Running Praktomat in a Docker container

TL;DR

docker network create praktomat
cd praktomat
docker build -t praktomat .
cd ..

docker-compose --env-file=aud-win.env up -d

cd traefik
docker-compose up -d

Initial setup

Create a network called praktomat to which the individual Praktomat instances as well as the reverse proxy will have access to.

docker network create praktomat

We're using Traefik as a reverse proxy for this setup. Traefik is responsible for the TLS encryption as well as the routing to the various Praktomat instances running on your host. Copy over the SSL/TLS certificate to traefik/cert.pem and the private key to traefik/key.pem. The routing to the individual Praktomat instances will happen automatically via labels.

Now, start up the Traefik container.

cd traefik
docker-compose up -d

Aside from the labels of other Docker containers, Traefik is configured through a static configuration file traefik.toml as well as a dynamic configuration file traefik_dynamic.toml. See the Traefik docs for more information.

Starting a Praktomat instance

First, you need to build the Praktomat image. By doing this manually, Docker won't build an extra image for each instance. Naviagate into praktomat and build the image with the following command.

docker build -t praktomat .

Navigate back to the root directory of this repository. The following environment variables need to be set for running the container.

• COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME: This is the ID of your Praktomat instance. Practically, this defines where you'll reach your Praktomat instance, e.g. https://localhost/your-praktomat-id.
• PRAKTOMAT_NAME: This is the name of your site. It will be displayed at the top of the web interface.
• PRAKTOMAT_ADMIN: The email address of the administrator for the Praktomat instance
• PRAKTOMAT_DOMAIN: The domain under which your instance(s) will be reachable
• PRAKTOMAT_EXTERNAL: The path to a directory that will be accessible via a bind mount in the Praktomat instance at /home/praktomat/external
• PRAKTOMAT_PRODUCTIVE: The variable will enable the TLS protocol in the docker-compose.yml. For local tests on localhost the variable should be set to false.

Those variables are defined through an environment file. There's a template called template.env. Make a copy for each Praktomat instance and modify the contained variables to your needs.

Create a directory called work-data in your home directory. Then create a subdirectory with the name of COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME for each instance. The submissions for an instance will be stored here.

Then start an instance by supplying your environment file. The command looks like the following.

docker-compose --env-file=aud-win.env up -d

Two containers are going to be created and started. One container contains a PostgreSQL database and one container contains the actual Praktomat application.

Now, open the CLI of the Praktomat container you just started. The container name usually looks like <COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME>_praktomat.

docker exec -it <container name> /bin/bash

Then execute the following command to interactively create a superuser:

python3 Praktomat/src/manage-local.py createsuperuser

The application is accessible on https://PRAKTOMAT_DOMAIN/COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME.

Operations

Here are some notes on operating praktomat.

• Directory $HOME/work-data/$COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME/sent-mails stores a logfile for each error that occurs while praktomat is running. (Normally, an email is sent in such a situation.)