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Deploy on Azure Virtual Machine

Follow the instructions in this guide to setup DronaHQ in self hosted environment on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine.

Prerequisite​

To deploy DronaHQ on Azure Virtual Machine, you should have:

  • DronaHQ License Key, which you can get from DronaHQ Self Hosted Portal.
  • Basic understanding of Microsft Azure and Azure Virtual Machine.
  • Working Microsoft Azure account.

Following are some references, which can help you sail through Azure Virtual Machine.

1. Create Virtual Machine​

  1. On Azure Virtual Machine portal, Click Create => Azure virtual machine.

  2. Select or Create Resource group.

  3. Name your virtual machine, to identify it later.

  4. In Image section, select Ubuntu server with minimum version 20.04 with x64 VM architecture.

  5. In size section, Select appropriate VM configuration as per your requirement. Please make sure that you follow our minimum requirements guidelines.

  6. Select appropriate Authentication Type. Choose Username for VM and select credentials options.

  7. In Inbound port rules, select HTTP(80), HTTPS(443), SSH(22) to enable use of these ports and protocols.

  8. In Disk section, select minimum of 60 GiB of disk space.

  9. Optionally you can add some Tags (e.g. app = dronahq). This makes it easier to find if you have a lot of instances.

  10. You can leave other options as default.

  11. Click on Review + Create to check summary of configuration you choose for your instance. If all looks good, click on Create to run the instance.

  12. If you choose to create new SSH Key then, Generate new key pair popup will appear. From that you can download your new key and save on your computer at safe place.

  13. In few minutes, your instance will be ready to use.

2. Connect to your Linux instance using an SSH client​

Use the following procedure to connect to your Linux instance using an SSH client. If you receive an error while attempting to connect to your instance, see Troubleshoot connecting to your instance.

Connect to your instance using SSH​

  1. In a terminal window, use the ssh command to connect to the instance. You specify the path and file name of the private key (.pem), the user name for your instance, and the public DNS name or IPv6 address for your instance. For more information about how to find the private key, the user name for your instance, and the DNS name or IPv6 address for an instance, see Locate the private key and set permissions and Get information about your instance. To connect to your instance, use one of the following commands.

    • (Public DNS) To connect using your instance's public DNS name, enter the following command.

      ssh -i /path/key-pair-name.pem instance-user-name@instance-public-dns-name

    • (IPv6) Alternatively, if your instance has an IPv6 address, to connect using your instance's IPv6 address, enter the following command.

      ssh -i /path/key-pair-name.pem instance-user-name@instance-IPv6-address

    You see a response like the following:

    The authenticity of host '20.24.83.170 (20.24.83.170)' can't be established.
    ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:9adjTqXUisZXGolCYHO8SUPhb8mwmlw08i4Gom8SC7A.
    This key is not known by any other names
    Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

  2. (Optional) Verify that the fingerprint in the security alert matches the fingerprint that you previously obtained while creating virtual machine. If these fingerprints don't match, someone might be attempting a man-in-the-middle attack. If they match, continue to the next step.

  3. Enter yes.

    You see a response like the following:

    Warning: Permanently added '20.24.83.170' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.

3. Download DronaHQ Self Hosted​

There are two ways, you can download DronaHQ Self Hosted.

a. Cloning Git repository​

To clone from git repository, run following command.

git clone https://github.com/dronahq/self-hosted.git dronahq-self-hosted

Above command will create new folder in your present working directory with name dronahq-self-hosted.

b. Download and extract compressed package from DronaHQ​

To download compressed package from DronaHQ, run following command

curl -L -fsSL -o ./master.zip "https://license.dronahq.com/self-hosted/master.zip" && unzip master.zip && mv master dronahq-self-hosted

4. Change working directory​

We have to change working directory to dronahq-self-hosted for playing with DronaHQ.

Use following command.

cd dronahq-self-hosted

5. Update resources​

This is recommended step by DronaHQ. Updating your resources periodically will help you stay aligned with DronaHQ.

Run following command

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://license.dronahq.com/self-hosted/master/update_resources.sh)"

6. Setup Externalize databases​

For deployment on Azure Virtual Machine, it is mandatory to setup external databases for both MYSQL and MONGODB.

Please follow our guide on Configure external databases.

6. Setup DronaHQ Environment​

Warning

Running this script will clear your existing installation if you have any. It will setup completely new environment. It will create back of your current environment and storage directory with time stamp followed by file/folder name.

To setup dronahq environment, you have to run ./dronahq_setup already present in your working directory.

./dronahq_setup

7. Update environment variables​

DronaHQ writes all configurable environment variables in file dronahq.env. Please make sure you have all mandatory variables are in place.

i. LICENSE_KEY​

LICENSE_KEY is one of the mandatory and essential environment variable. please verify that you have it in dronahq.env. If not you can add this variable. Following is the example of how this variable should look like in environment file.

LICENSE_KEY='DRONAHQ-LICENSE-KEY'

If you don't have DronaHQ license key for self hosted, you can sign up for DronaHQ self hosted and get your license key by logging in to self-hosted portal.

ii. BUILDER_URL​

This variable specifies how do yo want to access DronaHQ.

  • Protocol [ http/ https]
  • Access domain [ Localhost/ IP address/ Domain Name]

Example 1. If you are using DronaHQ on local machine.

BULDER_URL='http://localhost'

Example 2. If you have configured DronaHQ on server and want to use it with server's public IP address.

# replace your ip address here
BUILDER_URL='http://20.24.83.170'

Example 3. If you have mapped your domain name to server's IP address.

# replace your domain name
BUILDER_URL='http://dronahq.example.com'

iii. Database configuration variables​

Configure variables for external MYSQL credentials

MYSQL_HOST, MYSQL_USER, MYSQL_PASSWORD, MYSQL_PORT

MYSQL_HOST='mysql.example.com'
MYSQL_USER='dronahq'
MYSQL_PASSWORD='secret-password'
MYSQL_PORT='3306'

Configure variables for external MONGODB credentials

MONGODB_HOST, MONGODB_USER, MONGODB_PASSWORD, MONGODB_PORT

MONGODB_HOST='mongodb.example.com'
MONGODB_USER='dronahq'
MONGODB_PASSWORD='secret-password'
MONGODB_PORT='27017'

iv. Other environment variables​

You can also checkout other Environment Variables, which can enable advance options for you to use DronaHQ Self Hosted.

8. Restart DronaHQ​

You can apply all new changes in configuration, and restart DronaHQ simply by running following command.

sudo docker-compose up -d

9. Verify that containers are running​

You can use following command to check running docker containers.

sudo docker-compose ps

It should look something like this

sudo docker-compose ps

Hurray !!! Now you have working self hosted DronaHQ.​

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