SkillTree Docs

# Production Installation

SkillTree encourages a high-availability and horizontally scalable production installation. To achieve both of these goals, multiple instances of skills-service must be installed on different nodes/instances. Each skills-service node will have the same configuration and is designed to scale-up or scale down horizontally. You can add or remove instances any time.

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Please note that this section is only applicable if you are installing the SkillTree platform from scratch. If your organization is already running a centralized service please proceed to the Integration User Guide or the Dashboard User Guide

There are two installation modes:

  • Password Auth Mode: Accounts created and managed by SkillTree and/or delegated to OAuth2 authentication provider (ex. GitHub, Google, etc..)
  • PKI Auth Mode: PKI Mode is for intranets where organizations utilize PKI with 2-way SSL certificates to implement authentication and authorization. User's browser must be setup with a personal PKI certificate and that certificate must be issued by a Certificate Authority trusted in the dashboard application's truststore.

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Definitely use Password Auth Mode if you are not sure which mode is applicable to you.

# Password Auth Mode Install

Production-grade installation requires a cluster of skills-service daemons which must reside on multiple machines/instances with a load balancer in front of them. There are a number of products that need to be installed in high-availability mode in order to support a clustered SkillTree setup.

Production Installation for Pass Auth Mode

1: Clustered deployment of skills-service for high-availability and higher throughput

  • Route requests through a load balancer

2: Database - We currently only support PostgreSQL for a production-grade install

3: WebSocket Stomp Brokers

4: Spring Session for HTTP Session Management: Required for a clustered skills-service deployment to persist HttpSession

  • SkillTree uses Spring Session for managing a user’s session information in a clustered environment without being tied to an application container-specific solution.

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SkillTree recommends using JDBC to store the HTTP session in a clustered environment due to its simplicity, and since a shared PostgreSQL instance is already required there is no need to run a separate product. For example, adding the following two properties is all that is required to utilize the existing SkillTree PostgreSQL database for session management:

spring.session.store-type=jdbc
spring.session.jdbc.initialize-schema=always

5: Shared keystore for JSON Web Token (JWT) Generation: Required for a clustered skills-service deployment for JWT generation. If running your SkillTree server in https SSL mode, you can use the same keystore file for JWT by adding the following property:

security.oauth2.jwt.useKeystore=true

# Auth Mode skills-service Configuration

Here is a minimum required list of configurations in order to run production-grade skills-service instance(s). Please visit the Configuration section to learn how to configure skills-service.
Each skills-service instance should be configured with the following:

DB configs:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://<server>:5432/skills
spring.datasource.username=
spring.datasource.password=

WebSocket Stomp:

skills.websocket.enableStompBrokerRelay=true
skills.websocket.relayHost=
skills.websocket.relayPort=

Store HttpSession in JDBC:

spring.session.store-type=jdbc
spring.session.jdbc.initialize-schema=always

Keystore for JWT:

security.oauth2.jwt.useKeystore=true

Configure https:

server.port=8443
server.ssl.enabled=true
server.ssl.key-store-type=PKCS12
server.ssl.key-store=/path/to/keystore.p12
server.ssl.key-store-password=

# Force TLSv1.2 until https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8241248 is fixed
server.ssl.enabled-protocols=TLSv1.2

Java VM option to increase skills-service heap size:

-Xmx2g -Xms2g

# PKI Auth Mode Install

Production-grade installation requires a cluster of skills-service daemons which must reside on multiple machines/instances with a load balancer in front of them. There are a number of products that need to be installed in high-availability mode in order to support a clustered SkillTree setup.

Production Installation for Pass PKI Mode

1: Clustered deployment of skills-service for high-availability and higher throughput

  • Route requests through a load balancer

2: Database - We currently only support PostgreSQL for a production-grade install

3: WebSocket Stomp Brokers

4: User Info Service - Provides user information based on PKI's Distinguished Name (DN)

  • You are responsible for implementing this service, please visit the User Info Service section to learn more.
  • Make sure to run it in High Availibility mode

# PKI Mode skills-service configuration

Here is a minimum required list of configurations in order to run production-grade skills-service instance(s). Please visit the Configuration section to learn how to configure skills-service.
Each skills-service instance should be configured with the following:

DB configs:

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://<server>:5432/skills
spring.datasource.username=
spring.datasource.password=

WebSocket Stomp:

skills.websocket.enableStompBrokerRelay=true
skills.websocket.relayHost=
skills.websocket.relayPort=

Store HttpSession in JDBC:

spring.session.store-type=jdbc
spring.session.jdbc.initialize-schema=always

Keystore for JWT:

security.oauth2.jwt.useKeystore=true

Enable PKI mode install:

skills.authorization.authMode=PKI

Configure https and 2-way SSL:

server.port=8443
server.ssl.enabled=true
server.ssl.client-auth=want
	
# Force TLSv1.2 until https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8241248 is fixed
server.ssl.enabled-protocols=TLSv1.2

# keystore
server.ssl.key-store=/certs/keystore.p12
server.ssl.key-store-password=
server.ssl.keyStoreType=PKCS12

# truststore
server.ssl.trust-store=/certs/truststore.p12
server.ssl.trust-store-password=
server.ssl.trustStoreType=PKCS12

User Info Service client properties: 

# To retrieve user info by DN
skills.authorization.userInfoUri=https://<host>:<port>/userInfo?dn={dn}
# Used by dashboard dropdowns to suggest existing users
skills.authorization.userQueryUri=https://<host>:<port>/userQuery?query={query}
# skills-service checks the health of User Info Service
skills.authorization.userInfoHealthCheckUri=https://<host>:<port>/actuator/health

If User Info Service utilizes 2-way SSL then add the following client authentication properties (Java System Properties): 

# Keystore
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=/certs/keystore.p12
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=PKCS12
-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=

# Truststore
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/certs/truststore.p12
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=PKCS12
-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=

Java VM option to increase skills-service heap size:

-Xmx2g -Xms2g
Last Updated: 11/3/2023, 11:47:32 AM