bevy

Bevy - A simple server to manage multiple Node services

I love Node, but I have often found deployment to be more painful than it could be. One typically has to somehow upload the new code, stop the old, restart it, make sure there's a properly configured proxy in front of it in order to serve off port 80 for a given domain, etc. It's all surmountable, of course, but it's all pretty repetitive too.

The basic principle of Bevy is simple. It runs as a single proxy service for all of your Node applications, possibly directly on port 80 so that you don't even have to worry about a world-facing proxy if you don't want to (Bevy comes with a built-in static file server so that you can also use it for purely static content, as well as with the ability to proxy to arbitrary third-party services should you need that as an escape hatch). This proxy also exposes a simple REST API that receives configuration commands that allow it to install, remove, start, stop, list, and describe the applications that Bevy is running for you. It knows how to fetch an app's content from either git or a local directory, and it knows how to run npm in order to install dependencies from your repository.

So the idea is this: once you have bevy up and running on a machine (which is trivial and only requires minimal configuration), all you need to deploy your Node apps is a tiny bit of extra configuration and a simple command line call.

Bevy works with HTTP, HTTPS, and Web Sockets.

Installing Bevy

You probably want to install it globally:

npm install -g bevy

In order to run the Bevy server reliably, you likely want to use forever (but you don't have to if you prefer to use something else). For that:

npm install -g forever

And that's it.

Examples

I strongly recommend you get familiar with the entirety of this document before you deploy Bevy, but if you want to play with simple examples to get a feel for it you can simply look in the examples directory.

Running the Bevy server

The Bevy server is the part responsible for both managing your apps and for proxying to them. You run it thus:

bevy-server

If you want to run Bevy as a permanent daemon, it is recommend that you start it with forever:

forever start bevy-server

Bevy does however require a few configuration parameters in order to work. These can either be specified on the command line, in /etc/bevy/config.json, or in a JSON configuration file provided using the -f option. The configuration parameters (including JSON keys where applicable) are as follows:

• -h, --help: Show this usage.
• -f path, --config path: The path to a configuration file to use, possibly relative.
• domain, -d, --domain: The domain to use for the deployment service (i.e. the REST API which Bevy exposes, not for the services being proxied to — those are set up by the client). Bevy listens to all incoming requests on its given ports, but one of those domains has to be assigned to the service that it exposes to manage the apps it is running. Defaults to localhost.
• ports, -p, --ports: The port on which to listen for requests to proxy. Note that several can be specified (using an array in JSON, and repeated options on the command line). It will listen to all of the provided ports and proxy in the same way for all (except that secure ports only trigger on HTTPS and the rest only on HTTP). If you wish to listen to a secure port for HTTPS, then prefix it with "s". Defaults to [80].
• store, -s, --store: The directory in which Bevy will store the apps that it manages. Note that this needs to be writable by Bevy. Defaults to a directory called bevy-store in either your $TMPDIR or /var/tmp. It is strongly recommended to set this to another value as you typically want it properly persisted.
• security, --security: The default security setup for Bevy is to only accept connections to its management API coming from the local machine, corresponding to the value local. This can be set to none to disable this check. BE VERY CAREFUL as this effectively enables anyone who can reach the server to install and run arbitrary software on the machine.
• uid, -u, --uid: The user id under which to run spawned processes. If you are running Bevy as root (which is required on many platforms in order to be able to listen on ports lower than 1024) then it is highly recommended to set this option to a user with lower privileges. Otherwise not only will the spawned services be running as root, but also git and npm, as well as whatever script npm runs. Note that due to limitations in Node's API this has to be the numeric uid (use id -u username to get it).
• gid, -g, --gid: Same as the previous one, but for the group id. Note that due to limitations in Node's API this has to be the numeric gid (use id -g username to get it).

An example configuration file:

{
    "domain":   "deploy.example.net"
,   "ports":    [80, "s443"]
,   "store":    "/users/bevy/store/"
,   "uid":      501
,   "gid":      20
}

The same on the command line:

forever start bevy-server -d deploy.example.net -p 80 -p s443 -s /users/bevy/store/ \
                          -u 501 -g 20

You can mix and match the configuration file and command line parameters; the latter will take priority.

