Deploying a Connector

Owned by Bruno Chauvet (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Feb 06, 2019 by Olivier Brisse (Unlicensed)
3 min read

This page describes how to use Nex!™ to configure and deploy an application based on Maestrano's connector framework. At the end of this process your connector will be live and running.






In this example, we will assume that a connector application has been created on Github using the maestrano-connector-framework.
It is assumed that the application has been registered on the Developer Platform first.

1 - Create a new application on Nex!

# Create a new application with a default memory size of 512MB
nex-cli apps:create maestrano/web-ruby --size 4 --desc "My App Connector [UAT]" --tags "connector,uat,myapp"

# Keep track of the app name to make things simpler
export app=switchable-squid-8

# Transfer app ownership to your parent organization (e.g. maestrano)
nex-cli apps:transfer $app maestrano

# Add the mysql and redis add-ons
nex-cli addons:create mysql $app
nex-cli addons:create redis $app

2 - Configure the application and add-ons

The simplest way is to configure the environment variables using a YAML file, you can reuse this template:

application.yml
PORT: 3000
RAILS_ENV: uat
DATABASE_URL: "{{MYSQL2_URL}}"
SECRET_KEY_BASE: # Type `rake secret` in your shell to generate one
SIDEKIQ_USERNAME: admin
SIDEKIQ_PASSWORD: # Random password
MNO_DEVPL_HOST: https://developer-uat.maestrano.io
MNO_DEVPL_API_PATH: /api/config/v1/marketplaces
MNO_DEVPL_ENV_NAME: # Application nid / short name
MNO_DEVPL_ENV_KEY: # Developer Platform API KEY
MNO_DEVPL_ENV_SECRET: # Developer Platform API Secret
encryption_key1: # 128-bit WEP Key or SecureRandom.hex(29)
encryption_key2: # 128-bit WEP Key or SecureRandom.hex(29)
RAILS_MAX_THREADS: 64
newrelic_app_name: connector-myapp
newrelic_license_key: xxx
# Set the app configuration
nex-cli apps:vars $app --env-file path/to/file.yml

3 - Link the application to the Github repository


Provider is github, not git@github.com

The format of the "--link" option is: <provider>:<repo>:<branch>. Only one provider "github" is available at the moment. New providers such as "s3", "bitbucket" or "gitlab" will be made available in the future.

# SCM link
nex-cli apps:scm $app --link github:maestrano/connector-myapp:develop

4 - Add a custom domain


You need to manually add a record set in your DNS provider (e.g. AWS Route53) pointing to the Nex!™ generated URL. E.g. CNAME myapp.addon-hub.io pointing to holistic-raptor.mcube.co

# Register connector URL https://myapp.addon-hub.io
nex-cli domains:create myapp.addon-hub.io $app

5 - Register Log Drain on SumoLogic


You first need to register a Hosted SumoLogic Collector and use the generated collector URL

  1. Go to Manage > Collection > Add Collector
  2. Select "Hosted Collector" (the collector will be hosted by SumoLogic)
    1. For the name you should use the name of your actual connector for the log drain. E.g.: connector-vend-prd or connector-vend-uat
    2. SumoLogic then ask the type of collector you want. Select "HTTP"
    3. Use the same name as the collector for the name of the HTTP endpoint (e.g. connector-vend or connector-vend-uat)
    4. Select "UTC/Etc" for the timezone
  3. Once created SumoLogic will display a popup showing the log drain URL. Just copy that and use it for the next step
# Make sure to use the SumoLogic collector URL
nex-cli apps:update $app --http-log-drain https://collectors.au.sumologic.com/MY_RANDOM-LOG_DRAIN-TOKEN

6 - Start the connector


# Start the connector app
nex-cli apps:up $app

# Check the logs
# Note: you can as well check the logs in SumoLogic if you have setup a drain
nex-cli apps:logs $app --tail 200

And access your connector: https://myapp.addon-hub.io

7 - New Relic monitoring


Production connectors must be monitored with NewRelic so we are alerted of any downtime

To create a monitoring alert, log into the NewRelic account and go to Synthetics

  1. Type: Ping
  2. Details
    1. Name: Connector MyApplication
    2. URL: https://myapp.addon-hub.io/version.json
    3. Validation string: framework_version
  3. Monitoring locations: Singapore
  4. Schedule: 10 minutes
  5. Notification: "Add to an existing alert policy" - "Synthetics connectors - PRD"