Setup Sync with Docker

Emoncms
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1

Hello,

Working on migrating my data from emoncms.org to a docker container on my nas. I have the container up and running with docker compose (GitHub - emoncms/emoncms-docker: Emoncms docker container(s)), but I dont see it having the sync module. What would be the steps to get this added in?

Thank you in advance for any help.

Regards,

Dan

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It looks as if @beaylott hasn’t noticed this post yet. He should now get an email notificaton, so hopefully he’ll be along soon.

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Thanks @Robert.Wall , I dont monitor this forum very closely.

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The solution is to add a line in the Dockerfile to clone the sync repo e.g.

https://github.com/beaylott/emoncms-docker-1/blob/master/Dockerfile#L31

… then rebuild the Docker image for emoncms using that modified Dockerfile by whatever means.

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Hi Ben, the sync module is not as staightforward to install as the graph or dashboard modules. The Sync module requires cloning to a location outside of the /var/www path and then a sub-folder of that repo is symlinked into emoncms/Modules. There are also some other requirements to make this module work such as a “service-runner.sh” script (part of the emonpi repo not currently standalone) and a cron job to constantly check for emoncms flags to trigger that service-runner.sh.

See the module repo for further info

and also there are a few posts here on the forum discussing getting the sync module installed and working, but it’s spread out across several threads Search results for 'sync module' - OpenEnergyMonitor Community rather than in one place.

Just thought I should mention it because if @flemingdp tries what you suggest, it definitely will not work.

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ok in that case the solution is probably going to require use of crond and/or supervisord in the container in order to use the service-runner.sh . Or it needs a separate container. All the Docker stuff needs overhauling anyway so I might have a look when I try that.

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Would love to see the containers consolidated, but that may be challenging. Happy to test. Let me know. Thank you.

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Hi @beaylott Is there anything I can do to help with this? I would love to start sycing my historical data down.

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After spending two nights trying to get this working for myself and trying to wrap my head around docker, this seems to be the simplest solution:

  1. Edit the Dockerfile and add following lines (in place of that one line that @beaylott suggested):
RUN git clone https://github.com/emoncms/sync.git /home/pi/sync

RUN chgrp www-data /home/pi
RUN chgrp -R www-data /home/pi/sync
RUN ln -s /var/www/html /var/www/emoncms
RUN ln -s /home/pi/sync/sync-module /var/www/emoncms/Modules/sync

The reason I decided to place it in /home/pi even though there is no pi user is because that is the default location for $HOMEDIR on which the sync depends and it will save one step of modifying the settings.php. The other reason was that putting in /root did not seem right and would require modifying access rights to /root.

  1. after you save the file, you will need to rebuild the container:
sudo docker-compose up -d --build

  1. reload the webpage. At least use Ctrl+F5 if not close and reopen the tab.

  2. Before you try to use Sync. Go to Setup->Administration and do Update&Check to update the database.

  3. Follow the instructions on Sync git page on how to configure it.

Now comes the biggest caveat: I spend about 6 hours researching how to implement cron in docker. And although it is possible, it would over complicate things beyond simple instructions if implemented correctly. That leaves two options:

  1. if you are just trying to transfer data from emoncms.org and this a one time deal, you can run the download manually by getting into the container using
sudo docker exec -t -i emoncmsdocker_web_1 /bin/bash

Once in there you need to run

php /home/pi/sync/sync_run.php
  1. if you want to do this on schedule, you can create a cron job on your host that executes that script inside the container. I have not done it myself but the crontab should look something like this
* * * * * docker run --rm emoncmsdocker_web_1 /home/pi/sync/emoncms-sync.sh

I hope that helps

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