Deploying an app with Bevy

In order to deploy an application with Bevy you use the bevy command. This command can deploy, remove, start, and stop bevy apps in a given Bevy server. It gets its information from the app's package.json file, optionally supplemented by information in a similar bevy.json file or on the command line.

It takes the following fields into account:

• deploy: The URL (including scheme and port) of the Bevy server to deploy to. Required.
• name: This is the standard package.json name field; Bevy uses this to provide your app with a unique ID on the server. Required.
• domain: The domain (just the host) at which you wish to have your app reachable. If the domain begins and ends with "/" it is interpreted as a regular expression; otherwise it's a glob. In globs, the * character matches any number of characters with no restrictions, and the ? character matches everything except separators (. or :).
• dependencies: This is the standard package.json dependencies field; Bevy uses this to tell npm what to install. Defaults to none.
• static: A boolean that when true indicates that this project is actually static so that no Node app should be run. This is useful in case you have a shared server running lots of little sites some of which are static, and you don't want to set up a proxy in front of Bevy.
• repository: This is an object that specifies where to get the content for the app. Required. It supports the following fields:
  • type: This has to be git or local.
  • url: Applies to type git, provides a Git URL or path for the repository. Required.
  • branch: Applies to type git, indicates which branch to use. Defaults to whatever the default branch in that repository is.
  • path: Applies to type local, gives the file system path to use. Note that when an app is both local, Bevy will not copy the files over but rather serve directly from that directory. This includes not running npm to install dependencies; if you're pointing at a local directory it is up to you to do so (the primary use for local is development, where this is what you expect).
• scripts: This is the standard package.json scripts object. Bevy uses its start field to know which application to start. Defaults to app.js.
• directoryIndex: Applies only to static servers, this provides a list of file names to use to select the directory index. It defaults to index.html.
• to: This option enables Bevy to simply act as a proxy to a remote service that it does not manage. The format is that of proxima's endpoints.

The way Bevy obtains that information is as follows:

1. It reads the package.json file, if any (highly recommended).
2. It reads the bevy.json file, if any. The values found there overwrite existing ones. This makes it possible to keep your Bevy-specific information out of package.json if it is used for other things as well, or for instance if you want to use a different name in each.
3. If there was a bevy.json file, and it contained a key matching the selected environment (i.e. development or production) then it will take the values there and overwrite the existing ones. Typically this can be used to select a different deployment server for different environments.
4. If there were command line parameters, they override the values found up to here.

The general syntax of the bevy command is:

bevy action [options]

The actions are:

• deploy: Deploys the app. This installs it if it wasn't installed, updates it otherwise, then starts it.
• start: Starts the app.
• stop: Stops the app.
• remove: Removes the app. Note that this can be somewhat destructive, it will remove logs (as well as anything that your app may have stored under its running directory).
• update: Causes the app to update itself from the repo and install new dependencies if any.
• stage: Deploys the app using the configuration for the "development" environment but setting the runtime environment to "production". This allows you to run code on your development deployment under production conditions.
• help: Get help.

The options, which must come after the action, are the following:

• --package: The path to the package.json to load. Defaults to the current directory.
• --bevy: The path to the bevy.json to load. Defaults to the current directory.
• --env: The environment under which to run. Defaults to development.
• --deploy: Same as deploy in JSON.
• --name: Same as name in JSON.
• --domain: Same as domain in JSON.
• --static: A flag, same as static in JSON.
• --type: Same as repository.type in JSON.
• --url: Same as repository.url in JSON.
• --branch: Same as repository.branch in JSON.
• --path: Same as repository.path in JSON.
• --start: Same as scripts.start in JSON.
• ---to: This has the same function as to in JSON, but with a different syntax (since in JSON it uses a structured object). If it's a number, that's the port. If it starts with "/", then it's a path. Otherwise it expects it to be a host:port pair (without any scheme, as in 127.0.0.1:8043).
• --secure: Same as to.secure in JSON.

