Design Clusters on a Canvas: Replica Sets, Galera, Gateways and HTTPS

Intro

0:00 Design a cluster on a canvas : API Maker on several servers behind a gateway, databases clustered over the servers you pick, reverse proxies with their own domains, and every rule checked before anything is deployed.

Clusters, the usual way

0:15 A cluster usually means replica sets, streaming replicas and Galera set up by hand, node by node, a load balancer to configure, and to update for every new server, certificates to get and to renew, and a drawing on a whiteboard that nothing checks. With Launchpad, shift-click the servers, and the database is clustered over them, the gateway follows every API Maker server you add, Let's Encrypt certificates, got and renewed by the reverse proxy, and a canvas that refuses what can not work, and says why.

0:48 In this video : the canvas, more API Maker servers, the gateway and its load balancing, what the canvas refuses, databases clustered, API Maker's own MongoDB and Redis, reverse proxies with their own domains, and how a cluster is deployed.

The canvas

1:05 The architecture of production, on the load balanced layout : the gateway, app-1 for API Maker, and data. On the left, the palette ; on the right, every component. Drag PostgreSQL from the palette : the servers that can take it are outlined, and the one under the pointer says what the drop does. Dropped on data. Its name : orders. Saved. A click on a server opens its box : connect it, what can be added there, and what it runs, each with its own move and remove.

More API Maker servers

1:38 API Maker from the palette, onto the place of a new server : app-2 is planned, and runs it. API Maker now runs on two servers, and the gateway sends the requests to both : it follows every API Maker server added later. Each API Maker server needs a license key of its own.

The gateway

1:58 The gateway : Caddy, sending the requests to every API Maker server. Its load balancing : the fewest requests in progress, each server in turn, the same visitor on the same server, or active and standby. Change its kind : Ferron, written in Rust, or Pingap, built on Cloudflare Pingora. Caddy is the default. Three reverse proxies, all with certificates from Let's Encrypt that they get and renew by themselves.

2:26 Caddy checks the API Maker servers and reloads without dropping a connection. Ferron leaves out a server that fails, and tries the request on the next one. Pingap applies new routes and servers without dropping connections. A new configuration is checked first : one the reverse proxy refuses leaves it as it was.

What the canvas refuses

2:47 API Maker of app-1 dragged onto app-2 : app-2 runs it already, and the canvas says so, in red. The drop changes nothing. The same rules everywhere : API Maker once per server, one reverse proxy per server, every Galera node on a server of its own, no x86 only database on an ARM server, and a Full Docker environment on one server.

Databases clustered

3:12 Click data, shift-click app-1, and gateway : three servers. The panel lists what can be clustered over them : a MongoDB replica set, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB and Percona with their replicas. SQL Server, Oracle and TiDB run as single nodes. MongoDB over them : a replica set, one member on each server, the primary on data. Every member keeps a full copy of the data ; when the primary stops, the others elect a new one within about ten seconds, and API Maker follows it by itself.

3:48 Its name : catalog. Added, drawn over the three servers with its replication.

API Maker's MongoDB and Redis

3:55 The same three servers again : API Maker's own MongoDB becomes a replica set over them. And once more : its Redis becomes a cluster, the keys shared out between at least three masters, each with its replica.

MariaDB as a Galera cluster

4:13 For the marketing data, MariaDB over the three servers : as a primary with replicas, or as a Galera cluster, where every node reads and writes. marketing, added. Every cluster is drawn, server by server. PostgreSQL : a primary and streaming replicas, synchronous if you want. MySQL and Percona : a source and replicas. MariaDB : replicas, or a Galera cluster. MongoDB : replica sets. In the panel of a database, its servers are chips : choosing a second server turns a single node into a cluster, and back.

Reverse proxies and domains

4:51 Caddy from the palette, onto app-1, next to its API Maker : a direct reverse proxy, which sends the requests to the API Maker of its own server only. Its addresses : three domains of Calm Home, for the admin panel, the API, and the WebSockets, over HTTPS, with an email for the expiry notices. Saved. Apps reach app-1 directly ; the gateway stays the entry of the environment. A right click on any component opens its menu : here, the reverse proxy can become a second gateway, to every API Maker server.

5:29 The Settings of the environment list every reverse proxy, with its addresses, and open the architecture on the one to change.

The keyboard

5:38 Everything on the canvas works with the keyboard too : Tab to a server or a component, Enter to select it, Shift Enter to add a server to the selection, Shift F10 for its menu, Delete to remove what is selected, and Escape to let go.

How a cluster is deployed

5:53 Deployed, a cluster comes up in order. Every server is prepared and its databases start, then the replica sets and the clusters are formed, the replicas and the other nodes join, and the replication is checked. API Maker starts last, one server at a time when several already serve traffic, so the gateway always has one to send requests to.

Recap

6:16 To sum up. Drag and drop, and the drop says what it does. More API Maker servers, and the gateway follows. Databases clustered over the servers you pick. Reverse proxies with their own domains and certificates. And a canvas that refuses what can not work. Next : Launchpad, every day. API Maker. Build faster, spend smarter, deliver better.