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Codalab AMI

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Tyler edited this page Sep 12, 2019 · 40 revisions

Warning! This information may now be out of date. Installing from scratch is the recommended method. If you encounter issues feel free to email us at [email protected], or create an issue.

This page explains how to run an Ubuntu virtual machine on Amazon Web Services (AWS) already fully pre-configured with Codalab on it. We created for you a virtual machine image (AMI), which can be publicly accessed. Once launched, your virtual machine runs a web server through which you can access your own instance of Codalab. We explain how you can configure it to open the necessary ports for HTTP and HTTPS (i.e. to use SSL for more secure access).

1. First get familiar with AWS (if you are not familiar):

Tutorial: starting and connecting to a machine on AWS

2. Run the following AMI: codalab-instance-clear

You can find it in Community AMIs when launching an instance (first choose N. California region in the menu).

3. Configure your machine for web access

Opening ports 80 and 443 to allow access using browser

Select your machine from your "Instances" menu in the EC2 dashboard, and click the security group 'launch-wizard-XX':

Right-click on 'launch-wizard-XX', and select 'edit inbound rules':

Click 'Add rule' and select HTTP. Then also add similarly an HTTPS rule. Save.

Editing .env file

Connect to the server, then:

cd src/codalab-competitions
git stash
git pull

You should have now the latest version of Codalab.

ls -la

You should see a .env file, which contains the Codalab configuration. You will need to edit that file with your favorite editor (vim comes with Ubuntu. If you need emacs, use sudo apt-get install emacs).

Select your machine from your "Instances" menu in the EC2 dashboard and copy the DNS address 'Public DNS (IPv4)'. Edit the .env file: go to the CODALAB_SITE_DOMAIN field and put your DNS, e.g.:

CODALAB_SITE_DOMAIN=ec2-54-153-46-119.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com

Save the file and exit. Then run:

docker-compose up -d

Every time you edit .env file you must restart the services, i.e. run docker-compose down then docker-compose up -d.

You should be now able to access the codalab website at your DNS, e.g.: http://ec2-54-193-41-242.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com.

WARNING: Running a server via HTTP is unsafe. To run HTTPS, you need to enable SSL.

Enabling SSL

  1. Get a certificate (for free certificates, type get free ssl certificate in Google).
  2. To enable SSL, follow these instructions.
  3. Make sure that HTTP redirects to HTTPS e.g. http://ec2-54-193-41-242.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com redirects to https://ec2-54-193-41-242.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com. This should be the default, but double-check.

YOU ARE NOT DONE!

Now you need to configure storage. Codalab needs cloud storage on AWS or Azure to properly function. Without it, no data can be uploaded/stored/downloaded.

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