Migration with map to local storage

How to install fylr "in place" on an easydb5 server and migrate easydb's content to fylr using easydb's assets files directly from disk, without needing to transfer them.

This method can save time and does not need a separate server. easydb5 is only needed to extract metadata, but not to extract asset files, which are used from storage directly as is.

The following example migrates all from https://easydb.example.com to https://fylr.example.com. (IP address 1.2.3.4)

Checks and Requirements

The server should have enough RAM available (at least 8 GB free when easydb is running, more is recommended during image preview generation).

Is there enough free storage?

for doubling the indexes and SQL-DB of easydb (fylr will have its own)
for doubling the preview images of easydb (fylr is recommended to generate its own)
20+ GB for fylr container versions

A DNS subdomain for fylr

Have a DNS entry, in our example fylr.example.com, pointing to the same IP address as the easydb (in our example easydb.example.com).

Prevent name collisions

Check indexes will not collide by name between eaydb5 and fylr:

docker exec easydb-server curl http://easydb-elasticsearch:9200/_cat/indices

... good if they do not start with "fylr".

Allow passwords to be transferred

In standard configuration, easydb does not output account passwords for migration, as a security feature. To make a full migration, you have to change that setting temporarily, at least for the step "extract metadata" ("backup"). The setting in easydb5 is:

server:
  api:
    user:
      include_password: true

... e.g. in easydb-server.yml . For more information see http://docs.easydb.de/en/technical/api/user/#returning-password-hashes

1. fylr installation

To save resources like RAM, we use easydb's infrastructure

1.a use docker compose for fylr installation

apt-get install docker-compose-plugin
mkdir /srv/fylr ; cd /srv/fylr
mkdir -p config/fylr assets backups migration postgres sqlbackups
chown 1000 assets backups migration
chown  999 postgres sqlbackups
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/programmfabrik/fylr-gitbook/main/_assets/fylr.yml -o config/fylr/fylr.yml
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/programmfabrik/fylr-gitbook/main/_assets/maintain -o maintain
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/programmfabrik/fylr-gitbook/main/_assets/docker-compose.yml -o docker-compose.yml
chmod a+x maintain
vi docker-compose.yml # see below for content
docker compose up -d; docker compose logs -f

Stop outputting log messages with Ctrl-c if seen enough

1.b edit /srv/fylr/docker-compose.yml

Make Opensearch just comments
Change the network to easydb_default
Change fylr port
Check the volume paths, left of the :, so .e.g. /srv/easydb/eas/lib/assets/orig.
The example below has two volumes for two easydb partitions. Your easydb may have more partitions. Create one fylr volume per easydb partition.

... so that you have something like this example:

services:
  # opensearch:
  # [...not shown here: more opensearch as comments ...]
  
  postgresql:
    image: postgres:18
    container_name: postgresql
    restart: always
    shm_size: 1g
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: 'fylr'
      POSTGRES_USER: 'fylr'
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: 'fylr'
      PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
    volumes:
      - "/srv/fylr/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data"
      - "/srv/fylr/sqlbackups:/mnt"
    command: >
      -c work_mem=64MB
      -c maintenance_work_mem=32MB
      -c max_wal_size=512MB
      -c max_connections=100
    networks:
      - easydb_default
    logging:
      driver: "journald"
      
  fylr:
    image: docker.fylr.io/fylr/fylr:latest
    hostname: fylr.localhost
    container_name: fylr
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:91:91"
    networks:
      - easydb_default
    volumes:
      - "/srv/easydb/eas/lib/assets/orig:/mnt/orig_early:ro"
      - "/srv/easydb/eas/lib/assets/dest:/mnt/dest_early:ro"
      - "/srv/fylr/config/fylr:/fylr/config"
      - "/srv/fylr/assets:/srv"
      - "/srv/fylr/backups:/fylr/files/backups"     # /inspect/system/backups/ and /backupmanager
      - "/srv/fylr/migration:/fylr/files/migration" # /inspect/migration/
    logging:
      driver: "journald"

networks:
  easydb_default:
    external: true

1.c Adjust /srv/fylr/config/fylr/fylr.yml

fylr+:
  allowpurge: true
  externalURL: "https://fylr.example.com"
[...]
  elastic+:
    addresses:
    - "http://easydb-elasticsearch:9200"
[...]
  services+:
    webapp+:
      addr: ":91"
      tls:

... and of course unique encryptionKey and signingSecret .

1.d Start postgres and fylr

docker compose up -d; docker compose logs -f

Stop outputting log messages with Ctrl-c if you have seen enough.

1.e Allow purging fylr in the Frontend, see the screenshot under 2. here.

2. Apache and https certificate for fylr

2.a Assuming certbot with LetsEncrypt is OK for you, do...

