Install Reacher on OVH

Requirements

🤓 Step by Step Guide

1. Set up your dedicated server by following the official OVH documentation. I recommend “Debian 11” as the Linux distribution, but it should work with “Debian 10” too.

2. Log into your server.

ssh debian@<ip_address_of_your_server>

3. Create the file ovh_postinstall.sh and paste the following content into it. You can use vim or nano to do this. Configure the variables on the top of the file accordingly.

#!/bin/bash

# Postinstall script of Reacher Backend on an OVH debian 11 server.
# As a postinstall, this script is meant to be run once, but for convenience,
# it's actually idempotent.

# Fail early.
set -e

# TODO: Configure these variables.
# Required variables:
RCH_VERSION="v0.7.0"                          # Docker Hub tag for reacherhq/backend.
DATABASE_URL="{{{DATABASE_URL}}}"             # URL of a Postgres database which hosts the bulk queue and results.
# Optional variables
RCH_SENTRY_DSN="{{{RCH_SENTRY_DSN}}}"         # Send bug reports to a Sentry.io dashboard.
RCH_HEADER_SECRET="{{{RCH_HEADER_SECRET}}}"   # Protect backend from the public.
RCH_FROM_EMAIL=reacher@gmail.com
RCH_HELLO_NAME=gmail.com                      # Shoud ideally match the reverse DNS of your OVH cloud instance.

echo "Installing Reacher backend $RCH_VERSION on host $HOSTNAME..."

# Install Docker
# https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade --yes
sudo apt-get install \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release \
    --yes
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg --yes
echo \
    "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
    $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin --yes

# Create `docker` group
# https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/
getent group docker || sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker debian
# Reload users and groups, see
# https://superuser.com/questions/272061/reload-a-linux-users-group-assignments-without-logging-out
sudo su - $USER << EOF

# Stop all previous docker containers and images
docker stop reacher_backend
docker rm reacher_backend

# Run the backend
docker run -d \
    -e RCH_ENABLE_BULK=1 \
    -e DATABASE_URL=$DATABASE_URL \
    -e RCH_BACKEND_NAME=$HOSTNAME \
    -e RCH_SENTRY_DSN=$RCH_SENTRY_DSN \
    -e RCH_HEADER_SECRET=$RCH_HEADER_SECRET \
    -p 80:8080 \
    --name reacher_backend \
    reacherhq/backend:$RCH_VERSION

echo "Everything set. You can close this terminal."
EOF

4. Run the script above.

# Make the script executable.
chmod a+x ovh_postinstall.sh
# Run it.
./ovh_postinstall

5. Wait a couple of minutes until the script finishes. It should end with:

--snip--
<long_hexadecimal_string>
Everything set. You can close this terminal.

The long hexadecimal string represents the Docker container ID, should you wish to start/stop it or monitor its logs.

6. In a new terminal, test the server by sending an email verification request.

curl -X POST \
	-H'Content-Type: application/json' \
	-d'{"to_email":"amaury@reacher.email"}' \
	http://<ip_address_of_your_server>/v0/check_email

It should return a JSON with is_reachable=safe!

Next Steps

• If you want to configure it more, take a look at some configuration options.

• Instead of single email verifications as in step 6, try after setting the RCH_ENABLE_BULK environment variable to 1.

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