The goal of Towerify, an open core project, is to efficiently manage a fleet of YunoHost servers, making it easier for administrators to deploy, configure, and monitor these servers. Towerify achieves this by integrating three key open source projects, each providing distinct capabilities:
- YunoHost. In Towerify, YunoHost is used to automatically configure servers. It streamlines tasks like app deployment, user management, email setup, and domain handling. With YunoHost integrated, Towerify enables users to easily set up and manage servers without requiring deep technical expertise.
- Osquery. In Towerify, Osquery is used to effortlessly gather server metrics. It enables us to use SQL-based queries to check operating system data. With Osquery, Towerify can monitor the health and performance of YunoHost servers, offering real-time information on system operations, security risks, and policy compliance.
- Vanilo. Vanilo is integrated into Towerify to handle the distribution and management of applications. While Vanilo is typically used as an e-commerce framework, in Towerify, it focuses on streamlining the software deployment and distribution processes. This integration allows business users to easily and consistently deploy applications across multiple YunoHost servers.
Towerify is designed to be flexible and can be used with YunoHost servers that are already set up and running. This means that even if you have YunoHost instances that were installed before integrating Towerify, you can still use Towerify to manage these servers. This capability allows for seamless integration and management without the need to set up new servers, making it convenient for users to adopt Towerify for existing setups.
Note
Metrics and security event collection no longer depend on the server being YunoHost-based, as any Linux server can now
be configured for automatic collection by running
curl -s https://app.towerify.io/setup/script?api_token=<token>&server_ip=<ip>&server_name=<name> | bash as root on
the target server.
- Getting Started
- Highlights
- User Personas
- Project Scope
- Contributing
- Sponsoring
- Security
- Licence
- Thank You
- One More Thing...
Before going further, please make sure you have the Docker Engine installed. To install the Docker Engine, visit Docker's installation page and follow the instructions for your platform.
To run Towerify locally, use the following command:
cp .env.example .env && php artisan key:generate && docker compose up
After the image is built, you can access Towerify user interface at http://localhost:8178 using the
username demo@towerify.io and the password Demo-Pass of the "super-administrator"
(see User Personas for details).
To change the username and password, you can modify the ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD variables in your .env
file. Adjust these values to your desired credentials.
Note
To run the project without Docker, please refer to the detailed installation guide available here. This guide provides step-by-step instructions to set up and run Towerify on your local machine without using Docker.
- My Apps. The applications relevant to your work, making your dashboard cleaner and more efficient.
- Servers. Displays the list of hardware resources to which you have permissions to deploy applications.
- Backups. Enables you to download backups for recovery or archival purposes as required.
- Domains. Displays the list of domains managed across all servers.
- Applications. Display the list of applications installed across all servers.
- Traces. Provides you with the ability to audit the latest actions performed across all servers, including commands that have been executed, those currently running, and upcoming commands.
- Interdependencies. Presents a visual graph that illustrates the relationships and connections between various pieces of hardware and web services. Constructed by analyzing nginx logs.
- Resources Usage. Provides a detailed breakdown of how much memory and storage is being utilized by each server.
- Security. Offers a comprehensive overview of system events that could affect server security, including changes to access keys, system logins and logouts, user modifications, and alterations in kernel modules.
- Security Rules. Display the list of Osquery rules deployed on your servers.
- Orders. Serves as a comprehensive inventory of all the applications that have been deployed, tracking their statuses and relevant details.
- Users. Provides a comprehensive inventory of all users who have been added and who have access to specific servers and applications.
- Invitations. Allows you to send invitations to new users to join.
- Settings. Facilitates the enrollment of new servers and provides options for installing YunoHost with just one click, an option that can be skipped if YunoHost is already installed. Additionally, it allows for the quick integration of Osquery, enabling detailed system monitoring through a single-click setup.
- Backups. Trigger a full backup of the system configuration and application data, which can then be transferred to S3 or another storage service. You have the flexibility to download these backups as needed for recovery or archival purposes.
- Domains. Displays all the domains managed by the current server, providing a comprehensive overview of the server's domain handling capabilities.
- Applications. Displays all applications currently installed on the server, allowing you to effectively manage them by installing new applications or uninstalling existing ones.
