Run Postfacto on any Cloud Provider

Postfacto is an excellent tool for Sprint Retrospectives, but the deployment instructions are limited to four platforms (at the time of writing).

If you only need a simple installation, it’s entirely possible to get Postfacto running on any Cloud Provider, and using Docker.

What you’ll need

To run through these steps, you’ll need to have a Virtual Machine already provisioned and running Linux. I’ll be using Ubuntu 20.04, but most of the commands should work across distros.

Install Docker

Note: it’s always better to reference the official documentation but the steps, which are correct at the time of writing, have been copied here for ease.

• Update the apt package index and install packages to allow apt to use a repository over HTTPS:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release

• Add Docker’s official GPG key:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

• Set up the stable repository.

echo \
  "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

• Update the apt package index, and install the latest version of Docker Engine and containerd

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

• Add your user to the docker group

sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}

• Log in and out of the VM

• Confirm that your user is now added to the docker group (should output docker)

id -nG

• Install docker-compose

sudo apt update

sudo apt install docker-compose

• Check installation was successful

docker-compose --version

Set-up Postfacto

Note: Make sure to replace all passwords with more secure values.

• Create a docker-compose file with the following contents

version: "3.3"
services:
    postgres:
        image: postgres
        environment:
            - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=changeme
    redis:
        image: redis:5.0.5-alpine
    postfacto:
        image: postfacto/postfacto
        ports:
            - "3000:3000"
        environment:
            - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:changeme@postgres:5432/postgres
            - DISABLE_SSL_REDIRECT=true
            - SECRET_KEY_BASE=changeme
            - USE_POSTGRES_FOR_ACTION_CABLE=false
            - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
        links:
            - postgres
            - redis
        depends_on:
            - postgres

• Start the containers

docker-compose up -d

• Register an admin user

docker-compose exec postfacto create-admin-user {email} {password}

Create a retro

• Go to http://{server-ip}:3000/admin/ and login using the email/password from the last step
• Go to the Retros tab and create a retro with the required configuration
• Use your new retro at http://{server-ip}:3000/retros/{retro-slug}

Install/Setup Nginx Reverse Proxy

Note: This step is optional, and is only required if you want to use a domain name instead of the Public IP to use Postfacto.

• Install Nginx

sudo apt-get install nginx

• Create the postfacto configuration under /etc/nginx/sites-available/postfacto, with the follow contents:

server {
        listen 80;
        listen [::]:80;

        server_name <yourdomain(s)>;

        location / {
                proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header   Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                proxy_set_header   Connection "upgrade";
        }
}

• Enable the configuration

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/postfacto /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

• Test the config & Restart nginx

sudo service nginx configtest && sudo service nginx restart

TIP: You can pinpoint problems in your nginx config using the following command

sudo nginx -t

• Create the neccessary A (IPV4) and AAA (IPV6) records, to point the required domain and the public IP.

Install/Setup Certbot

Note: This step is optional, and is only required if you want to use SSL/HTTPS

• Ensure that your version of snapd is up to date

sudo snap install core; sudo snap refresh core

• Install Certbot

sudo snap install --classic certbot

• Prepare the Certbot command

sudo ln -s /snap/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot

• Get a certificate and have Certbot edit your Nginx configuration automatically to serve it, turning on HTTPS access in a single step

sudo certbot --nginx

• Test automatic renewal

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

• Confirm it worked by visiting your site over HTTPS