Develop node applications on PantherX (PostgreSQL, Redis, Nginx)

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#1

We’ll set these up for local development but with minor modifications you can run this on a server too.

  1. PostgreSQL (root)
  2. Redis (root)
  3. Nginx (root)
  4. Hosts file (root)
  5. NPM

Configuration

Login as root before you continue.

su - root

PostgreSQL

To configure this, you will need to do two things:

  1. Import the databases package and service module.
  2. Add the postgresql-service-type to your services

Open /etc/system.scm:

(use-modules (gnu)
             (gnu system)
             (px system)
             ...
             ;; Add this line
             (gnu packages databases))

;; Add this line
;; If 'user-service-modules' already exists, just add 'databases' to it
(use-service-modules databases)

(px-desktop-os
 (operating-system
  ...

Modify services:

Refer to PostgreSQL: Documentation: 13: 20.1. The pg_hba.conf File for more information on pg_hba.conf and database authentication options.

(services (cons* (service postgresql-service-type
                          (postgresql-configuration
                           (config-file
                            (postgresql-config-file
                             (hba-file
                              (plain-file "pg_hba.conf"
                         "
local   all     all                     trust
host    all     all     127.0.0.1/32    trust
host    all     all     ::1/128         md5"))))
                             (postgresql postgresql-10)))
                 %px-desktop-services))

This will ensure that any user can connect do any database via unix socker or 127.0.0.1 for ease.

Redis

All we need to add is (service redis-service-type).

(services (cons* (service postgresql-service-type
                          (postgresql-configuration
                           (config-file
                            (postgresql-config-file
                             (hba-file
                              (plain-file "pg_hba.conf"
                         "
local   all     all                     trust
host    all     all     127.0.0.1/32    trust
host    all     all     ::1/128         md5"))))
                             (postgresql postgresql-10)))
                 ;; Add this line
                 (service redis-service-type)
                 %px-desktop-services))

Nginx

To configure this, you will need to do two things:

  1. Generate a certificate
  2. Import the web package and service module.
  3. Add the nginx-service-type to your services

(1) Create a self-signed certificate:

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 \
            -x509 \
            -sha256 \
            -days 3650 \
            -nodes \
            -out ~/example.crt \
            -keyout ~/example.key

Open nano /etc/system.scm:

(2) Import the web package and service module

(use-modules (gnu)
             (gnu system)
             (px system)
              ...
             (gnu packages databases)
             ;; Add this line
             (gnu packages web))

(use-service-modules databases web)

(px-desktop-os
 (operating-system
....

(3) Add the nginx-service-type to your services

Modify services to look like this:

This is where your self-signed certificate and key at /root/... is used. (Don’t do this in production. Use Certificate Services instead.)

(services (cons* (service postgresql-service-type
                          (postgresql-configuration
                           (config-file
                            (postgresql-config-file
                             (hba-file
                              (plain-file "pg_hba.conf"
                         "
local   all     all                     trust
host    all     all     127.0.0.1/32    trust
host    all     all     ::1/128         md5"))))
                             (postgresql postgresql-10)))
                 (service redis-service-type)
                 ;; Add these lines
                 (service nginx-service-type
                          (nginx-configuration
                           (server-blocks
                            (list (nginx-server-configuration
                             (server-name '("example.com"))
                             (ssl-certificate "/root/example.crt")
                             (ssl-certificate-key "/root/example.key")
                             (locations
                               (list
                                 (nginx-location-configuration
                                 (uri "/")
                                 (body '("proxy_pass http://localhost:4000;"))))))))))
                %px-desktop-services))

Modify hosts file

To actually test this locally, we need to also modify the hosts file and add 127.0.0.1 example.com. We also do this in /etc/system.scm:

...
(px-desktop-os
 (operating-system
  (host-name "panther")
  (timezone "Europe/Berlin")
  (locale "en_US.utf8")

  ;; Add these lines
  (hosts-file
   (plain-file "hosts"
               "
127.0.0.1 localhost panther
::1       localhost panther
127.0.0.1 example.com"))

...

To apply all these changes, reconfigure:

guix system reconfigure /etc/system.scm

NPM

Now you should have PostgreSQL, Redis and Nginx running.

Go back to your user account.

exit

Install node:

guix package -i node

and run your application (for ex. express server) on port 4000.

Testing

Just open https://example.com/ in Firefox, skip the certificate warning and you should see your application.

To revert, simply remove the changes from /etc/system.scm and reconfigure with

guix system reconfigure /etc/system.scm

You can also start and stop or restart services:

su - root
herd status # get a list of all running services
herd stop nginx
herd start nginx
herd restart nginx