# Production deployment notes ## Gitea Actions This repo includes `.gitea/workflows/ci-deploy.yml` for: - backend build - backend tests - frontend tests - frontend production build - deployment to Ubuntu after successful tests on `main` ### Required secrets in Gitea - `PROD_HOST` - `PROD_USER` - `PROD_SSH_KEY` ## Ubuntu server setup Recommended app path: - `/opt/job-tracker/app` Persistent runtime secrets path: - `/opt/job-tracker/shared/.env` Requirements: - Docker Engine - Docker Compose plugin - reverse proxy in front (Nginx, Caddy, or Traefik) - shared env file present on server in `/opt/job-tracker/shared/.env` - network connectivity from the backend container to your `mariadb` container/service The deploy script will automatically create a symlink from: - `/opt/job-tracker/shared/.env` to: - `/opt/job-tracker/app/.env` This keeps secrets outside the uploaded repo checkout so they are not wiped by CI deploys. ### Frontend API base URL The production frontend already proxies `/api` to the backend container via Nginx. Recommended default: - leave `NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL` unset/empty in production Only set `NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL` if the UI must call a different external API origin on purpose. ## Example production `.env` ```env DATABASE_PROVIDER=mariadb JOBTRACKER_CONNECTION_STRING=server=mariadb;port=3306;database=jobtracker;user=jobtracker;password=REPLACE_ME AUTH_JWT_KEY=replace_with_long_random_secret AUTH_ADMIN_EMAIL=you@example.com AUTH_ADMIN_PASSWORD=replace_with_strong_password AUTH_REQUIRE_EMAIL_VERIFICATION=true APP_PUBLIC_BASE_URL=https://your-domain.example WEB_PROXY_SUBNET=172.31.250.0/29 STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=sk_live_... STRIPE_PRICE_PREMIUM=price_... STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_... AI_SERVICE_BASE_URL=http://ai-service:8001 OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama:11434 OLLAMA_MODEL=qwen2.5:7b EMAIL_FOLLOWUPREMINDERS_ENABLED=true EMAIL_FOLLOWUPREMINDERS_UPCOMINGDAYS=2 # Optional backward-compatible alias if older config still references the previous name: SUMMARIZER_BASE_URL=http://ai-service:8001 ``` ## Supported databases The application supports only these provider values: - `sqlite` — local development and small single-instance deployments; persist and back up the data volume. - `mariadb` or `mysql` — server deployments through the Pomelo EF Core provider. The production example uses MariaDB. PostgreSQL is not implemented. Do not configure or recommend it without first adding an EF Core provider, migrations, startup validation, backup/restore support, and a provider test matrix. ## Deployment flow Production automation always selects `docker-compose.yml` explicitly. Local development must add `docker-compose.dev.yml`; never add that file to a production command. The effective base configuration publishes **frontend 3000 → 80** on all host interfaces for the recorded Traefik host-port dependency. Backend, ai-service and bundled Ollama have no host-port bindings. CORS and Docker service names are not network isolation. The backend also joins the operator-managed `jobtracker_shared` network for existing service dependencies; its membership and other host services need operator inspection. The external Traefik configuration is operator-owned and is not stored here. Before deployment it must route only the exact host from `APP_PUBLIC_BASE_URL` to the recorded frontend host port 3000, terminate TLS, and replace `X-Forwarded-For` with one client IP and `X-Forwarded-Proto=https`. Do not migrate to container routing or bind port 3000 to loopback without verifying where Traefik runs. Host firewall/Docker forwarding rules must restrict ingress appropriately; their existence is unproven. Nginx requires `INGRESS_PROXY_CIDRS` (space-separated observed Traefik peer CIDRs, preferably /32 or /128), rejects other peers before serving application routes, rejects missing scheme/IP and forwarding chains, and emits normalized forwarding metadata. It rejects non-canonical Hosts except the default server's liveness-only `/health`. The backend trusts only `WEB_PROXY_SUBNET` and one hop. Never trust a NAT/gateway address shared by both Traefik and untrusted callers. If peer identity cannot distinguish them, stop rollout and establish a verified host binding/firewall or dedicated proxy route first. Deployment requires Python 3 (standard library) and Docker Compose's JSON config support. The new `scripts/validate-ingress.py` preflight checks the **rendered** production configuration before normal deployment backup/build/replacement; backup-only runs remain independent of the new ingress setting. CI runs `python3 scripts/test-ingress.py` without needing a Docker engine. Empty/missing peer values fail safely; do not copy synthetic addresses from tests into production. Runtime/container verification is still pending locally due to Docker Desktop failure. See the [B06 report and operator checks](../docs/audits/2026-09-07/validation/b06-completion.md) before deploying this change. No production verification is implied by configuration tests. 1. push to `main` 2. Gitea Actions runs tests 3. if green, workflow uploads repo to server 4. `deploy/deploy.sh` links `/opt/job-tracker/shared/.env` into the repo checkout, then explicitly runs `docker compose -f docker-compose.yml build` and `up -d` 5. if `OLLAMA_MODEL` is set, the deploy script waits for Ollama, pulls the configured model if missing, then restarts `ai-service` so hybrid CV classification can use it 6. workflow checks service status after deployment ## Post-deploy verification you should also do manually the first time - confirm reverse proxy routes to the frontend correctly - confirm API auth/login works with production config - confirm backend can connect to MariaDB - confirm AI service container is reachable from backend - confirm reminder and admin/system pages load - verify follow-up reminder emails are enabled only when intended and that links open the correct job/tab --- # Backups, restore and rollback **Database restore and application rollback are two different operations.** A bad deploy usually needs only the rollback. Restore the database only if the data itself is wrong or lost — it discards everything written since the dump. ## Environment loading `deploy/deploy.sh` **loads `/opt/job-tracker/shared/.env` into its own shell** before it decides anything. The symlink it creates in the checkout is for docker compose, which reads `.env` itself; the script needs the values too, to pick the right backup and to check its own configuration. - Parsed line by line, not `source`d — a compose `.env` is not a shell script, so an unquoted value containing spaces would execute as a command. - **Variables already set in the environment win**, so CI-provided `APP_VERSION`, `APP_COMMIT_SHA` and `APP_BUILD_STAMP` still override the file. - No value is ever echoed. Error messages name variables, never their contents. This was added on 2026-07-19. Before it, the script read an empty environment: `DATABASE_PROVIDER` fell back to `sqlite` on a MariaDB host, so the deploy tarred the data volume, printed `Backup verified`, and continued with no database dump at all. See `docs/release-candidate-review.md` (B1). ## Required production variables `validate_deploy_config` runs **before** the backup, and therefore before anything is built, stopped or replaced. A missing variable aborts the deploy while the running stack is still untouched. | Variable | Required | Why it is checked here | |---|---|---| | `DATABASE_PROVIDER` | **Always** — no default | Selects the backup. Guessing it wrong backs up the wrong database and reports success | | `JOBTRACKER_CONNECTION_STRING` | When provider is `mariadb`/`mysql` | Without it there is no way to dump the database | | `AI_SERVICE_TOKEN` | Always | `docker-compose.yml` declares it with `:?`; missing it kills the stack *after* the images are built | | `AUTH_JWT_KEY` | Always | Compose sets `Auth__Require=true`, and the backend throws at startup on a blank key — after the containers have been replaced | | `APP_PUBLIC_BASE_URL` | Always | Canonical HTTPS origin for links, OAuth callbacks, billing redirects, secure cookies, Host validation, and the public smoke check | | `AUTH_MICROSOFT_TENANT` | When `AUTH_MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID` is set | Exact Microsoft application sign-in account mode; distinct from the Graph mailbox tenant | | `WEB_PROXY_SUBNET` | Always | Dedicated nginx-to-backend CIDR trusted for exactly one forwarded hop; must not overlap another Docker network | ### Microsoft sign-in migration gate Before enabling `AUTH_MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID` with the canonical identity release, take the normal backup and record counts only. Do not print subjects or