1 .. MediaGoblin Documentation
3 Written in 2011, 2012, 2013 by MediaGoblin contributors
5 To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all
6 copyright and related and neighboring rights to this software to
7 the public domain worldwide. This software is distributed without
10 You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain
11 Dedication along with this software. If not, see
12 <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
14 .. _deploying-chapter:
20 GNU MediaGoblin is fairly new and so at the time of writing, there
21 aren't easy package-manager-friendly methods to install MediaGoblin.
22 However, doing a basic install isn't too complex in and of itself.
24 There's an almost infinite way to deploy things... for now, we'll keep
25 it simple with some assumptions and use a setup that combines
26 mediagoblin + virtualenv + fastcgi + nginx on a .deb or .rpm based
31 These tools are for site administrators wanting to deploy a fresh
32 install. If instead you want to join in as a contributor, see our
33 `Hacking HOWTO <http://wiki.mediagoblin.org/HackingHowto>`_ instead.
35 There are also many ways to install servers... for the sake of
36 simplicity, our instructions below describe installing with nginx.
37 For more recipes, including Apache, see
38 `our wiki <http://wiki.mediagoblin.org/Deployment>`_.
46 MediaGoblin has the following core dependencies:
49 - `python-lxml <http://lxml.de/>`_
50 - `git <http://git-scm.com/>`_
51 - `SQLite <http://www.sqlite.org/>`_/`PostgreSQL <http://www.postgresql.org/>`_
52 - `Python Imaging Library <http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/>`_ (PIL)
53 - `virtualenv <http://www.virtualenv.org/>`_
55 On a DEB-based system (e.g Debian, gNewSense, Trisquel, Ubuntu, and
56 derivatives) issue the following command::
58 sudo apt-get install git-core python python-dev python-lxml \
59 python-imaging python-virtualenv
61 On a RPM-based system (e.g. Fedora, RedHat, and derivatives) issue the
64 yum install python-paste-deploy python-paste-script \
65 git-core python python-devel python-lxml python-imaging \
73 MediaGoblin currently supports PostgreSQL and SQLite. The default is a
74 local SQLite database. This will "just work" for small deployments.
76 For medium to large deployments we recommend PostgreSQL.
78 If you don't want/need postgres, skip this section.
80 These are the packages needed for Debian Wheezy (stable)::
82 sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-client python-psycopg2
84 The installation process will create a new *system* user named ``postgres``,
85 it will have privilegies sufficient to manage the database. We will create a
86 new database user with restricted privilegies and a new database owned by our
87 restricted database user for our MediaGoblin instance.
89 In this example, the database user will be ``mediagoblin`` and the database
90 name will be ``mediagoblin`` too.
92 To create our new user, run::
94 sudo -u postgres createuser mediagoblin
96 then answer NO to *all* the questions::
98 Shall the new role be a superuser? (y/n) n
99 Shall the new role be allowed to create databases? (y/n) n
100 Shall the new role be allowed to create more new roles? (y/n) n
102 then create the database all our MediaGoblin data should be stored in::
104 sudo -u postgres createdb -E UNICODE -O mediagoblin mediagoblin
106 where the first ``mediagoblin`` is the database owner and the second
107 ``mediagoblin`` is the database name.
109 .. caution:: Where is the password?
111 These steps enable you to authenticate to the database in a password-less
112 manner via local UNIX authentication provided you run the MediaGoblin
113 application as a user with the same name as the user you created in
116 More on this in :ref:`Drop Privileges for MediaGoblin <drop-privileges-for-mediagoblin>`.
119 .. _drop-privileges-for-mediagoblin:
121 Drop Privileges for MediaGoblin
122 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
124 MediaGoblin does not require special permissions or elevated
125 access to run. As such, the preferred way to run MediaGoblin is to
126 create a dedicated, unprivileged system user for the sole purpose of running
127 MediaGoblin. Running MediaGoblin processes under an unpriviledged system user
128 helps to keep it more secure.
130 The following command (entered as root or with sudo) will create a
131 system account with a username of ``mediagoblin``. You may choose a different
132 username if you wish.::
134 adduser --system mediagoblin
136 No password will be assigned to this account, and you will not be able
137 to log in as this user. To switch to this account, enter either::
139 sudo -u mediagoblin /bin/bash # (if you have sudo permissions)
143 su mediagoblin -s /bin/bash # (if you have to use root permissions)
145 You may get a warning similar to this when entering these commands::
147 warning: cannot change directory to /home/mediagoblin: No such file or directory
149 You can disregard this warning. To return to your regular user account after
150 using the system account, just enter ``exit``.
