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deploying.rst

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Deploying to production

Deploying a new site

To deploy a new site, first make sure you know:

  1. the hostname the chapter prefers
  2. the chapter's contact email address
  3. the group's name (e.g. "MIT ESP" or "Yale Splash")
  4. the chapter's preferred theme

Then ssh to the production server, cd to /lu/sites, and run sudo new_site.sh --all. If the directory already exists for the chapter, you may wish to delete it to get a clean start. (You may instead clone the repository yourself, cd into it, and run the script from there.) Follow the instructions to set up the site. For the site directory name, choose something short that's likely to stay unique and understandable as we add more chapters. When it does the "create superuser", you should create yourself an account; afterwards chapter admins can create their own accounts and you can make them admins.

If something doesn't work, and you need to re-run a particular step, you can do so by passing the appropriate flag to new_site.sh. Note that some steps won't work if you run them twice, so if a step fails partway through you may need to complete or undo it manually. The script will remember your settings; you just need to tell it the same directory again.

It can also be helpful to run python manage.py migrate if the setup fails during the database or settings phase.

Finally, email the chapter to let them know that you've set up their site, and with instructions to set up their accounts, whatever parts of their theme you didn't set up. You can also point them at the documentation in the repository and on the LU wiki and at websupport.

Deactivating a site

To deactivate a site, simply remove or comment out its lines in /etc/apache2/sites-available/esp_sites.conf, /etc/crontab, and /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf, and move its site directory to /lu/sites/archive.

TODO(benkraft): write a quick script for this.

Setting up a new server

When replacing the production host, the safest approach is:

  1. Build the new machine with the same Ubuntu major version we support for development/production (currently Ubuntu 22.04).
  2. Install system dependencies used by our stack: PostgreSQL, Apache with mod_wsgi, Exim4, Python, git, and cron.
  3. Copy chapter site directories into /lu/sites from the old server, preserving permissions and ownership.
  4. Copy and review host-level config files:
    • /etc/apache2/sites-available/esp_sites.conf
    • /etc/crontab
    • /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf
    • any custom files under /etc/exim4/conf.d used for mailgates
  5. Enable/reload services and validate configs:
    • run Apache config checks and reload Apache
    • run Exim config update/reload
    • ensure cron is running
  6. For each chapter site, run migrations and a quick smoke test:
    • python manage.py migrate
    • test login/admin, a representative page, and outbound email
  7. Verify DNS, TLS certificates, and MX records point at the new host before final cutover.
  8. Do a staged cutover (low-traffic window), monitor logs, and keep the old server available for rollback until stable.

The key idea is that app code and per-site settings live in /lu/sites, while Apache/cron/Exim routing lives in /etc; both must be migrated together for a working production setup.