Deploying Bevy Securely

Bevy is a system that allows you to install and run software that can perform arbitrary operations, over the network. Read that again. Make sure you get this. This section isn't something you want to read in the future, as a nice-to-have, feel-good extra. You have to read it.

By default, Bevy's app management API only accepts connections coming from an IP on the local machine. On the face of it, this makes the API a whole lot less useful if you're on your development machine and want to deploy to production. One simple way of doing that is explained further below.

Note that there is an option to disable this security check entirely. It is there so that people who know what they are doing can do so. For instance, you could consider using it on a machine that is well protected inside your own network. But only do so very carefully. Note that binding the API to localhost is not enough to protect you; if I know the IP I can still reach it and specify Host: localhost to fool the server.

The simplest way to set Bevy up on a production, world-accessible server is to:

1. Stick to localhost (or whatever local domain) for the server.
2. Keep the above security check on (it is by default).
3. Use an SSH tunnel from your development box to the server. That's pretty easy.

The way in which you set up an SSH tunnel is as follows (assuming you already have SSH access to the server). Run:

ssh -f [e-mail] -L 2000:your-server.com:80 -N

What the above does is that it creates a tunnel from localhost:2000 to your-server.com:80 through an SSH connection that identifies you as your-user to the server. You can naturally change your user, the remote server, and the ports you use. You can save that command, run it at start up, etc.

With the above setup, your deployment target simply becomes http://localhost:2000/. When Bevy talks to that URL, it will be talking to the remote server.

Another important security-related aspect to take into account are the uid/gid settings. As explained in the configuration section, if these are unset and you are running as root (which is often required), then not only spawned services but also git and npm will run as root. Needless to say, this can be a large attack vector.

Bevy and HTTPS

Bevy dispatches HTTPS connections based on SNI. The advantage here is that you do not need to muck with certs at the Bevy level and only set that up in your application — proxying will just work. The downside is that SNI is not supported in some old clients (XP, IE less than 7, Android browser less than 3). For those, either provide an HTTP endpoint, or send in a pull request to support HTTPS more directly.

Bevy and Web Sockets

Bevy uses proxima under the hood and so mirrors its support for Web Sockets. Essentially, since the negotiation phase in the WS protocol is HTTP-based, Bevy simply proxies based on that and afterwards the connection should be transparently relayed.

REST API

A simple HTTP API is exposed to talk to Bevy. All that it is able to do can be controlled in this way, and in fact the command line client and the browser UI both rely on it exclusively. All interactions involve JSON.

GET /version

Provides the server information. Mostly useful to check that it's running. Always returns the version:

{ bevy: "0.2.42" }

GET /apps

Lists all the apps, keyed by name. The value for each is an object describing the application that corresponds to the app's configuration as provided during deployment (typically, as resolved by bevy). Additionally, it contains a running boolean indicating whether the app is running or not, a number of paths that are used in running the app, and the port that it uses. Apart from running, you shouldn't need any of that information but it can come in handy for debugging purposes.

Example response:

{
  "first-test": {
    "name": "first-test",
    "version": "0.0.1",
    "domain": "*.first-test.local",
    "dependencies": {
      "express": "*",
      "eyes": "*"
    },
    "repository": {
      "type": "git",
      "url": "/Projects/bevy/scratch/one"
    },
    "scripts": {
      "start": "app.js"
    },
    "environment": "dev",
    "running": true,
    "storePath": "/var/folders/p4/1wzy444j5tbg__5kj1nt8lxr0000gn/T/bevy-store/first-test",
    "configPath": "/var/folders/p4/1wzy444j5tbg__5kj1nt8lxr0000gn/T/bevy-store/first-test/config.json",
    "runningPath": "/var/folders/p4/1wzy444j5tbg__5kj1nt8lxr0000gn/T/bevy-store/first-test/RUNNING",
    "contentPath": "/var/folders/p4/1wzy444j5tbg__5kj1nt8lxr0000gn/T/bevy-store/first-test/content",
    "startPath": "/var/folders/p4/1wzy444j5tbg__5kj1nt8lxr0000gn/T/bevy-store/first-test/content/app.js",
    "port": 7001
  }
}

GET /app/:name

Returns the same information as the previous operation, but just for one app with the given name.

If the app is not found, it returns a 404 with:

{ error: "No app for this name." }

If successful, it will return the same JSON as above, below the corresponding app name key.

POST /app/:name/start

Starts the app.

If the app is not found, it returns a 404 with:

{ error: "No app for this name." }

If the app was already running, it returns a 418 with:

{ error: "App already running." }

For all other errors, it returns a 500 with the error field set to whatever error the system provided.

POST /app/:name/stop

Stops the app

If the app is not found, it returns a 404 with:

{ error: "No app for this name." }

If the app was already running, it returns a 418 with:

{ error: "App already stopped." }

For all other errors, it returns a 500 with the error field set to whatever error the system provided.

POST /app/:name/update

Causes the source of the app to update from the repo (pull it through git, or copying files), and the app to then be restarted. This can be quite long, especially if npm installs a number of new dependencies.

If the app is not found, it returns a 404 with:

{ error: "No app for this name." }

For all other errors, it returns a 500 with the error field set to whatever error the system provided.

The success response for this method can take two forms. If the app is a simple local application that does not require a possibly long-running operation (such as git cloning or npm install) then it will immediately reply with status 200 OK and a { "ok": true } as the body.

If however the request involves a long running process, then it will reply with status 202 Accepted. The response body will be JSON similar to the following:

{
    "session":  true
,   "id":       "PTBjY3J3tM"
,   "path":     "/session/PTBjY3J3tM"
}

The id (or the path) can then be used with the session API described below in order to poll the server about its progress in carrying out the update.

PUT /app/:name

Create or update the configuration of an app. The body of the request must be the desired configuration (as described in the previous section).

If the app was already running, then it is restarted. However, if it was not, or if this is a fresh install, then the application is not started. (The command line tool does that for you on install, though.)

If the name does not match /^[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+$/, it returns a 400 with:

{ error: "Bad name, rule: /^[a-zA-Z0-9-_]+$/." }

If no configuration is provided, it returns a 400 with:

{ error: "No JSON configuration provided." }

If the repository or domain fields are missing, it returns a 400 with:

{ error: "Field 'XXX' required." }

For all other errors, it returns a 500 with the error field set to whatever error the system provided.

The response is the same as for the previous method.

DELETE /app/:name

Stops and deletes the app.

If the app is not found, it returns a 404 with:

{ error: "No app for this name." }

If it fails, it returns a 500 with one of:

{ error: "Failed to stop app, cannot remove: REASON" }
{ error: "Failed to remove app: REASON" }

GET /session/:id

Query as specific session corresponding to a long-running backend process (npm, git). This is used by the client in order to poll ongoing progress. Several different responses can be received:

If there is no such session, a 404 error. Note that when a session terminates, it will continue to respond with 200 until the Bevy server is restarted. This means that you should never get a 404 out of your polling, even when the session has terminated (unless the server has been restarted, which is unlikely).

If there is such a session, the response is 200 with a body that depends on the status of the session.

If the session is finished, you just receive { done: true }. If it is running, you will get { messages: [array, of, messages]}.

Each message is an array with a type as its first value and optionally a string as its second value. If the key is progress, it is a progress message and the accompanying string will be a human description of the progress event. If the key is error, it is an error message and the accompanying string will be whatever error message could be gathered. Errors typically lead to the termination of the session. Finally, if the key is end, there is no accompanying string and it indicates that this will be the last message of the session (it will soon be flagged as done if it hasn't already).

Note that whenever you ask for a session, the messages that are returned to you are removed from the queue of messages that Bevy is maintaining. Therefore, you will never get the same message twice and can safely just display them when polling multiple times without being concerned that you may show a given message more than once.

It is possible for the array of messages to be empty if nothing at all has happened since you last polled.