Run the Bold BI application as multiple instances behind a load balancer using the same EFS volume

This section explains how to use multiple EC2 instances for the Bold BI application with the same shared EFS volume in a Docker environment.

1. To create and connect AWS EC2 Linux Ubuntu instances, refer to: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EC2_GetStarted.html.

2. Create an EFS file system to store the app_data for the Bold BI application, using the provided document, and make sure it is in the same VPC and security group.
   https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/ug/creating-using-create-fs.html

3. Create a load balancer using the below document for an EC2 instance to access an application with the load balancer DNS.
   Load Balancer => https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/application-load-balancer-getting-started.html

   The document above explains how to create a load balancer, target group, and configure it with an EC2 instance.

4. Create a docker-compose.yaml file with the below configuration details.

   version: '3.5'
   services:
     boldbi:
      image: syncfusion/boldbi
      restart: always
      ports:
        - "80:80"
     # environment:
      # - APP_URL=<app_base_url>
   
      networks:
        - boldbi
      volumes:
        - my-efs:/application/app_data
   
   
   networks:
     boldbi:
   
   volumes:
     my-efs:
       driver_opts:
         type: "nfs"
         o: "addr=<DNS of EFS volume>,rw,nfsvers=4.1,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,hard,timeo=600,retrans=2,noresvport"
         device: ":/"
   

5. Register the details for EFS in the Docker Compose configuration file without including the APP_URL in the EC2 instance.

   

6. Deploy a Bold BI application using a docker-compose YAML file on first EC2 instance and configure it to start up using the documentation provided below, with a load balancer DNS.

   • Navigate to the project directory and up the container using below command.

      docker-compose up -d
     

   • Once the Bold BI container is up and running, access the application using the load balancer DNS.
   • Application startup => https://help.boldbi.com/application-startup/

7. Now, you can use the same Docker Compose to deploy Bold BI on the required number of instances. This means it will utilize the same APP_URL, EFS Volume, and Port Number.

8. Next, register all Bold BI instances in the same Load Balancer Target Group according to the instructions provided in the following documentation:
   https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/application/target-group-register-targets.html#register-instances

9. Now, all instances of Bold BI have been linked, and the Bold BI application is accessible in multiple instances with an EFS volume.

Additional Reference:

1. Bold BI supported environment variables and their usage?
2. Steps to access app_data folder in EFS file storage through Linux VM
3. Bold BI multi container deployment