Setting up NOCLook

NOCLook is the main GUI component, a django webapp that allows users to access the data stored in NI, it is also often what people refer to when they say NI.

This guide is written for Ubuntu 18.04 and python3.

NEO4J database

The official neo4j installation guide for version 3.x is the reference for this part.

Install openjdk-java8

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre
$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.x"

NEO4J

$ wget -O - https://debian.neo4j.org/neotechnology.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
$ echo 'deb http://debian.neo4j.org/repo stable/' | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/neo4j.list
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install neo4j=1:3.5.5

Configuration

$ sudo vim /etc/neo4j/neo4j.conf
Add the following:
 
#*******************
# NI specific config
#*******************

# Autoindexing
# Enable auto-indexing for nodes, default is false
node_auto_indexing=true
 
# The node property keys to be auto-indexed, if enabled
node_keys_indexable=name, description, ip_address, ip_addresses, as_number, hostname, hostnames, telenor_tn1_number, nordunet_id, version
 
# Enable auto-indexing for relationships, default is false
relationship_auto_indexing=true
 
# The relationship property keys to be auto-indexed, if enabled
relationship_keys_indexable=ip_address
$ sudo rm /var/lib/neo4j/data/dbms/auth
# Note the extra space before the command to avoid saving password in bash history
$  sudo -u neo4j neo4j-admin set-initial-password your_awesome_password
$ sudo service neo4j restart

Setup limits for neo4j

$ sudo vim /etc/security/limits.conf


neo4j   soft    nofile  60000
neo4j   hard    nofile  60000


Postgres database

Set password for database user and create a new database

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql
$ sudo -u postgres psql postgres
template1=# CREATE USER ni with PASSWORD 'secret';
template1=# CREATE DATABASE norduni;
template1=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE norduni to ni;
template1=# ALTER DATABASE norduni OWNER TO ni;             #  Allow user ni to drop and create for restoring
template1=# ALTER USER ni CREATEDB;                         #  and development purposes
template1=# \q

 

NOCLook

Before installing NOCLook you need to install the required system libraries

$ sudo apt-get install git python3-pip libpq-dev
$ sudo pip3 install -U pip
$ sudo pip3 install virtualenv
$ sudo adduser --disabled-password --home /var/opt/norduni ni

 Now you are ready to install NOCLook, start by changing to the ni user.

$ sudo -u ni -i
$ pwd 
/var/opt/norduni
$ git clone https://code.nordu.net/norduni.git
# Create virtual env
$ virtualenv norduni_environment
# Activate virtual env
$ . norduni_environment/bin/activate
# Install python dependencies
$ pip install -r norduni/requirements/prod.txt

Configure NOCLook

$ cd /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/
$ cp dotenv .env
$ vi .env

You need to setup the following settings:

NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j
NEO4J_PASSWORD=
REPORTS_TO=
SECURITY_REPORTS_TO=
DB_PASSWORD=
ALLOWED_HOSTS=ni.yourdomain.tld localhost
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL=
EMAIL_HOST=
SECRET_KEY=
GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=

The secret key should be at least 50 chars long consisting of the following characters: 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789!@#$%^&*(-_=+)'

You can use the following snippit to gennerate such a string locally:

# Missing ! since bash is sad when you use ! in anything, and pyton thinks \! is to be read as both \ and !
$ python -c "import random; print(''.join([random.SystemRandom().choice('abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789@#$%^&*(-_=+)') for i in range(50)]))"

Migrate databases and check config

# To make it easier for yourself set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=niweb.settings.prod in your bashprofile/bashrc
$ cd /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb
$ python manage.py migrate
$ python manage.py collectstatic
$ python manage.py runserver
$ rm -r /tmp/django_cache

Create local superuser

$ python manage.py createsuperuser

 

Deploying NOCLook

Start by installing uwsgi and nginx.

$ sudo apt-get install nginx-full uwsgi uwsgi-plugin-python

 

UWSGI

$ sudo vi /etc/uwsgi/apps-available/noclook.ini
 
The following configuration should be a good start.
 
