Multi-instance management

Create the dedicated instance folder

Create an instance folder in the server tree, for example /var/www/app/instancename, then create the files needed to keep the instances separate:

# Folder containing the application code
APP=/var/www/app
# Folder containing the specific parameters of the instance
FOLDER="/var/www/instances/instancename"
mkdir -P $FOLDER
chmod g+r $FOLDER
cd $FOLDER
mkdir temp
# New cryptographic keys
openssl genpkey -algorithm rsa -out id_app -pkeyopt rsa_keygen_bits:2048
openssl rsa -in id_app -pubout -out id_app.pub
# Copy the configuration file
cp $APP/env .env
# Upgrade rights
chmod -R g+r .
chmod g+w temp
chown www-data id_app

the temp folder is the folder in which the application will generate all the files before sending them to the browser. To avoid the risk of collision between two instances, it is strongly recommended that each has its own space.

Upgrading the Apache virtual site

In the virtual site description (myinstance.conf file, in /etc/apache2/sites-available), add :

<VirtualHost *:443>
(...)
DocumentRoot /var/www/app
setenv envPath /var/www/instances/instancename
(...) 

Modifying the parameters

Edit the /var/www/instances/instancename/.env file:

app.baseURL = ‘https://myinstance.mysociety.com’
BASE_DIR = ‘/var/www/instances/instancename
app.privateKey = ${BASE_DIR}/id_app
app.pubKey = ${BASE_DIR}/id_app.pub
app.APP_temp = ${BASE_DIR}/temp
database.default.hostname = localhost
database.default.database = dbname_instance
database.default.username = login_instance
database.default.password = password_instance

Also check the default login mode, and adapt it if necessary.

Adapt scripts run on the command line

If you use scripts that are run from the command line, for example scripts that are scheduled to run at regular times (crontab), you will need to modify the script loader:

#!/bin/bash
export envPath=/var/www/instances/instancename
cd $envPath/public
php index.php myscript

where myscript is the route to call.

The envPath variable is available in $_SERVER.

Technical: changes made to the code to manage multi-instances

The end of the index.php file is modified as follows:

//exit(CodeIgniter\Boot::bootWeb($paths));
require FCPATH. '../vendor/equinton/ppci/src/BootApp.php';
exit (CodeIgniter\BootApp::bootweb($paths));

And the BootApp class contains this code:

<?php

namespace CodeIgniter;

use CodeIgniter\Boot;
use Config\Paths;
use CodeIgniter\Config\DotEnv;

class BootApp extends Boot {

    protected static function loadDotEnv(Paths $paths): void
    {
        require_once $paths->systemDirectory . '/Config/DotEnv.php';
        if (is_file($file = $_SERVER["envPath"] . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . ".env") && is_readable($file)) {
            (new DotEnv($_SERVER["envPath"],".env"))->load();
        } else {
            (new DotEnv($paths->appDirectory . '/../'))->load();
        }
    }
}

Warning: the use of an .env file placed elsewhere than at the root of the application prevents CodeIgniter’s debugging tools from working (development mode).