Steps to deploy Bots on the Apache2 Webserver.

Introduction

  • Bots uses cherrypy webserver Out of the Box and in order to scale it, you need to run it on an Apache2 Web Server
  • One Advantage that I can see is that with this is that apache2 will take care of staring the Bots Monitor so there is no need to create a daemon for the bots webserver.

Procedure

  • Ensure that apache2 is installed and running on the system. (try httpd -M)
  • The mod_wsgi package is needed for this set up, so install it and ensure that the line LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi.so is added to apache httpd.conf file
  • Restart the apache server, run the command httpd -M and you should see the wsgi_module at the end.
  • Now we need to shuffle a few directories, create a base directory called bots_app in your home folder (do not run under root)
  • Move the folders botssys, usersys, media and config from the bots installation directory to bots_app folder. Do not forget to create sym links for these folders in the installation dir to this new location.
  • Now add the following files to the bots_app folder:
##bots.wsgi

import sys
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
import mod_wsgi

#set PYTHONPATH...not needed if bots is already on PYTHONPATH
#sys.path.append('/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages')
from bots import apachewebserver

config = mod_wsgi.process_group
apachewebserver.start(config)
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

##apache2.conf

Listen <PORT>
NameVirtualHost *:<PORT>
## Use this if you run into socket errors on linux
WSGISocketPrefix /var/run/wsgi

<VirtualHost *:<PORT>>
   WSGIScriptAlias / <PATH TO UR HOME>/bots_app/bots.wsgi
   WSGIDaemonProcess config user=<System User> group=<System User Group>
   WSGIProcessGroup config

## Use this section only when enabling https for bots app
   SSLEngine on
   SSLCertificateFile /path/to/www.example.com.cert
   SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/www.example.com.key

   Alias /media <PATH TO UR HOME>/bots_app/media

   <Directory <PATH TO UR HOME>/bots_app/>
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
   </Directory>

   <Directory <PATH TO UR HOME>/bots_app/media>
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
   </Directory>

</VirtualHost>
  • Add execute permission to the bots.wsgi file and also add the line Include <PATH TO UR HOME>/bots_app/apache2.conf at the end of the apache2 httpd.conf file.
  • Restart apache server and open http://ip:port/, you should see the bots welcome screen. If you get permission errors or images are not loading then correct permissions need to be given to bots_app and its parent directory.
  • Once the server is running the logs will be generated in the folder botssys/logging as apache_webserver_config.log
  • The script bots-webserver.py should not be used now as apache2 will automatically start up the application.
  • Add botsengine_path = /usr/local/bin/bots-engine.py in the Bots ini file