[uwsgi]
# Django-related settings
plugins = python
protocol = uwsgi
# the base directory (full path)
chdir           = /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/
# Django's wsgi file
wsgi-file       = /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/niweb/wsgi.py
env             = DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=niweb.settings.prod
# the virtualenv (full path)
home            = /var/opt/norduni/norduni_environment
# logging
daemonize       = /var/log/uwsgi/app/noclook.log
# process-related settings
# master
master          = true
# maximum number of worker processes
processes       = 5
#threads        = 2
max-requests    = 5000
# the socket (use the full path to be safe
socket          = 127.0.0.1:8001
# clear environment on exit
vacuum          = true
# for now we run uwsgi in lazy-apps, due to neo4j session problems
lazy-apps       = true
# less noisy uwsgi logs (especially with sentry)
ignore-sigpipe = true
ignore-write-errors = true
disable-write-exception = true

Link the configuration in to the correct directory.

$ sudo ln -s /etc/uwsgi/apps-available/noclook.ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/noclook.ini

Make temp dir and log dir writable by the uwsgi user (www-data on ubuntu)

sudo chown -R ni:www-data /tmp/django_cache
sudo chmod -R g+rw /tmp/django_cache
  
sudo chown -R ni:www-data /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/logs/
sudo chmod -R g+w /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/logs/

Finally restart uwsgi

$ sudo service uwsgi restart

 

NGINX


$ sudo vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
 
# The following configuration should be a good start.
# Remember certificates or 
# sudo openssl req -x509 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/ni_nordu_net.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/ni_nordu_net.crt
 
upstream django {   
    server 127.0.0.1:8001; # for a web port socket
}
 
server {
    listen         80;
    listen         [::]:80;
    server_name    ni.nordu.net;
    return         301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}
 
server {
    listen 443;
    listen [::]:443 default; ## listen for ipv6
    server_name ni.nordu.net;
    
    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/ni_nordu_net.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/ni_nordu_net.key;
 
    # https://mozilla.github.io/server-side-tls/ssl-config-generator/ modern
    ssl_session_timeout 1d;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
    ssl_session_tickets off;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256';
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
 
    location /static/ {
        alias         /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/niweb/static/;
        autoindex    on;
        access_log   off;
        expires      30d;
    }
 
    location / {
        include     /etc/nginx/uwsgi_params;
        proxy_set_header   Host                 $host;
        proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP            $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For      $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-Proto    $scheme;
        proxy_redirect     off;
        uwsgi_pass  django;
    }  
}

Then restart nginx (still remember to setup ssl certificates)

$ sudo service nginx restart

SAML SP

If you want to set up NOCLook as a SAML SP you need to install the following packages and Python modules.

$ sudo apt-get install libffi-dev xmlsec1
$ sudo -u ni -i
$ sudo vim /var/opt/norduni/norduni/src/niweb/.env

# Add
SAML_ENABLED=true
# Set the login url to point to your IDP
LOGIN_URL=/saml2/login/?idp=https://idp.nordu.net/idp/shibboleth
# If you want to disable normal django login then add
DJANGO_LOGIN_DISABLED=true

You also have to create a pysaml2 configuration.
All this is best described in the documentation at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/djangosaml2.

Local saml metadata

To speed up login you can use local metadata. This metadata still needs to be updated and verified, and for that you can use https://github.com/NORDUnet/metadata-updater 

You need to configure djangosaml2 to use local metadata, and you will have to add the meta-dataupdater to cron, preferably by creating a cron.d file as that runs it as the ni user. Once an hour is reasonable, once a day can be ok, once a week might be tiresome when a cert is rolled.

Customising look and feel

It is now possible to change some of the NI styling.

In .env you can set the following:

# Displayed where it would normally say NORDUnet (e.g. on the front page)
BRAND=NORDUnet


# Displayed just above the NOCLook text in the logo
LOGO_SUBTEXT=DEV
# Change the logo color
LOGO_COLOR='#e67528'


# Change link colors
LINK_COLOR='#e67528'
LINK_HOVER='#71360a'

Upgrade from NI 3 to 3.3

There is not a lot that needs to be done when updating from 3 to 3.3, mostly you need to update your `.env` config. 

After updating .env follow the General Upgrade NI guide, only be aware that you should nuke your `urls.py`. 

