Backend

• Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
• Hostname: srbsci-141.ost.ch
• IP: 10.8.36.141/23
• DNS: 130.59.31.251(primary)/130.59.31.248
• all ports are open
• 2 vCPU, RAM 4096 MB, Drive 50 GB
• End of life: 2025-10-31 (automatically deleted after this date)
• Support: [email protected]

Service

The backend service is written in python. For development follow these instructions

Connect to Ubuntu server

1. Connect to OST VPN.
2. ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 [email protected]

The SSH keys of all our team members were added to the server.

Connect to DB

OST VPN connection required! Any application that can make connections to a postgres database should work. For example pgadmin4.

• Hostname: srbsci-141.ost.ch
• Port: 5432
• Database: ost
• Username: postgres
• Password: ask Roman

Server setup

This is the server setup part, which is only needed in case the server needs to be reinstalled!

Authorized keys

SSH keys were added to ./ssh/authorized_keys.

Docker installation

Docker was installed using the apt repository and as shown in this guide.

Add user to docker group

The INS user needs to be added to the docker group, otherwise a permission denied error appears when using docker run. Refer to this guide for more details. The commands are the following:

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker # applies group changes
docker run hello-world # confirms the successful installation.

Clone backend repository

1. A new SSH key called backend-SSH-key was created on the server (no passphrase).

2. The SSK key was added as a deploy-key (read/write) in the backend repository. Link to guide.

3. ~/.ssh/config created to use correct SSH key.

   Host github.com
       User git
       IdentityFile ~/.ssh/backend-SSH-key
       IdentitiesOnly yes
   

Postgres password

1. In the backend repository, create a new file touch .env and add the password.

The docker-compose file will import the file as a secret and set it as the Postgres password. .env is added go the .gitignore file, so the password isn't in GitHub.

Dev Setup

Environment Variables

Create a .env in the root of the directory. See the environment variables in the example.env file.