Install Snipe-IT with Docker Compose and Terraform in AWS

This project is a deployment of a inventory management software called Snipe-IT focused on automation of:

• Deployment in the cloud
• Recovery of the server is there has been any problems with it
• Backups to a S3 bucket of the MySQL database

For this, the main technologies used are Terraform, to deploy the resources to AWS, and Docker Compose, to run the Snipe-IT and MySQL services.

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Installation

To install this project in the cloud the necessary steps must be performed:

1. Fork this repository to be able to save the terraform state files

I recommend to make your repository private as the terraform state files contain sensitive information like the bucket name or the AWS account.

2. Make sure to change the public key for the server

Update the contents of deployment/snipeit/web_key.pub with your public key. Otherwise, I will be able to access your machine, and we don’t want that…

3. Add your service configuration

Copy the src/example.env file into src/.env and edit it to add your configuration of the services. Note that the passwords are the ones used in the local MySQL database.

Obtain the APP_KEY for the Snipe-IT configuration

In order to obtain the key make sure to run the following code:

docker run --rm snipe/snipe-it

And now copy the whole key with the base64 included to your configuration.

4. Add your Terraform configuration

Copy the deployment/example.tfvars file into deployment/terraform.tfvars and edit it to add your configuration. Make sure to set up the correct aws_region and aws_profile based on your configuration.

5. Deploy

Go to the deployment/ folder and run the following code to deploy the terraform configuration in your AWS:

terraform init
terraform apply

Tip: I like using Terraform workspaces to manage the different deployments.

Make sure to have valid credentials for AWS. I recommend using AWS profiles.

6. Upload the src/.env file into the root of the newly S3 bucket for later use

Go to the S3 bucket that Terraform has created and upload the src/.env file to the root of the bucket.

This is done so if there are any problems and the EC2 instance has to be recreated, it has all the configuration available for later use.

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Important notes

Backups

Backups are performed with a cron job that runs every day at 5 am. If you want to change it make sure to edit this line.

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Future Work

• [ ] Automatic restore of the backups when starting up.
• [ ] Create a systemd service instead of a cronjob for automatic backups.
• [ ] Configuration to edit.

If you have any other ideas make sure to open an issue. Also if you want to add features just open a pull request.

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More information

Check out my website to see who am I.

And if you want to get in contact with me, you can contact me via LinkedIn.