Installation

Local Dev

1. clone repo then install packages using the command npm install

2. Install PostgreSQL and Create DB for NB with a user that has full access to it. Helpful resource.

3. Add a config file for your database called config.js structured like below:

var config = {
  db: {
    name: 'YOUR_DB_NAME',
    user: 'YOUR_DB_USERNAME',
    pass: 'YOUR_DB_PASSWORD'
  }
}
module.exports = config;

4. Add email-config.js file in thr root of the project like below (you can use your gmail account or ask admin for test account):

const nodemailer = require("nodemailer");
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
  service: 'gmail',
  auth: { 
    user: 'EMAIL_ADDRESS',
    pass: 'EMAIL_PASSWORD'
  }
});
module.exports = transporter;

5. Create .env file with the following content

JWT_SECRET=ENTER-SECRET-HERE-(RANDOM-STRING)

6. Run NB in separate terminals

   • Run backend using command npm run dev
   • run UI using command npm run serve

7. Access UI on https://127.0.0.1:8080/ . Note: Since we're using a self generated certificate for development, the browser will alert that you are running an insecure server. In Chrome type: thisisunsafe.

Deploy NB (Production)

1. SSH to the server ssh -i [YOUR_KEY].key [USER]@[HOST].csail.mit.edu

2. Install NodeJS curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash - sudo apt-get install -y nodejs Helpful resource.

3. Install PM2 sudo npm install -g pm2 Helpful resource.

4. Follow steps 1 & 2 from Local Dev (see above).

5. Configure HTTPS on the server:

   • Install certbot

   $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:certbot/certbot
   $ sudo apt-get update
   $ sudo apt-get install certbot
   

   • Generate an SSL certificate with certbot $ sudo certbot certonly --manual
   • Part of the certbot configuration, type your domain name without the protocol part. For instance: yourname-nb.csail.mit.edu.
   • When asked "Are you ok with your IP being logged?", type Y then ENTER.
   • Open a new connection to the server on a new terminal, don't close the previous one.
   • In the new terminal, navigate to the nb projecat and inside the public folder create a folder and name it .well-known, inside .well-know create another folder and name it acme-challenge.
   • In the directory acme-challenge, create an empty file and name it as instructed from the certbot in the first terminal.
   • Paste the challenge from the certbot into the file created in the previous step.
   • Run the nb server using sudo npm run http, and verify that you can access the challenge on the URL http://[yourname]-nb.csail.mit.edu/.well-known/acme-challenge/[challenge file name]
   • If everything is okay, go back to the first terminal and type ENTER.
   • Finally, you will find all the files that you need under this path /etc/letsencrypt/live/[yourname]-nb.csail.mit.edu

Helpful resource.

6. Create .env file with the following content

SSL_KEY=PATH_TO/privkey.pem
SSL_CERT=PATH_TO/cert.pem
SSL_CA=PATH_TO/chain.pem
PORT=443
JWT_SECRET=ENTER-SECRET-HERE-(RANDOM-STRING)

7. To generate UI bundle, run npm run build.

8. To start NB, run the following command sudo pm2 start npm --name "NB" --time -- start.

9. To make PM2 run automatically after reboot, run the following command sudo pm2 startup then run sudo pm2 save.

10. You should be able to access NB using [HOST].csail.mit.edu.

Useful PM2 Commands

sudo pm2 list                   # list all processes
sudo pm2 reload <ID|NAME|all>   # reload after changes to the code
sudo pm2 del <ID|NAME>          # delete process by id or name
sudo pm2 log < |NAME>           # show log for all or by name
sudo pm2 log all                # show all logs

Other

to update certificate, run sudo certbot renew, if this doesn't work try certbot certonly --manual -d $DOMAIN.com then recreate the challange.