Phase 3: Complete Application Installation Automation

[josecelano]

Phase 3: Complete Application Installation Automation

Objective

Fully automate tracker deployment including SSL certificates to achieve one-command deployment to production-ready state.

Current State

• ✅ VM provisioning via cloud-init
• ✅ Basic app setup (copy files, .env config, docker compose up)
• ❌ SSL certificate generation
• ❌ Crontab setup for renewals
• ❌ Production hardening steps

Tasks

SSL Certificate Automation

• Automate SSL certificate generation with Certbot
• Set up automatic certificate renewal crontabs
• Handle edge cases and error recovery for certificate generation

Production Hardening

• Implement production hardening automation
• Security configurations and firewall hardening
• System monitoring and logging setup

Deployment Validation

• Create comprehensive deployment validation script
• Health checks for all services (tracker, MySQL, Nginx, Grafana, Prometheus)
• End-to-end functionality testing

Documentation and Error Handling

• Document any remaining manual steps (if Certbot requires interaction)
• Error recovery procedures and troubleshooting guides
• Update deployment documentation

Implementation Notes

• Integrate with existing cloud-init setup
• If Certbot automation requires manual interaction, document as the only manual step
• Follow production setup guide: https://torrust.com/blog/deploying-torrust-to-production
• Maintain compatibility with local testing environment

Acceptance Criteria

• One-command deployment from infrastructure provisioning to production-ready tracker
• SSL certificates automatically generated and configured
• Automatic certificate renewal working
• All services pass health checks
• Complete validation script confirms deployment success
• Documentation updated with any manual steps required

Related Documentation

• Hetzner Migration Plan
• Production Setup Guide

Dependencies

This phase builds on:

• Phase 1: Database Migration to MySQL ✅ (Complete)
• Phase 2: 12-Factor App Refactoring (In Progress)

Next Phase

Upon completion, this will enable Phase 4: Hetzner Infrastructure Implementation.