Installing Apps in Production

Last Updated: May 2020

Installing apps in a Tethys Portal configured for production can be challenging. Most of the difficulties arise, because Tethys is served by NGINX in production and all the files need to be owned by the NGINX user. The following instructions for installing apps in a production environment are provided to aid administrators of Tethys Portals.

Activate the Tethys Environment

conda activate tethys

Setup App Directory (First Time Only)

Create the APP_SOURCES_ROOT directory that you decided on in the preparation section. We recommend creating this directory somewhere in the default web directory of the server (e.g. /var/www/tethys/apps).

sudo mkdir -p <APP_SOURCES_ROOT>
sudo chown $USER <APP_SOURCES_ROOT>

Download App Source Code

You will need to copy the source code of the app to the server. There are many methods for accomplishing this, but one way is to create a repository for your code in GitHub, BitBucket, or another Git repository. To download the source from a Git repository, change into the app directory and then clone it as follows:

cd <APP_SOURCES_ROOT>
sudo git clone <CLONE_URL>
Note

Replace <CLONE_URL> with the URL for your repository. These URLs generally look something like this: https://<host>/<username>/<repository_name>.git.

Install the App

Execute the install command in the app directory to make Python aware of the app and install any of its dependencies:

cd <APP_SOURCES_ROOT>/<REPOSITORY_NAME>
tethys install
Important

Installing your app in development mode on a production server (i.e.: tethys install -d or pip install -e .) is not recommended. Doing so has implications on file permissions that are not accounted for in these instructions. Do so at your own risk.

See also

Application Installation for more information on the installation process.

Collect Static Files and Workspaces

You will need to collect the workspaces and static files from the new app to the STATIC_ROOT and TETHYS_WORKSPACES_ROOT directories. This is easily done using the collectall command. However, you will need to change ownership the STATIC_ROOT and TETHYS_WORKSPACES_ROOT directories to your user before you can successfully run collectall. Don't forget to change ownership of these files back to the NGINX_USER after you are done.

Change the Ownership of Files to the Current User
sudo chown -R $USER <STATIC_ROOT> sudo chown -R $USER <TETHYS_WORKSPACES_ROOT>
Note

Replace STATIC_ROOT and TETHYS_WORKSPACES_ROOT with the paths to the directories you set up in the Static and Workspaces Directories step.
Run collectall Command
tethys manage collectall
Change the Ownership of Files Back to the NGINX User
sudo chown -R <NGINX_USER>: <STATIC_ROOT> sudo chown -R <NGINX_USER>: <TETHYS_WORKSPACES_ROOT>
Note

Replace <NGINX_USER> with the user noted in the NGINX Configuration step. Replace STATIC_ROOT and TETHYS_WORKSPACES_ROOT with the paths to the directories you set up in the Static and Workspaces Directories step.

Tip

If you setup the shortcuts earlier, you can use them now to make installation of new apps a little easier (see: 2. Setup Shortcuts for Changing Permissions (Optional)):

tethys_user_own
collectall
tethys_server_own

Restart ASGI and NGINX

Restart ASGI and NGINX services to effect the changes:

sudo supervisorctl restart all

Configure Additional App Settings

Set any additional required settings on the app settings page in the Tethys Portal admin pages (see Admin Pages > Tethys Apps).

Initialize Persistent Stores

If your app requires a database via the persistent stores API, you will need to initialize it:

tethys syncstores all

Start the Server

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