154 Unless otherwise noted, the remainder of this document assumes that all
155 operations are performed using this unpriviledged account.
157 .. _create-mediagoblin-directory:
159 Create a MediaGoblin Directory
160 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
162 You should create a working directory for MediaGoblin. This document
163 assumes your local git repository will be located at
164 ``/srv/mediagoblin.example.org/mediagoblin/``.
165 Substitute your prefered local deployment path as needed.
167 Setting up the working directory requires that we first create the directory
168 with elevated priviledges, and then assign ownership of the directory
169 to the unpriviledged system account.
171 To do this, enter either of the following commands, changing the defaults
172 to suit your particular requirements::
174 sudo mkdir -p /srv/mediagoblin.example.org && sudo chown -hR mediagoblin:mediagoblin /srv/mediagoblin.example.org
176 or (as the root user)::
178 mkdir -p /srv/mediagoblin.example.org && chown -hR mediagoblin:mediagoblin /srv/mediagoblin.example.org
181 Install MediaGoblin and Virtualenv
182 ----------------------------------
186 MediaGoblin is still developing rapidly. As a result
187 the following instructions recommend installing from the ``master``
188 branch of the git repository. Eventually production deployments will
189 want to transition to running from more consistent releases.
191 We will now clone the MediaGoblin source code repository and setup and
192 configure the necessary services. Modify these commands to
193 suit your own environment. As a reminder, you should enter these
194 commands using your unpriviledged system account.
196 Change to the MediaGoblin directory that you just created::
198 cd /srv/mediagoblin.example.org
200 Clone the MediaGoblin repository and set up the git submodules::
202 git clone git://gitorious.org/mediagoblin/mediagoblin.git
204 git submodule init && git submodule update
207 And set up the in-package virtualenv::
209 (virtualenv --system-site-packages . || virtualenv .) && ./bin/python setup.py develop
213 We presently have an experimental make-style deployment system. if
214 you'd like to try it, instead of the above command, you can run::
216 ./bootstrap.sh && ./configure && make
218 This also includes a number of nice features, such as keeping your
219 viratualenv up to date by simply running `make update`.
223 (NOTE: Is this still relevant?)
225 If you have problems here, consider trying to install virtualenv
226 with the ``--distribute`` or ``--no-site-packages`` options. If
227 your system's default Python is in the 3.x series you may need to
228 run ``virtualenv`` with the ``--python=python2.7`` or
229 ``--python=python2.6`` options.
231 The above provides an in-package install of ``virtualenv``. While this
232 is counter to the conventional ``virtualenv`` configuration, it is
233 more reliable and considerably easier to configure and illustrate. If
234 you're familiar with Python packaging you may consider deploying with
235 your preferred method.
237 Assuming you are going to deploy with FastCGI, you should also install
240 ./bin/easy_install flup
242 (Sometimes this breaks because flup's site is flakey. If it does for
245 ./bin/easy_install https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flup/1.0.3.dev-20110405
247 This concludes the initial configuration of the development
248 environment. In the future, when you update your
249 codebase, you should also run::
251 ./bin/python setup.py develop --upgrade && ./bin/gmg dbupdate && git submodule fetch
253 Note: If you are running an active site, depending on your server
254 configuration, you may need to stop it first or the dbupdate command
255 may hang (and it's certainly a good idea to restart it after the
259 Deploy MediaGoblin Services
260 ---------------------------
262 Edit site configuration
263 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
265 A few basic properties must be set before MediaGoblin will work. First
266 make a copy of ``mediagoblin.ini`` for editing so the original config
269 cp mediagoblin.ini mediagoblin_local.ini
272 - Set ``email_sender_address`` to the address you wish to be used as
273 the sender for system-generated emails
274 - Edit ``direct_remote_path``, ``base_dir``, and ``base_url`` if
275 your mediagoblin directory is not the root directory of your
279 Configure MediaGoblin to use the PostgreSQL database
280 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
282 If you are using postgres, edit the ``[mediagoblin]`` section in your
283 ``mediagoblin_local.ini`` and put in::
285 sql_engine = postgresql:///mediagoblin
287 if you are running the MediaGoblin application as the same 'user' as the
291 Update database data structures
292 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
294 Before you start using the database, you need to run::
298 to populate the database with the MediaGoblin data structures.