email addresses: ```sql SELECT COUNT(*) AS legacy_links FROM AspNetUsers WHERE MicrosoftSubject IS NOT NULL OR MicrosoftEmail IS NOT NULL; SELECT COUNT(*) AS legacy_without_alternate_credential FROM AspNetUsers WHERE (MicrosoftSubject IS NOT NULL OR MicrosoftEmail IS NOT NULL) AND PasswordHash IS NULL AND GoogleSubject IS NULL; SELECT COUNT(*) AS duplicate_legacy_subject_groups FROM ( SELECT MicrosoftSubject FROM AspNetUsers WHERE MicrosoftSubject IS NOT NULL GROUP BY MicrosoftSubject HAVING COUNT(*) > 1 ) duplicate_subjects; SELECT COUNT(*) AS duplicate_legacy_email_groups FROM ( SELECT MicrosoftEmail FROM AspNetUsers WHERE MicrosoftEmail IS NOT NULL GROUP BY MicrosoftEmail HAVING COUNT(*) > 1 ) duplicate_emails; ``` Apply `20260802212509_AddCanonicalMicrosoftIdentity` before deploying code that queries the two new columns. The migration does not backfill legacy rows and adds a unique nullable composite index. Keep Microsoft sign-in disabled if the inventory or migration fails. Roll back the application binary while leaving the additive columns in place; never roll back to email auto-linking. `DATABASE_PROVIDER` deliberately has **no default**. An unset value used to mean "sqlite"; it now means "stop and tell me". ## Backup creation `deploy/deploy.sh` takes a backup **before** it builds, stops or replaces anything, and **aborts the deploy if the backup fails**. Nothing else in the deploy runs without a restore point. - **Location:** `/opt/job-tracker/backups` — override with `BACKUP_DIR`. If an earlier root-run deploy owns the directory, the deploy script repairs its ownership through Docker before writing. - **Selection:** driven solely by `DATABASE_PROVIDER`, which must be set. - `mariadb` / `mysql` → SQL dump, `jobtracker--.sql.gz`, e.g. `jobtracker-jobtracker-20260719T153759Z.sql.gz` - MariaDB deployments also archive `jobtracker_data`, which contains attachments, imported CVs, generated exports and Data Protection keys. - `sqlite` → data volume archive, `jobtracker-sqlite-.tar.gz` - every deployment archives the separate account-deletion tombstone volume when it exists; restore it independently and never replace it with an older application-data snapshot - anything else → the deploy stops - **The filename tells you which path ran.** If you expect a MariaDB deploy and find a `jobtracker-sqlite-*.tar.gz`, the environment is wrong — that is the exact failure this check exists to make visible. - **Naming:** the UTC timestamp makes every file unique, so a deploy never overwrites an earlier backup. - **Credentials** come from `JOBTRACKER_CONNECTION_STRING` and are passed via `MYSQL_PWD`, never on the command line, so they cannot appear in the process list or the deploy log. - **Compression:** gzip. A small database compresses to a few KB. - **SQLite volume resolution:** compose prefixes volume names with the project name, so the script resolves `_jobtracker_data` and **fails if that volume does not exist**. Naming the bare volume would silently create an empty one and back *that* up. ### Verification — each provider gets the check that proves its own format A backup that exists but is empty, truncated, or the wrong *kind* is worse than none, because it looks like a restore point. | Provider | Checks | |---|---| | MariaDB | non-empty; valid gzip; contains `CREATE TABLE`; contains the `Dump completed` trailer that `mariadb-dump` writes last, so a dump that died partway through is rejected | | SQLite | non-empty; valid gzip; the archive actually contains `jobtracker.db` | | Recovery volumes | non-empty valid gzip archives; a missing required application-data volume aborts the deploy | A failed check deletes the file rather than leaving something that looks like a backup. ### Taking one by hand ```bash BACKUP_DIR=/opt/job-tracker/backups mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR" MYSQL_PWD='' mariadb-dump \ --host=127.0.0.1 --port=3306 --user= \ --single-transaction --routines --events --quick \ jobtracker | gzip -c > "$BACKUP_DIR/jobtracker-manual-$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ).sql.gz" ``` ### Retention Verified top-level recovery sets are retained for 30 days and the first complete set in each month is copied into `monthly/`; the newest 12 monthly sets are retained. Configure `BACKUP_DAILY_RETENTION_DAYS` and `BACKUP_MONTHLY_RETENTION_COUNT` to change those positive integer limits. Paths outside the fixed backup directory and