Installing BLIS (installation guide here) on a cloud server is a little difficult. There is a bootstrap script that can automate some of the process, but it cannot recover if there is a problem.
Additionally, when there is a problem with the installation of BLIS on a cloud server, there are limited tools available for debugging it, and the technical knowledge of the operator is varied.
For these reasons, I want to create a new version of the BLIS installation and management tool to simplify this process.
The BLIS cloud tool will be written in Python due to its widespread use and ease of development.
The tool should be installed with a system-level package manager. Possibilities are creating a Debian package, or perhaps a Python package that can be installed with
pip install.
There should be a command (eg. blis install) that replaces the current bootstrap script and performs all the necessary steps to install BLIS, prompting the user for input
only if necessary.
There should be a command (eg. blis doctor) that will perform a BLIS diagnostic test to ensure it is running properly. This should check for example:
- Whether or not the BLIS and database containers are running
- Whether the BLIS container is responding on port 80
- Whether the database container is healthy
- Whether there are any major errors in the BLIS log
A report should be generated that can be copy-and-pasted or otherwise sent to the BLIS team if there is a problem with these criteria.
The tool should assist country directors with migrating labs to the cloud instance. This behavior still needs to be thought out and designed.