Deployment Guide

This guide covers the essential steps for deploying Obed to a production environment.

Background Processes

Obed can be configured to run entirely via scheduled tasks (Cron), which is ideal for environments like Dokku where spinning up a dedicated worker container might be resource-heavy.

ONE-SHOT Cron Configuration (Recommended for Dokku)

Instead of running a continuously active worker, you can run two periodic commands.

1. Process Pending Notifications (Hourly)

This wakes up "future" notifications (like reminders) and puts them into the queue.

• Command: python manage.py process_notifications
• Frequency: Hourly (e.g., at minute 0)

2. Execute Tasks (Every 30 mins)

This command processes the queued items (sends the emails/SMS). Using --batch tells it to process all waiting tasks and then exit.

• Command: python manage.py db_worker --batch --backend notifications --queue notifications --max-tasks 15
• Frequency: Every 30 minutes.

3. Maintenance & Reports

• Session Cleanup: python manage.py clearsessions (Daily)
• Database Cleanup: python manage.py prune_db_task_results --days 7 (Weekly, Sat 05:30)
• Failure Report: python manage.py send_notification_failures (Weekly, Sat 00:30)

Dokku app.json Example:

{
  "cron": [
    {
      "command": "python manage.py clearsessions",
      "schedule": "@daily"
    },
    {
      "command": "python manage.py process_notifications",
      "schedule": "0 * * * *"
    },
    {
      "command": "python manage.py db_worker --batch --backend notifications --queue notifications --max-tasks 15",
      "schedule": "*/30 * * * *"
    },
    {
      "command": "python manage.py prune_db_task_results --days 7",
      "schedule": "30 5 * * 6"
    },
    {
      "command": "python manage.py send_notification_failures",
      "schedule": "30 0 * * 6"
    }
  ]
}

Alternative: Dedicated Worker

If you prefer a traditional worker setup (e.g., for instant email delivery):

1. Worker: Run python manage.py db_worker --backend notifications continuously.
2. Cron: You STILL need the process_notifications cron job to wake up future reminders.

Deployment Checklist

[ ] Environment Variables: Configure all variables listed in Environment Variables. [ ] Static Files: Run python manage.py collectstatic. [ ] Migrations: Run python manage.py migrate. [ ] Worker: Start the db_worker process. [ ] Cron: Configure the process_notifications cron job. [ ] HTTPS: Ensure SSL requires are met (Turnstile and other security features depend on it).