Python2 if needed

Moving forward NI will be python 3 focused, but for now it should still work with python 2. One thing you need to do to have python2 support is install the requirements in `requirements/py2.txt` by running:

$ sudo -u ni -i
# Activate virtual env
$ . norduni_environment/bin/activate
# Install python dependencies
$ pip install -r norduni/requirements/py2.txt

General Upgrade NI

# In norduni directory as the NI user
$ sudo -u ni -i
$ cd norduni
$ git stash
$ git pull origin master
$ git stash pop
# You might get conflict e.g. in urls.py
# Resolve it and run git reset
$ rm -r src/niweb/norduniclient
 
# Delete old virtualenv and create a new
$ cd ..
$ rm -r norduni_environment
$ virtualenv norduni_environment
$ . norduni_environment/bin/activate
$ pip install -U pip
$ pip install -U -r norduni/requirements/prod.txt
# If running python 2.7 also run
$ pip install -r norduni/requirements/py2.txt
 
# update norduni/src/niweb/.env to have:
	NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j
    NEO4J_PASSWORD=your_awesome_password
    NEO4J_RESOURCE_URI=bolt://localhost:7687
# If you have saml enabled you need to add the following to norduni/src/niweb/apps/saml2auth/config.py
# Just beside the key_file and cert_file entries.
	'encryption_keypairs': [{
        'key_file': path.join(BASEDIR, 'sp-key.pem'),  # private part
        'cert_file': path.join(BASEDIR, 'sp-cert.pem'),  # public part
    }],
 
# finally run migrate and collect statics
$ python norduni/src/niweb/manage.py migrate --settings=niweb.settings.prod
$ python norduni/src/niweb/manage.py collectstatic --settings=niweb.settings.prod

Then you can restart uwsgi.

$ rm -r /tmp/django_cache
$ sudo service uwsgi restart

Troubleshooting

If you run into problems you can use `python src/niweb/manage.py -h` to see if there are errors.

  • `AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'session'` is caused by wrong credentials (or missing configuration there of)
  • `ImportError: cannot import name contextmanager` or `ImportError: cannot import name IntegrityError` - you need to delete `src/niweb/norduniclient`
  • `ImportError: No module named django.core.exceptions` (you need to source your virtual environment)
  • `ImportError: No module named neo4j.v1.exceptions` - Problems with virtualenv installed dependencies, delete your virtualenv and install again
  • `neo4j.exceptions.AuthError: The client is unauthorized due to authentication failure.` - your password contains some characters that got mangled, e.g. # or @, remove 
  • `IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/tmp/django_cache/'` - the directory is probably owned by ni user, and not www-data, which uwsgi runs as. Remove the dir, and restart uwsgi

Example configs

.env

# Neo4j settings
NEO4J_RESOURCE_URI=bolt://localhost:7687
NEO4J_MAX_DATA_AGE=24
NEO4J_MAX_POOL_SIZE=50
NEO4J_USERNAME=neo4j
NEO4J_PASSWORD=<%= $neo4j_password %>

# Report settings
REPORTS_TO=<%= $reports_to %>
# Optional CC and BCC and EXTRA_REPORT_TO
REPORTS_CC=<%= $reports_cc %>
REPORTS_BCC=<%= $reports_bcc %>
EXTRA_REPORT_TO=<%= $extra_reports_to %>


SECURITY_REPORTS_TO=<%= $security_reports_to %>

# Database settings
DB_ENGINE=django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2
DB_NAME=norduni
DB_USER=ni
DB_PASSWORD=<%= $postgres_password %>
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432

# Cache settings
CACHE_BACKEND=django.core.cache.backends.filebased.FileBasedCache
CACHE_LOCATION=/tmp/django_cache

# General settings
ALLOWED_HOSTS=<%= $server_name %> <%= $allowed_hosts %> localhost


# If using sentry
SENTRY_DSN=<%= $sentry_dsn %>

DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL=django@<%= $server_name %>
EMAIL_HOST=localhost
#EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=
#EMAIL_HOST_USER=
#EMAIL_PORT=

# Secret key
SECRET_KEY=<%= $secret_key %>

# Google apis key
GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=<%= $google_api_key %>

# Login
# if $saml_enabled:
LOGIN_URL=/saml2/login/?idp=https://idp.nordu.net/idp/shibboleth
SAML_ENABLED=true


# if $django_login_disabled
DJANGO_LOGIN_DISABLED=true


# Branding
BRAND=SUNET
LOGO_SUBTEXT=SUNET
LOGO_COLOR='#e67528'
LINK_COLOR='#e67528'
LINK_HOVER='#71360a'