loop-server-fast

A faster NodeJS reader plugin to complement the AtomJump Messaging Server (see http://atomjump.org). This speeds up the core of the AtomJump Messaging Server PHP scripts, to allow for a large increase in the number of simultaneous users, with the same hardware.

Requirements

• NodeJS >= 4.x
• AtomJump Messaging Server >= 1.5.5
• Linux server (or any machine with NodeJS)

Server Setup

Follow the instructions to set up the Messaging Server as a PHP script.

Then to install the daemon:

npm install pm2@latest -g
npm install loop-server-fast -g
npm config set loop-server-fast:configFile /path/to/your/messaging-server/config/config.json
npm config set loop-server-fast:messagesFile /path/to/your/messaging-server/config/messages.json

To your Loop Server's config/config.json, add the following

{
   "staging": {
		...
		"readPort" : 3277,					[can be a different port]
		"readURL" : "http://yoururl.com:3277",			[for wider compatiblity you could use a proxy. See 'Ports' section below]					
		"httpsKey" : "/path/to/your/https.key",			[optional, for https only]
		"httpsCert": "/path/to/your/https.crt",			[optional, for https only]
		...	  
	}
}

(note, remove the [comments in square brackets above])

Now run and set up the script to run after a server reboot.

cd "$(npm prefix -global)/lib/node_modules/loop-server-fast/" 
pm2 start npm --name "loop-server-fast" -- start; cd ~
pm2 save
pm2 startup     	#and run the command it outputs, to get autostart at boot-up.

Open your firewall e.g. on Ubuntu (also see further details at https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-setup-a-firewall-with-ufw-on-an-ubuntu-and-debian-cloud-server)

sudo ufw allow 3277/tcp

Now run your staging installation interface in a browser. It should continue as normal, but your NodeJS server is handling most read requests.

Starting and stopping

pm2 start loop-server-fast
pm2 stop loop-server-fast

Going live

Then, to your Loop Server's config/config.json, add the following

{
   "production": {
		...
		"readPort" : 3277					[can be a different port]
		"readURL" : "http://yoururl.com:3277",			[for wider compatiblity you could use a proxy. See 'Ports' section below]
		"httpsKey" : "/path/to/your/https.key",			[optional, for https only]
		"httpsCert": "/path/to/your/https.crt",			[optional, for https only]
		...	  
	}
}

(note, remove the [comments in square brackets above])

Switch the NodeJS server to the Messaging Server's production settings with:

npm config set loop-server-fast:production true
pm2 restart loop-server-fast

(or back to staging with 'false')

Ports

If you use a non-standard port number in a URL e.g. 3277, some machines behind proxy servers, particularly corporates, or some public PCs may filter the URL out when trying to read from it. One approach here, at a slight loss of speed, is to use the standard port 80 for http and 443 for https, and ProxyPass in Apache: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9831594/apache-and-node-js-on-the-same-server

" With the ProxyPass directive in the Apache httpd.conf you can pipe all requests on a particular URL to the Node.JS application.

ProxyPass /node http://yourcompany.com:3277/

Also, make sure the following lines are NOT commented out so you get the right proxy and submodule to reroute http requests:

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

"

Which would allow your readURL to be e.g.

http://yourcompany.com/node

Troubleshooting

You can track logs with

pm2 logs

To switch on verbose messages

npm config set loop-server-fast:verbose true
pm2 restart loop-server-fast

and to switch back off again

npm config set loop-server-fast:verbose false
pm2 restart loop-server-fast

If, you are on a small machine (e.g. 512MB RAM), and the install fails, try this

npm install loop-server-fast -g -production 

Upgrading

One convenient line, to minimise downtime (although you will have a few seconds down):

pm2 stop loop-server-fast; pm2 delete loop-server-fast; npm install loop-server-fast -g; cd "$(npm prefix -global)/lib/node_modules/loop-server-fast/"; pm2 start npm --name "loop-server-fast" -- start; cd ~; pm2 save

or, if you need a 'sudo' version of this

sudo pm2 stop loop-server-fast; sudo pm2 delete loop-server-fast; npm install loop-server-fast -g; cd "$(npm prefix -global)/lib/node_modules/loop-server-fast/"; sudo pm2 start npm --name "loop-server-fast" -- start; cd ~; sudo pm2 save