- Traces. Provides you with the ability to audit the latest actions performed on the server, including commands that have been executed, those currently running, and upcoming commands.
- Interdependencies. Display the list of servers and services that interact with the server. Constructed by analyzing nginx logs.
- Resources Usage. Provides a detailed breakdown of how much memory and storage is being utilized the server.
- Security. Offers a comprehensive overview of system events that could affect the server security, including changes to access keys, system logins and logouts, user modifications, and alterations in kernel modules.
- Users. Enables you to review who has access to the server and manage their permissions, ensuring control over the security perimeter.
- Shell. Provides a straightforward web interface through which you can execute simple and non-interactive commands on the server.
Towerify enables various categories of users within the same tenant (i.e., a team, an organization, etc.) to work together towards a common goal: ensuring that the human resources of this tenant remain focused on innovation.
As a multi-tenant platform, each tenant in Towerify is created and administered by a different "super-administrator". By default, a tenant is configured to take into account the personas described below:
- Infrastructure providers are responsible for provisioning hosts. This persona corresponds to the
administratorrole in the Admin panel. - Operators are tasked with deploying applications on these hosts. This persona corresponds to
the
limited administratorrole in the Admin panel. - Users access the deployed applications or develop new services to be deployed on these hosts. This persona
corresponds to the
basic end userrole in the Admin panel.
The permissions and roles system used by Towerify is extremely flexible, making it entirely feasible to model other personas beyond those described here.
The Towerify project operates under three strict laws:
- Focus on fleet understanding. Any new features or screens introduced in Towerify, the platform being developed, must aim to improve understanding across the entire fleet of applications or servers. This law prioritizes tools and features that enhance visibility, monitoring, and analytics, focusing on providing clear insights into system operations and performance. This helps users and administrators make informed decisions based on comprehensive data.
- Single-click deployment for all apps. Every application included in the project's catalog must be deployable using a single click. This rule emphasizes ease of use and accessibility, ensuring that the deployment process is as streamlined and user-friendly as possible. This can lead to innovations in the user interface and deployment scripts to adhere to this simplicity.
- Server modifications through SSH only. All modifications to servers must be conducted through SSH (Secure Shell). This law standardizes the method of server administration, enforcing a secure, consistent, and controlled approach to system modifications. By mandating SSH, the project ensures that all changes are made using a protocol that supports encryption and secure network services, reducing vulnerabilities and maintaining a high standard of security.
First of all, thank you for your interest, and for taking your time to contribute to Towerify.
We have a set of guidelines for those wishing to contribute to Towerify, and we encourage you to take a look at them here: contributors' guidelines.
Your pull requests will be highly welcomed. If you're looking for something to start with, you can check the open issues on our GitHub repository.
If you find that you lack the time or specific skills required to actively participate in the development or documentation of the project, you can still contribute significantly by providing financial support. The most effective way to support our efforts is to purchase a license for our commercial product, AdversaryMeter. This helps us continue our work and improve the project further.
To fully benefit from Towerify's integration with AdversaryMeter, you need to generate a new API key from AdversaryMeter
and then update the AM_API_KEY property in the .env file of your Towerify project. Simply
replace <your api key (optional)> with your new API key in the .env file to ensure seamless communication between
the two services.
Towerify takes security issues very seriously. Please, do not file GitHub issues or post on public forums for security vulnerabilities. Email engineering@computablefacts.com if you believe you have uncovered a vulnerability. In the message, try to provide a description of the issue and ideally a way of reproducing it. The security team will get back to you as soon as possible.
See the SECURITY file for details.
Unless you want to host Towerify yourself and sell it as a server management tool or marketplace, or to sell a product that directly exposes Towerify's UI or API, you should be good to go!
See the LICENSE file for details.
Towerify would not be possible without the support and assistance of other open-source tools and companies! Visit our thank you page to learn more about how we build Towerify.
Towerify comes pre-bundled with a selection of packaged applications, providing users with ready-to-use tools and functionalities right out of the box: ClickHouse, Docker Registry, Flarum, Jenkins, Keycloak, NiFi, NLM Ingestor, Portainer, Superset, Tika.