Backend Services

Backend services are a little like the ugly ducklings of the tech world. They are not pretty and people rarely directly interact them, but without their support we couldn’t get a lot of the magic we enjoy everyday. Below is a listing the various backend services I have deployed to either manage my existing network environment or to support the frontend services I have up.

InfluxDB - Time series database

Main: https://www.influxdata.com/
Github: https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb
- Releases: https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/releases
Documentation: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v2.0/

Notes:

STATUS: In use, long term storage for relevant Home Assistant data (ex. weather, power, etc.)

MQTT - Eclipse Mosquitto - IoT Messaging

Main: https://mqtt.org/
Github: https://github.com/eclipse/mosquitto
- Releases: https://github.com/eclipse/mosquitto/releases
Documentation: https://mqtt.org/getting-started/
Setup:
- Issue: permissions issue with initial setup
  - Fix: Ssh in as admin and run this cmd: chown -R 1883:1883 /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA/Docker/mosquitto
Reference:
- Look into MQTT Explorer: http://mqtt-explorer.com/ as of 2020-10-16
- http://www.steves-internet-guide.com/mqtt/
- http://www.steves-internet-guide.com/node-red-overview/
- http://www.steves-internet-guide.com/node-red-mqtt-topic-logger/
Tools
- IoTLink - sends Windows device data via MQTT for consumption by Home Assistant
  - https://gitlab.com/iotlink/iotlink
  - https://gitlab.com/iotlink/iotlink/-/wikis/Integrations/Home-Assistant
- MQTT Explorer - (think file explorer for MQTT)
  - https://mqtt-explorer.com/

Notes:

STATUS: In use, transports various IoT data for Home Assistant (Windows data, Blue Iris, Shelly Bluetooth, etc.)

pgAdmin - GUI/Tools for PostgreSQL

Main: https://www.pgadmin.org/
Github: https://github.com/postgres/pgadmin4
- Releases: https://github.com/postgres/pgadmin4/releases
Documentation: https://www.pgadmin.org/docs/
- Container Deployment: https://www.pgadmin.org/docs/pgadmin4/latest/container_deployment.html
  - Using this image: https://hub.docker.com/r/dpage/pgadmin4/

Portainer - Docker container management

Main: https://www.portainer.io/
- Community Edition (CE) - 2nd half 2020: https://www.portainer.io/products/community-edition
Github: https://github.com/portainer/portainer
- Releases: https://github.com/portainer/portainer/releases
Documentation: https://documentation.portainer.io/
- Docker Updates: https://documentation.portainer.io/v2.0/upgrade/upddocker/

Notes:

STATUS: In use, it does its job.

PostgreSQL - Database

Main: https://www.postgresql.org/
Github: https://github.com/postgres/postgres
- Releases: https://github.com/postgres/postgres/releases
Documentation: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/

Steps to update DB across major releases

General Steps:

Stop all services using the postgres DB
Export all databases from postgres - see export cmd below
Shutdown postgres
Archive existing postgres folder (ex. postgres => postgresXX_date) in docker folder
Create New postgres folder (ex. postgres) in docker folder
Update docker compose to reference new postgres image and start container
Confirm new postgres container is ready to accept connections (log file in portainer)
Import datafile from old postgres container - see cmd below

Export/Import Commands

Export: docker exec -it postgres /usr/bin/pg_dumpall -U postgres > dumpfile1.sql
Import: docker exec -i postgres psql -U postgres < dumpfile1.sql

References:

Notes:

STATUS: using as DB for Home Assistant, Nextcloud, and a few other containers

Traefik - Reverse proxy

Main: https://traefik.io/traefik/
Doc Main: https://doc.traefik.io/traefik/
Github: https://github.com/traefik/traefik/
- Releases: https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases
My blog post on setup and config: https://mwunderling.com/blog/traefik2.html
- Discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/hoswmo/traefik_2_configuration_eli5_edition/
Reference:
- Static File: https://docs.traefik.io/reference/static-configuration/file/
  - Entrypoints - https://docs.traefik.io/routing/entrypoints/
- Dynamic File:
  - Routers - https://docs.traefik.io/routing/routers/
  - https://docs.traefik.io/routing/routers/#certresolver
- Let’s Encrypt: https://docs.traefik.io/https/acme/
Other:
- Using influxDB to view Traefik Metrics: https://theorangeone.net/posts/traefik-influx-metrics/

Notes:

STATUS: In-use, happy with performance, need to migrate to Traefik3