New tool to support DHIS2 on lxd: dhis2-tools-dab

Server Administration - Administration-du-Serveur
1

Many of you have used or are still using DHIS2 with lxd containers thanks to Bob’s dhis2-tools-ng.

The tool brings stability, security and performance improvements for DHIS2 in environments where a single server is used, mostly in house.

While it has been fundamental for DHIS2 implementers to kick start and make DHIS2 operational, the tool lacks in support of modern day infrastructure needs.

That’s why I’ve worked in the past couple of months on a new tool which is based on dhis2-tools-ng but providing more features and robustness, such as, but not limited to:

  • service credential management (including DHIS2);
  • lxd cluster support, so you can spin up lxd containers on multiple separated servers;
  • additional container types like centralized logging and a Security Information Event Management (SIEM) system.

The tool integrates seamlessly into preexisting lxd infrastructures created via dhis2-tools-ng without little to no effort (just have to replace some files, done automatically by the new tool).

If you want to know more, I’ve create this blog post to present the tool better, alongside other guides on how to upgrade and how to use the SIEM container type. Feel also free to reply to this topic, comment on the blog posts, send me a direct message here or open a Github issue.

The code is free for everyone to grab at GitHub - davinerd/dhis2-tools-dab: Improved DHIS2 management system through LXD containers.

The roadmap for the tool is yet to be decided: if you want to see a particular feature or have any request, please read the How to Contribute section of the repository README.

Let me know your thoughts!

4 Likes
2

Hello Davide, and congratulations for the tool. It seems interesting and I will try it as soon as I can.

I have one question: why did you fork the original Bob’s dhis2-tools-ng instead of trying to join the efforts together? Only to know what are the main reasons of this.

Thank you.

3

Thanks kfeina,
let me know your feedback once you give it a try!

To answer you question: I did put some effort in adding most of my features in Bob’s repository (as you can see from the PR in its repository as well as the ones on the Solidline’s repo), but there were conflicting ideas about how dhis2-tools-ng should evolve and therefore decided to create my own version.

Hope it answers your question.

Thanks

4

Hello,

Yes, I did something similar Protect unprotected websites with dhis2-tools-ng · Issue #19 · bobjolliffe/dhis2-tools-ng · GitHub

And no answer. I can imagine they don’t have time, it happens to me very often.

In any case, thanks to both of you for the tools.

Regards.

5

Hello Kfeina
We are currently transitioning to the use of dhis2-server-tools, which are Ansible-based. These tools address the issues you are discussing, providing secure deployments.