Deployment Overview of Redmine on Server¶

Prerequisites and Basic Requirements¶

The following requirements must be met on the server before accessing the deployed application:

Operating System: Linux distribution compatible with Docker Engine.
Privileges: Root access or sudo privileges are required to manage Docker containers and system services.
Domain: The application is configured to operate under the hostkey.in zone.
Ports: External access is provided via port 443 (HTTPS) and port 80 (HTTP for SSL redirection).

FQDN of the Final Panel¶

The application is accessible via the following Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) format:

redmine<Server ID>.hostkey.in:443

Replace <Server ID> with the specific identifier assigned to the server instance.

File and Directory Structure¶

The deployment utilizes the following directory structure for configuration, data, and certificates:

/opt/redmine: Contains the Docker Compose configuration file.
/data/nginx/user_conf.d: Stores the Nginx server block configuration files.
/etc/letsencrypt: Stores SSL certificates and keys managed by Certbot.
/data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env: Environment file for Nginx-Certbot configuration.

Application Installation Process¶

The application is deployed using Docker containers orchestrated via Docker Compose. The installation includes the following components:

Database: MySQL version 8.0.
Application: Redmine (default image).
Proxy: Nginx with Certbot integration (jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest).

The deployment is initiated by running the Docker Compose command within the /opt/redmine directory.

Docker Containers and Their Deployment¶

The system consists of three primary containers defined in the docker-compose.yml file located at /opt/redmine/docker-compose.yml.

Container Name	Image	Description
`redmine-mysql`	`mysql:8.0`	Database service for Redmine.
`redmine`	`redmine`	Main Redmine application service.
`redmine-nginx`	`jonasal/nginx-certbot:latest`	Reverse proxy and SSL termination.

The containers are configured with the following restart policies:

redmine-mysql: always
redmine: always
redmine-nginx: unless-stopped

Dependencies are enforced such that the redmine container starts only after redmine-mysql is healthy, and redmine-nginx starts only after redmine is healthy.

Proxy Servers¶

The application uses an Nginx reverse proxy container (redmine-nginx) to handle incoming traffic.

SSL/TLS: Enabled via Let's Encrypt certificates managed by Certbot.
Certificate Path: Certificates are mounted from the nginx_secrets volume to /etc/letsencrypt.
Configuration: The server block is defined in /data/nginx/user_conf.d/redmine<Server ID>.hostkey.in.conf.
Proxy Settings:
Listens on port 443 (SSL) and 80.
Forwards traffic to the Redmine container at http://redmine:3000.
Supports WebSocket upgrades.
Headers X-Forwarded-Host, X-Forwarded-Server, X-Real-IP, and X-Forwarded-For are passed to the backend.

Databases¶

The application uses a MySQL database for data storage.

Connection Method: Internal Docker network communication.
Database Name: redmine
Host: db (internal container name)
Authentication: Managed via environment variables (MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD, REDMINE_DB_PASSWORD).
Health Check: The database container runs a health check using mysqladmin ping every 30 seconds.

Available Ports for Connection¶

The following ports are exposed for external and internal communication:

Port 443: HTTPS traffic (Primary access).
Port 80: HTTP traffic (Used for SSL redirection and Let's Encrypt validation).
Port 3000: Internal port used by the Redmine container (not exposed externally).

Starting, Stopping, and Updating¶

Service management is handled via Docker Compose commands executed in the /opt/redmine directory.

Start/Restart Services:
```
docker compose up -d
```
Stop Services:
```
docker compose down
```
View Logs:
```
docker compose logs -f
```
Update Images: To update the application, pull the latest images and restart the containers:
```
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d
```

Location of Configuration Files and Data¶

Key configuration files and data locations are as follows:

Docker Compose: /opt/redmine/docker-compose.yml
Nginx Configuration: /data/nginx/user_conf.d/redmine<Server ID>.hostkey.in.conf
SSL Certificates: /etc/letsencrypt/live/redmine<Server ID>.hostkey.in/
Nginx Environment: /data/nginx/nginx-certbot.env

Permission Settings¶

The deployment directories and files are owned by the root user and group with the following permissions:

/opt/redmine: 0644 (Directory created with root ownership).
/opt/redmine/docker-compose.yml: 0644.
/data/nginx/user_conf.d/*.conf: 0644.