Multi-user cloud development

Dockerized multi-user capable environment to edit and preview server-based applications (php/nodejs)

Leveraging docker containers, for each predefined user you can easily set up an environment of the form

user1.view.myserver.com     # to preview user1 app,
user1.edit.myserver.com     # to edit user1 app
user2.view.myserver.com
user2.edit.myserver.com
user4.view.myserver.com
user5.view.myserver.com
...

where each subdomain will have per-user authentication options, per-user server application, and per-user editor.

Features

• Separate cloud development for multiple users!
• Run a webserver behind an authentication proxy that previews a pre-defined application
• Run an editor behind an authentication proxy to edit a pre-defined application
  • For php/nginx applications view changes in realtime through the webserver proxy
• Several authentication methods provided through the included authentication proxy (doorman), or provide your own container.

Infrastructure overview

See Infrastructure.md

Docker container structure

The following diagram shows the docker container structure, starting with a host that spawns:

• A frontend proxy container that routes external requests
• Per user, 1 auth-webserver container pair, 1 auth-editor container pair (former or latter can be optional as per config)

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                         |
|                                                                         |
|         Host                      /var/cloud-development/users/user1 +-------+
|                                   ...                                   |    |
|                                                                         |    |
|                                                                         |    |
+----+-----------+-------------+----+------------------------+------+-----+    |
     |           |             |    |                        |      |          |
     |           |             |    |                        |      |          |
     |           |             |    |                        |      |          |
     |           |             |    |      +----------+      |      |          |
     |           |             |    |      |  USER1   |      |      |          |
     |           |             |    |  +---+----------+---+  |      |          |
     |           |             |    |  |                  |  |      |          |
     |           |             |    |  v                  v  |      |          |
+----+-----------+-------+     |    |                        |      |          |
|                        |     |   ++-----------+   +--------+--+   |          |
|                        |     |   |            |   |           |   |          |
|    Frontend Proxy      |     |   |    Auth    |   |   Auth    |   |          |
|       container        |     |   |  container |   | container |   |          |
|                        |     |   |  webserver |   |  editor   |   |          |
|                        |     |   |    user1   |   |  user1    |   |          |
+------------------------+     |   |            |   |           |   |          |
                               |   +------------+   +-----------+   |          |
                               |                                    |          |
                               |                                    |          |
                               |   +------------+   +------------+  |          |
                               |   |            |   |            |  |          |
                               |   | Webserver  |   |   Editor   |  |          |
                               |   | container  |   | Container  |  |          |
                               +---+   User1    |   |   User1    +--+          |
                                   |            |   |            |             |
                                   +---------^--+   +--------^---+             |
                                             |               |                 |
                                             |               |                 |
                                             |               |                 |
                                             +---------------+-----------------+

                                                       Shared volume
                                                       with containers

Requests lifecycle

The following example shows the routing structure for an external request that by convention requests the webserver for user1. Only the frontend-proxy container listens to the outside world, the rest of the containers listen on the internal docker0 network interface.

1. The frontend proxy receives the request and proxies it to the corresponding user1 webserver auth container that is listening on the docker0 interface
2. The auth container, after successful authentication, proxies the request to the user1 webserver container so the webserver can be displayed

   Https

    +
    | user1.view.server.com
    v
    |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|   |                                                                     |
|   |                               +--------------------------+          |
|   |                               |                          |          |
|   |     Host   +--------->----------+  Docker0 Interface     |          |
|   |            |                  | |                        |          |
|   |            |                  +----------+->-+-----------+          |
|   |            |                    |        |   |                      |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    |            |                    |        |   |
    |            |                    |        |   |
    v            |                    |        |   |
    |            |                    v        |   |
    |            ^                    |        ^   v
    |            |                    |        |   |
    |            |                    |        |   |
    |            |                    |        |   |
+------------------------+            |        |   |
|   |            |       |         +--v--------++  |   +-----------+
|   v------------^       |         |            |  |   |           |
|                        |         |    Auth    |  |   |   Auth    |
|    Frontend Proxy      |         |  container |  |   | container |
|       container        |         |  webserver |  |   |  editor   |
|                        |         |    user1   |  |   |  user1    |
+------------------------+         |            |  |   |           |
                                   +------------+  |   +-----------+
                                                   |
                                                   |
                                   +------------+  |   +------------+
                                   |            |  |   |            |
                                   | Webserver  |  |   |   Editor   |
                                   | container  <--+   | Container  |
                                   |   User1    |      |   User1    |
                                   |            |      |            |
                                   +------------+      +------------+

Config

The main configuration files for assisted deployment live in the ./config folder. You should provide the list of users and their respective docker images (that you must provide separately).

Deploy

1. Build the required cloud-development docker images by running ./scripts/build_docker_images.sh.
2. Build any other image(s) (like CodeboxIde editor), and webserver images based on your user configuration specifics.
3. The folder ./scripts/upstart contains upstart scripts to run the environment automatically on startup, plus autorestart containers in case they die.

Demo

A demo application is provided in the ./demo folder, see demo details for how to install/run the demo.