Cloud

TMIServer running on the (GCP) Cloud.

GCP

TMIServer should be able to run any cloud but GCP was picked as a first example because they have a free tier that is free for “life”, rather than one year like some of the more popular others.

The instructions to be presented are certainly not the only way to put TMIServer on the cloud, and given the security issues around the Cloud, you should get an expert opinion to set this up.

There are two ways to structure TMIServer on the Cloud (GCP),

  • TMIServer and Postgres running on the same instance
  • TMIServer running on a VM, and Postgres running as an SQL

Running both TMIServer and Postgres on one VM is easier to setup, and is basically the same setup as when you create a TMIServer on a local machine. The CONS of doing it this way is that the Postgres DB of your results are tied to the instance, you have to keep the instance running or else you will lose all your data. You may not be able to expand the VM Instance disk size if you fill it up.

Running the Postgres as a SQL resource is not that much more difficult to set up in the GCP dashboard. The extra step is that you have to specifically set the Postgres SQl to ALLOW connections from the VM. There is in fact an online wizard that guides you thru the process. Postgres as a separate resource also enables access to several Google SQL tools, for example, backups, maintenance, and security.

For a production environment, if you choose to have TMIServer/Postgres in the cloud, the recommended approach is to use Postgres as a separate resource from the VM running TMIServer.

TMIServer/Postgres On Instance VM

Log into your Google Cloud Account.

Create an instance VM and use a Ubuntu 18.04 Minimum image.

Traffic to/from the GCP node needs to be allowed by the Firewall,

VPC Network -> Firewall Rules
Name                    Type        Targets         Filters                 Protocols / ports           Action      Priority        Network
tmiserver-egress    Egress  Apply to all    IP ranges: 0.0.0.0/0    tcp:6600    udp:6600    Allow   1000        default
tmiserver-ingress   Ingress Apply to all    IP ranges: 0.0.0.0/0    tcp:6600    udp:6600    Allow   1000        default

The above Firewall rules allow connection to TMIServer from any external IP. You should instead limit access to TMIServer to your domain for extra security.

Open an SSH to the VM and run these commands, which will install Docker, these are copied from https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg-agent \
    software-properties-common
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
sudo usermod -aG docker your-user # and then REBOOT!

After you have rebooted, open a new SSH terminal. Run these commands to install tmi_scripts,

mkdir ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/mgagcode/tmi_scripts.git

Run TMI postgres script to start a local Postgres DB,

cd ~/git/tmi_scripts/public
./tmipostg.sh --restart=always start

Run the TMIServer start script

cd ~/git/tmi_scripts/public
./tmiserver.sh --restart=always start