notes/projects/discopharma/20250310-Next_Steps.md

Goal

Setup a metabase instance via docker with https support and a professional Deployment Pipeline

Questions

• Separate Reverse Proxy or local Web Server enough??
• Exisiterende SSL Zertifikate nutzen?
• Kriege ich irgendwie Zugang?

20250311

• How many users?
• What is the old db software? Maybe we can reuse it? Are there backups of the old database ?
• DNS Verwaltung
• is the metabase version a requirement?

Meeting-20250311

Teilnehmer: Lukas Maas, Milos Nikolic, Petar Cubela

Answers

• DB: MySQL. Backup dump exist.
• Version needs to be 0.49.18
• 20 people
• Existing certs
• Use Reverse Proxy
• I will get access to the machines

My Time/ Steps

1. Databse Instance MySQL (0.5h -1h)
2. Metabase (.50 h)
3. VM R2verse Proxy (.50 h)
4. Find and Test the recreation of the data/dashboard database (metabase.db/) (1-2h)
5. write overwivew network setup (ip address, open ports in firewall, metabase.discopharma.de -> public ip ) (1h)
6. Recreate in discopharma setup: (2-3h)
   1. dns setup properly
   2. network setup properly
   3. creation of the VMs (oeither discopharma or me)
   4. Installation process (db exist, docker deployment of metabase, reverse proxy)
   5. Test

List of requirements regarding Metabase deployment (discopharma)

1. Find or create backup of Metabase Dashboard data within Docker image on the old machine (marketplace image that was compromised, or a previous image of it)
2. Solution architecture that obeys to best practices of security, so that
   • DISCO employees can connect to a DISCO-internal metabase application using a web browser and the URL “metabase.discopharma.de”
   • The application is not exposed to the public
   • All connections to the application are encrypted (https)
3. Solution architecture that includes a
   • Productive instance (highest priority)
   • Development/sandbox instance (lower priority)
   • A process to deploy upgrades of the application (lower priority)
4. Metabase version 0.49.18

Requirements

• properly configured and firewalled google cloud; VMs should only be able to communicate via private IPs!
• VM in google cloud for the metabase instance; Public IP address, port 80 and 443 forwarded; 1 cores, 2GB RAM (depends on user number)
• VM in google cloud for the metabase database instance; Private IP address; 1 cores, 1GB RAM (depends on user number); PostgreSQL
• Use existing SSL certs(??) with web server/reverse proxy like nginx/traefik/etc

Software

• Debian 12
• Docker
• Metabase
• PostgreSQL
• Traefik/Nginx (depends)

Notes

20250311

• https://www.metabase.com/learn/metabase-basics/administration/administration-and-operation/metabase-in-production#metabase-application-server-size

• Run separate database (PostgreSQL) and application server instances

Metabase application server size

• Metabase needs at least 1 core and 1GB of RAM
• For every 20 concurrent people it needs 1CPU and 2GB of RAM

Metabase application database server size

• Database needs at least 1 core and 2GB of RAM
• For every 40 concurrent people it needs 1CPU and 1GB of RAM

docker-compose.yml example

services:
  metabase:
    image: metabase/metabase:latest
    container_name: metabase
    hostname: metabase
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /dev/urandom:/dev/random:ro
      - "./metabase-db:/metabase.db"
      - ./plugins:/plugins
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    environment:
	  JAVA_TIMEZONE: Europe/Berlin
	  
	  MB_DB_FILE=/metabase.db
      MB_DB_TYPE: postgres
      MB_DB_DBNAME: metabase
      MB_DB_PORT: 5432
      MB_DB_USER_FILE: /run/secrets/db_user
      MB_DB_PASS_FILE: /run/secrets/db_password
      MB_DB_HOST: postgres
    networks:
      - metanet1
    secrets:
      - db_password
      - db_user
    healthcheck:
      test: curl --fail -I http://localhost:3000/api/health || exit 1
      interval: 15s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
  postgres:
    image: postgres:latest
    container_name: postgres
    hostname: postgres
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER_FILE: /run/secrets/db_user
      POSTGRES_DB: metabase
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD_FILE: /run/secrets/db_password
    networks:
      - metanet1
    secrets:
      - db_password
      - db_user
networks:
  metanet1:
    driver: bridge
secrets:
  db_password:
    file: db_password.txt
  db_user:
    file: db_user.txt