and can be overridden in case of fork/branch or test a PR.
  • Make sure APPS_JSON_BASE64 variable has correct base64 encoded JSON string. It is consumed as build arg, base64 encoding ensures it to be friendly with environment variables. Use jq empty apps.json to validate apps.json file.
  • Make sure the -t (tag) is valid image name that will be pushed to registry. See section below for remarks about its use.
  • Change --build-arg as per version of Python, NodeJS, Frappe Framework repo and branch
  • .git directories for all apps are removed from the image.

Push image to registry to use in yaml files

Login to docker

Terminal window
docker login

Push image

Terminal window
docker push ghcr.io/user/repo/custom:1.0.0

Use Custom Apps Images

On the compose.yaml replace the image reference to the tag you used when you built it. Then, if you used a tag like custom_erpnext:staging the x-customizable-image section will look like this:

x-customizable-image: &customizable_image
  image: custom_erpnext:staging
  pull_policy: never

The pull_policy above is optional and prevents docker to try to download the image when that one has been built locally.

Make sure image name is correct to be pushed to registry. After the images are pushed, you can pull them to servers to be deployed. If the registry is private, additional auth is needed.

Deploy ERPNext Containers

Deploy erpnext-one containers:

Terminal window
docker compose --project-name erpnext-one -f ~/gitops/erpnext-one.yaml up -d

Create sites one.example.com:

Terminal window
# one.example.com
docker compose --project-name erpnext-one exec backend \
  bench new-site one.example.com --no-mariadb-socket --mariadb-root-password changeit --install-app erpnext --admin-password changeit

You can stop here and have a single bench single site setup complete. ERPNext will be available under your domain.

Install custom apps

Now you need to install the custom apps from backend container. Go to the backend container using:

Terminal window
docker exec -it <backend_container_id> bash

Use bench install-app command to install the custom apps:

Terminal window
bench --site <site_name> install-app <app_name>

You can stop here and have a single bench single site with custom apps setup complete.