Deploy Solid Server to Google App Engine?

Self Host a Solid Pod
1

Hi everyone! I’m really new but I’m really excited to deploy my first Solid Server to a Google App Engine instance in order to host all my personal data on my new personal Pod :star_struck:

I am looking to store all my personal data in this Solid Server and would love to have https://danielbakas.com/profile/card#me as my WebID.

I tried a most simple test installation and deployment to Google App Engine but had no luck (errors).

Here are the steps I followed:

  1. npm i @solid/community-server --save
  2. Add the following start script to package.json:
    • community-solid-server -c @css:config/file.json -b https://test.danielbakas.com
  3. Add an app.yaml file with only this line:
    • runtime: nodejs16
  4. Create a new project on Google Cloud and enable App Engine
  5. Run gcloud app deploy app.yaml to deploy to App Engine instance

The error is live right now at: https://test.danielbakas.com

Thanks so much!

2

There’s a few things here:

Other then that, you’d need to check the server logs and see what they say: View your service's Logs  |  Google App Engine standard environment docs  |  Google Cloud

3

Thanks @ThisIsMissEm this is really useful!

  • Would you then suggest I deploy to a Compute Engine instead of an App Engine?
  • The link you sent include the instructions I followed. The IP Addresses that the test.danielbakas.com subdomain points to are the same that the article mentions.

I am curious though as to why a Compute Engine would work and an App Engine would not. All Node applications (from Express to React) I’ve deployed in the past (including semantyk.com have been deployed in an App Engine without any issues.

  • What would be the benefits of using Compute Engine as opposed to App Engine?

Thanks again @ThisIsMissEm!

4

Whilst many node.js applications can be deployed directly to App Engine or Heroku, typically these do not interact with the local file system in a read/write manner, typically they’re read only with user generated content being stored in either a database or an object store.

You may find better luck deploying on a platform that’s closer to a VPS, keeping in mind whether the machine has persistent attached storage or not.

5

Awesome! Thank you so much @ThisIsMissEm. In that case Compute Engine is definitely what I’m looking for. Should I create a new thread for “Deploy Solid Server to Google Compute Engine?” :yum::nerd_face:

6

If you’re specifically wanting to deploy the Community Solid Server then I’d open an issue up in GitHub - CommunitySolidServer/CommunitySolidServer: An open and modular implementation of the Solid specifications or send a message to CommunitySolidServer/community - Gitter so you get a response from one of the core team there.

Also in case you didn’t already know - there are several existing cloud hosted instances of CSS, ESS and TrinPod for you to make use of should you wish to do that Get a Pod · Solid. (There are also NSS deployments but I would avoid using those as NSS is no longer up-to-date with the Solid Spec).

1 Like
7

There are also NSS deployments but I would avoid using those as NSS is no longer up-to-date with the Solid Spec

NSS support solid spec 0.9 which is latest.
Agreed that CSS due to its modular nature offer more versatile implementation, but this is not related to solid spec.

3 Likes
8

Thank you so much everybody!! I’ll ask in the Gitter for now then and see what everyone suggests :partying_face::pray:t3: