I started this project in order to have solution for keeping an inventory over my various servers and other network equipment.
- Clone the repository
- Copy the
.env-example
file to.env
and change thePOSTGRES_PASSWORD
andDJANGO_SECRET_KEY
variables to something secure. - Run
docker-compose up
and connect to http://localhost
There is currently only one supported way to work with this repository. You
will need a Linux system (WSL might work) onto wich you install the Nix package
manager with Flakes enabled1 and direnv2. Afterwards you can enter the
development environment with direnv allow
.
After you've entered the development environment with either method you can
start the development server with dev run
. This will start a PostgreSQL
database running and start the Django development server.
It will prompt you for your sudo password because it opens port 8000 in your firewall. This is because I sometimes develope from my iPad on my notebook and with this tweak I can access the dev server running on my notebook.
You can then access the project in the browser under the FQDN of your
computer. E.g. http://mypc.domain.local:8000
.
In case you want a fresh start or remove the project you can just remove the
.direnv
directory at the root of the project. All the data of the PostgreSQL
database is stored there together with the symlinks to the Nix store.
In case you want to tweak something these are the applications use do build the development environment:
- Nix package manager
- direnv
- overmind3
The dev
command is a simple BASH script called dev.sh
at the root of the
project.
Run the dev
command without an argument to see all options.
Why aren't you using Docker/containers for development.
I think containers have their uses but developing with them is in my opinion a pain in the ass. You just can't easily interact with the tools inside the container and you have to hack around to get your editor working with it. In addition they aren't fully reproducable. Nix solves all of these problems. Overmind then comes into play to orchestrate the few tasks that are required to get a development environment up an running.
Manual way
The manual way you have to install poetry4 and then run poetry shell
to
enter the virtual environment. You will then need a local PostgreSQL server or
modify the settings so that you can use your prefered database.
Please note that I will only use and test the first method.
To customise the application in the Docker container you can use environment variables in the docker-compose.yml file. Currently the following variables are supported.
- DJANGO_SECRET_KEY the secret key is mandatory, otherwise the application doesn't run. Make sure that it is some long random string.
- DJANGO_DEBUG settings this variable to any value enables the Django debug mode. Make sure that you don't set it on a production server.
- DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE the path to the settings file to use in the
container. This requires a dotet syntax. The default is
network_inventory.settings.docker
.
Currently there isn't a lot of documentation present. I try to document my thoughts and other related information in the Notes file.