Add a minimal VirtualHost for the fylr to your Apache configuration:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
    ServerName fylr.example.com
</VirtualHost>

... replace the IP Address 1.2.3.4 and of course the domain name.

Install and use certbot: (unless you have another method to obtain a https-certificate for fylr)

apache2ctl graceful
apt install snapd
snap install --classic certbot
certbot --apache # in the shown choice: select the fylr domain

After certbot improved your Apache configuration, add the configuration to show fylr:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
    ServerName fylr.example.com

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =fylr.example.com
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:443>
    ServerName fylr.example.com

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:91/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:91/

SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/fylr.example.com/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/fylr.example.com/privkey.pem
Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

Make sure that you have the correct number of virtual hosts: 4 (easydb 80, easydb port 443, fylr 80, fylr 443) across all Apache config files. Certbot creates an additional config file and double VirtualHosts (e.g. a fifth one) can cause hard to find errors.

Make sure to now also use explicit IP address (not *) and ServerName in the easydb configuration for apache:

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:80>
    ServerName easydb.example.com

[...]

<VirtualHost 1.2.3.4:443>
    ServerName easydb.example.com

2.b Log into your fylr (https://fylr.example.com) as root with password admin.

2.c Change the password of root to a secure one.

2.d Check that fylr is at least Version 6.26.0

3. Extract metadata from easydb5

3.a. Surf to https://fylr.example.com/inspect/migration

3.b. expand the Paragraph Create backup (by clicking the triangle)

3.c. Fill in at least the following values:

URL of server : Fill in your equivalent of https://easydb.example.com
Login: root
Password: password of easydb's root account
OAuth2: uncheck this box, it is only needed to extract from fylr
Max Parallel: To not slow your easydb down, choose a number that is half or less of the available CPU cores.
Purge: you can leave this on, it does not affect easydb or fylr. (It was added to overwrite backup files, but currently it creates a new backup anyway)

Click Backup . This can take from one minute to several hours depending on your data.

See here if you want more information about this process.

4. Inject metadata into fylr

4.a. Surf to https://fylr.example.com/inspect/migration (log in as root)

4.b. expand the Paragraph Restore backup (by clicking the triangle)

4.c. Fill in at least the following values:

Backup : choose the backup that you created above
URL : Fill in your equivalent of https://fylr.example.com
Login: root
Password: password of fylr's root account
File Mode: choose Use files from source - rput_leave (bulk)
File Version: use the default original
Copy file preview versions: Enable this box.
Include Password: Can be turned off for test runs. When turned on, passwords are included. But for that, the above backup has to be made with a less secure easydb configuration active. See http://docs.easydb.de/en/technical/api/user/#returning-password-hashes
Include Events: Turn on if you want to transfer the events that were recorded in easydb. Considered not needed unless you know you want it.
OAuth2: This box has to be enabled.
OAuth2 Client Id: leave the default fylr-web-frontend
Max Parallel: To not slow your easydb down, choose a number that is half or less of the available CPU cores.
Purge or Continue: Purge This will overwrite fylr's contents with easydb, which is the whole point. Continue is useful if your previous attempt aborted with a timeout or network error and should be continued.

Click Restore . This can take from a few minutes to many hours depending on your data.

It will continue if you close your browser.
You can come back to it via https://fylr.example.com/inspect/migration
And also directly via https://fylr.example.com/inspect/migration/mymigrationname

See here if you want more information about this process.

When the restore/inject is done, a reindex will be done for fylr, so it will take a while until you can see the data in the webfrontend https://fylr.example.com.

5. Teach fylr where to find easydb assets on disk

5.a Collect the "Remote URL Prefixes" of all easydb partitions

Look into https://fylr.example.com/inspect/files/ (log in as root)

Click a version file on it's ID number (version file = the Version column has small or full or others but not ORIGINAL).
- note the content of field Remote URL, it might contain e.g. https://easydb.example.com/eas/partitions-inline/2/0/1270/1270/4839d32e5c8ecca1
Click an original (Version column has ORIGINAL) file on it's ID number.
- Also for this asset note the content of field Remote URL, it might contain e.g. https://easydb.example.com/eas/partitions-inline/1/0/1270/1270/acda0f0f5982bb64
Next you need to cut off the last parts of the Remote URLs in your notes, so that only the URL prefix remains, which is what you need. The prefix ends before the single zero. So in our example the prefixes are:

https://easydb.example.com/eas/partitions-inline/2/ (for Versions and)
https://easydb.example.com/eas/partitions-inline/1/ (for Originals)

Count the number of partitions in https://easydb.example.com/servermanager. For that you have to choose easydb Asset Server (EAS) at the top:
Continue searching through different files as above until you have the URL prefix for each partition (but often there are just two).

