Difference between revisions of "Firefox Sync Server"
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===Setup=== | ===Setup=== | ||
Installation instructions: | Installation instructions: | ||
Revision as of 02:21, 12 December 2012
This page is about special operations required in order to install Mozilla Sync Server.
Newer versions of Mozilla Firefox feature bookmarks, passwords, settings and browsing history synchronization between all your computers and devices. Mozilla Foundation provides a public Sync server, but you can host your own one if you want.
Prerequisites
Dependencies
Before proceeding, you need to install python2, python2-virtualenv, sqlite3, mercurial and make, all available in the official repositories.
Accessibility
If you intend to use your server with itinerant clients, you should install it on an Internet reachable computer.
Administration Rights
All installation instructions are commands relying on the superuser privileges, so open a terminal and type:
$ su - Password: #
Installation
Mozilla Sync Server depends on Python 2 during installation. Arch Linux provides Python 3 as default Python version so there are special tweaks needed before running Mozilla Sync Server setup. Setup process creates an isolated Python environment in which all necessary dependencies are downloaded and installed. Afterwards, running the server only relies on the isolated Python environment, independently of the system-wide Python.
Python preparation
Mozilla Sync Server setup needs Python 2.6 or newer. In default configuration, /usr/bin/python is a symbolic link to /usr/bin/python3 whereas Python 2 is /usr/bin/python2.
Before running setup, we must check the link and change it if necessary:
# cd /usr/bin
# ls -l python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 5 sept. 07:04 python -> python3
# ln -sf python2 python
# ln -s virtualenv2 virtualenv
Setup
Installation instructions:
# mkdir -p /opt/weave # cd /opt/weave # hg clone https://hg.mozilla.org/services/server-full ... source repository cloning messages ... # cd server-full # make build ... many build messages, including harmless warnings ... ... end of the successful build messages: Building the app Checking the environ [ok] Updating the repo [ok] Building Services dependencies Getting server-core [ok] Getting server-reg [ok] Getting server-storage [ok] [ok] Building External dependencies [ok] Now building the app itself [ok] [done]
Check the end of the build messages, they should state "[done]". Otherwise, look at the first error messages, they give you hints on the problem and how to solve it.
Python initial state restoration
# cd /usr/bin # ln -sf python3 python
Configuration
Server-side configuration files
Configuration files are used to define where databases and logs will be created.
We will place databases in /opt/weave/data and log files in /var/log/weave, so we must create the directories.
# mkdir /opt/weave/data /var/log/weave
At least two configuration files must be changed in /opt/weave/server-full in order to reflect these choices: development.ini and etc/sync.conf.
In development.ini, locate the line:
args = ('/tmp/sync-error.log',)
and change it to:
args = ('/var/log/weave/sync-error.log',)
In etc/sync.conf, locate the line:
sqluri = sqlite:////tmp/test.db
and change it to:
sqluri = sqlite:////opt/weave/data/sync.db
This statement appears twice in the file, both should be modified.
Bump the disk quota from 5 to 25 MB:
quota_size = 25600
The fallback node URL must reflect the server's hostname (here server-name.domain-name).
Change:
fallback_node = http://localhost:5000/
to:
fallback_node = http://server-name.domain-name:5000/
Unprivileged User
It is a good practice to run daemons as an unprivileged user. Create the group weave and the user sync for that purpose:
# groupadd weave # useradd -d /opt/weave -g weave -r -s /bin/bash sync
This new user must have read and write access on every file in /opt/weave and /var/log/weave
# chown -R sync:weave /opt/weave/* # chown -R sync:weave /var/log/weave
Automatic Startup of the Server
In order to make the Sync Server start automatically at boot-time, create a startup script:
/etc/rc.d/mozillaweave
#!/bin/bash
RUNDIR=/var/run/weave
DAEMON=/opt/weave/bin/python
PIDFILE=/var/run/weave.pid
MESSAGELOG=/var/log/weave/sync-messages.log
. /etc/rc.conf
. /etc/rc.d/functions
PID=`pidof -x -o %PPID paster`
case "$1" in
start)
stat_busy "Starting Mozilla Sync Server"
[ -d $RUNDIR ] || mkdir $RUNDIR
[ -z "$PID" ] && su sync -c "cd /opt/weave/server-full && bin/paster serve development.ini &>$MESSAGELOG &"
if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
stat_fail
else
PID=`pidof -x -o %PPID paster`
echo $PID >$PIDFILE
add_daemon weave
stat_done
fi
;;
stop)
stat_busy "Stopping Mozilla Sync Server"
[ ! -z "$PID" ] && kill $PID &>/dev/null
if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
stat_fail
else
rm_daemon weave
stat_done
fi
;;
restart)
$0 stop
$0 start
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0
The script must have execution rights:
# chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/mozillaweave
Start the Sync Server at boot by including mozillaweave in the Daemon list. It depends on the network so it should be placed accordingly.
Client-side configuration
Use the Sync Configuration Wizard in Firefox' Settings to create a new account on the server. Don't forget to choose "Custom server..." in the list, and input the server address: http://server-name.domain-name:5000/
The "Advanced Settings" button allows fine tuning of the synchronized elements list, and the definition of the client hostname.