monthly naming contract are never pruned. Set `BACKUP_RCLONE_REMOTE` to an encrypted rclone remote to copy each current recovery set off-host. See [`docs/operations/google-drive-backups.md`](../docs/operations/google-drive-backups.md). ## Restoring the database Tested end-to-end against a clean MariaDB 11 container: dump taken from a seeded database, restored into an empty one, rows verified identical. ```bash # 1. Stop the application so nothing writes during the restore. docker compose stop backend # 2. Restore. This REPLACES the current contents of the named database. gzip -dc /opt/job-tracker/backups/jobtracker-jobtracker-20260719T153759Z.sql.gz \ | MYSQL_PWD='' mariadb --host=127.0.0.1 --port=3306 --user= jobtracker # 3. Verify before starting anything. MYSQL_PWD='' mariadb --host=127.0.0.1 --port=3306 --user= jobtracker \ -e "SELECT COUNT(*) AS applications FROM JobApplications;" # 4. Start again. docker compose start backend ``` Restoring a **SQLite** deployment instead: ```bash docker compose stop backend docker run --rm -v jobtracker_data:/data -v /opt/job-tracker/backups:/backup \ -e ARCHIVE_NAME=jobtracker-sqlite-20260719T153941Z.tar.gz \ alpine:3 sh -c 'rm -rf /data/* && tar xzf "/backup/$ARCHIVE_NAME" -C /data' docker compose start backend ``` ## Restoring application containers (rollback) This is the usual fix for a bad deploy, and it **does not touch the database**. Normal deployments tag backend and frontend images with `APP_COMMIT_SHA` and retain the images from the currently running containers as `jobtracker-backend:previous` and `jobtracker-frontend:previous`. If any step fails after core replacement—including public liveness, readiness, or auth-configuration checks—`deploy.sh` automatically recreates both core services from those retained images and still returns a failed status so CI reports the rejected release. The previous images are replaced only at the start of the next deployment. Use the manual procedure below if automatic restoration itself fails or an older release is required. ```bash cd /opt/job-tracker/app # the deployment checkout git log --oneline -5 # find the last good commit git checkout deploy/deploy.sh ``` `deploy.sh` takes a fresh backup first, so rolling back is itself protected. **Why a code rollback is safe here:** every Phase 4/5 migration is a no-op — the startup reconciler owns those tables — so reverting the code never leaves migration history ahead of the schema. The reconciler is additive and never drops a table holding rows, so the older code simply ignores the newer tables. **What a code rollback does not undo:** rows users created in the newer tables stay. That is usually what you want. If you additionally restore the database, those rows are lost — so restore only when the data is the problem. ## Choosing between them | Symptom | Action | |---|---| | New version starts but behaves wrong | Rollback the code. Leave the database. | | Backend will not start; schema looks wrong | Rollback the code, then restore only if it still fails. | | Data is missing or corrupted | Restore the database from the most recent good dump. | | Deploy aborted before starting | Nothing to undo — the backup ran before any change. | ## Health checks `backend` and `frontend` both report container health, so `docker compose ps` shows real state rather than merely "running". - **Backend:** `curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:8080/health`. Anonymous, and deliberately **does not touch the database** — a health check that queried MariaDB would restart a healthy backend whenever the database blipped. `start_period` is 90s to cover first-boot schema reconciliation. - **API/database readiness:** `curl -fsS https:///ready`. This checks that the API can reach its configured database and returns only `ready` or `unavailable`; detailed diagnostics remain admin-only. Deployment validation requires this probe, while Docker restart policy continues to use liveness. - **Frontend:** `wget` against nginx on port 80. - `frontend` waits for `backend` to be *healthy*, not merely started, because nginx proxies `/api` to it and refuses to start if the upstream cannot be resolved. A backend that cannot reach its database during startup exits and is reported `unhealthy`. A dependency failure after startup leaves the process alive but makes `/ready` return 503, so deployment validation cannot mistake a live-but-unready stack for a successful release.