5.b Configure the locations

Surf to https://fylr.example.com/locationmanager (log in as root)

Create the following two:

Fylr location easydb originals
- Read Only: enable this
- Directory (in container) /mnt/orig_early
- Remote URL Prefix example: https://easydb.example.com/eas/partitions-inline/1/ Use here one of the prefixes you collected in 5.a. (Do not confuse this with the Prefix field. Use Remote URL Prefix.)
Fylr location easydb versions
- Directory (in container) /mnt/dest_early
- Remote URL Prefix: As above, use one of the collected Remote URL Prefixes. Example: https://easydb.example.com/eas/partitions-inline/2/
- If you have enough free storage space to double all preview versions, then set this location to Read Only. Then none of them will be deleted. Otherwise set it as Default Location for versions . Then easydb previews will be deleted as they are replaced with fylr previews. Read Only is safer, especially if you still want to use easydb, and thus recommended.
In case your easydb has more than two partitions, you may have to add more fylr locations.

5.c Let fylr use the asset files of easydb5 directly from disk, without asking easydb

Go to https://fylr.example.com/inspect/files/
search with Location=remote
Choose Action Map to local storage and Search result, not Selected. Click the button Action at the right.
Now the easydb is not used by fylr any more. (But elasticsearch is still used by fylr)

This was the central step. fylr is now independent from easydb and easydb can be turned off. (after testing fylr of course. And Elasticsearch is still used by fylr)

6. Adjust previews to fylr standards

As previews from easydb are different from fylr previews, it is recommended to replace easydb previews with fylr previews. This will be done in the background while you can already work with fylr. Although this whole step is optional, you should do it if you encounter problems. When seeking support from the developer you will likely be asked to do this step to come to a clean coherent state.

6.a Produce fylr previews

Surf to https://fylr.example.com/inspect/files/ (login as root)
In the drop down menu Version choose original and click the Search button.
In the drop down menu Action choose produce versions .
To the right select the round button below Search result (not below Selected).
Click the Action button.

6.b Check whether all previews have been replaced

Is the File queue empty at https://fylr.example.com/inspect/system/queues/?queue=file ? At the top it would show something like: There are 18 parallel and 10 parallel high priority only file workers active. The queue contains 0 total entries.
Surf to https://fylr.example.com/inspect/files/ (login as root)
- In the drop down menu location choose easydb versions and click the Search button.
- The Search shows zero results when all have been replaced.

6.c Remove easydb preview versions to regain storage (optional)

At first remove the location easydb versions in the location manager. But leave the originals.
Next, remove fylr's access to them (e.g. remove it from /srv/fylr/docker-compose.yml and recreate the container). But leave the originals.
Check that the fylr webfrontend still shows previews, at https://fylr.example.com.
Then, when all is still working, you can delete the easydb previews them to free storage capacity. Warning: Removing the preview versions of easydb should only be done if the easydb is not needed any more. Warning 2: But the easydb originals are used by fylr, so do never remove them!

7. Remove easydb

These steps are optional but recommended, as easydb lifetime and support will end before fylr's.

Also check that you have uploaded a fylr license and tested/configured optional features that you need, e.g. Single Sign On, email sending, schema-sync via objectstore, hotfolder, etc..

7.a Replace easydb Indexer

Adjust docker-compose.yml to now feature Opensearch:

services:
  opensearch:
    [...not shown here: more opensearch details...]

Make sure fylr and Opensearch are in the same docker-network.

Change fylr.yml to use Opensearch:

fylr+:
[...]
  elastic+:
    addresses:
    - "http://opensearch:9200"

Start Opensearch and prepare its directory:

cd /srv/fylr
mkdir indexer
chown 1000 indexer
docker compose up -d opensearch ; docker logs -f opensearch

Stop outputting log messages with Ctrl-c if you have seen enough.

Restart fylr:

docker compose restart fylr ; docker logs -f --tail 0 fylr

Stop outputting log messages with Ctrl-c if you have seen enough.

Create the Indexes in Opensearch: (might take a while!)

Surf to https://fylr.example.com/inspect/ - System - Reindex (Blocking)

7.b Remove Apache

See the default fylr installation and adjust docker-compose.yml and fylr.yml. for default ports and certificate.

systemctl stop apache2
systemctl disable apache2
systemctl mask apache2
cd /srv/fylr
/srv/fylr/maintain fylr-recreate ; docker-compose logs -f fylr

Is certbot now also not needed any more? Then consider:

systemctl mask certbot.timer

7.c Change fylr domain

In case you want to change fylr's domain (e.g. to the former domain of easydb), see here.

7.d Stopping easydb services

Consider stopping all easydb services that are not needed any more (check whether you still use the indexer).

You may want to stop regular maintenance tasks for easydb, typically in /etc/cron.d/easydb*.

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