304 At this point MediaGoblin should be properly installed. You can
305 test the deployment with the following command::
307 ./lazyserver.sh --server-name=broadcast
309 You should be able to connect to the machine on port 6543 in your
310 browser to confirm that the service is operable.
312 .. _webserver-config:
318 This configuration example will use nginx, however, you may
319 use any webserver of your choice as long as it supports the FastCGI
320 protocol. If you do not already have a web server, consider nginx, as
321 the configuration files may be more clear than the
324 Create a configuration file at
325 ``/srv/mediagoblin.example.org/nginx.conf`` and create a symbolic link
326 into a directory that will be included in your ``nginx`` configuration
327 (e.g. "``/etc/nginx/sites-enabled`` or ``/etc/nginx/conf.d``) with
328 one of the following commands (as the root user)::
330 ln -s /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
331 ln -s /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
333 Modify these commands and locations depending on your preferences and
334 the existing configuration of your nginx instance. The contents of
335 this ``nginx.conf`` file should be modeled on the following::
338 #################################################
339 # Stock useful config options, but ignore them :)
340 #################################################
341 include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
344 default_type application/octet-stream;
349 gzip_min_length 1024;
351 gzip_types text/plain text/html application/x-javascript text/javascript text/xml text/css;
353 #####################################
354 # Mounting MediaGoblin stuff
355 # This is the section you should read
356 #####################################
358 # Change this to update the upload size limit for your users
359 client_max_body_size 8m;
361 # prevent attacks (someone uploading a .txt file that the browser
362 # interprets as an HTML file, etc.)
363 add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
365 server_name mediagoblin.example.org www.mediagoblin.example.org;
366 access_log /var/log/nginx/mediagoblin.example.access.log;
367 error_log /var/log/nginx/mediagoblin.example.error.log;
369 # MediaGoblin's stock static files: CSS, JS, etc.
370 location /mgoblin_static/ {
371 alias /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/mediagoblin/mediagoblin/static/;
374 # Instance specific media:
375 location /mgoblin_media/ {
376 alias /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/mediagoblin/user_dev/media/public/;
379 # Theme static files (usually symlinked in)
380 location /theme_static/ {
381 alias /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/mediagoblin/user_dev/theme_static/;
384 # Plugin static files (usually symlinked in)
385 location /plugin_static/ {
386 alias /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/mediagoblin/user_dev/plugin_static/;
389 # Mounting MediaGoblin itself via FastCGI.
391 fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:26543;
392 include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
394 # our understanding vs nginx's handling of script_name vs
395 # path_info don't match :)
396 fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_script_name;
397 fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME "";
401 Now, nginx instance is configured to serve the MediaGoblin
402 application. Perform a quick test to ensure that this configuration
403 works. Restart nginx so it picks up your changes, with a command that
404 resembles one of the following (as the root user)::
406 sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart
407 sudo /etc/rc.d/nginx restart
409 Now start MediaGoblin. Use the following command sequence as an
412 cd /srv/mediagoblin.example.org/mediagoblin/
413 ./lazyserver.sh --server-name=fcgi fcgi_host=127.0.0.1 fcgi_port=26543
415 Visit the site you've set up in your browser by visiting
416 <http://mediagoblin.example.org>. You should see MediaGoblin!
420 The configuration described above is sufficient for development and
421 smaller deployments. However, for larger production deployments
422 with larger processing requirements, see the
423 ":doc:`production-deployments`" documentation.
429 Instructions and scripts for running MediaGoblin on an Apache server
430 can be found on the `MediaGoblin wiki <http://wiki.mediagoblin.org/Deployment>`_.
433 Security Considerations
434 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
438 The directory ``user_dev/crypto/`` contains some very
440 Especially the ``itsdangeroussecret.bin`` is very important
441 for session security. Make sure not to leak its contents anywhere.
442 If the contents gets leaked nevertheless, delete your file
443 and restart the server, so that it creates a new secret key.
444 All previous sessions will be invalidated.