Deployment Guides: Infrastructure Management

Effective infrastructure management is key to ensuring the reliability, scalability, and security of your Gemforce-powered applications. This guide provides an overview of managing the core components of the Gemforce platform, including MongoDB for data storage and Parse Server for backend services, focusing on deployment, scaling, and operational best practices.

Overview

Gemforce's backend heavily relies on:

  • MongoDB: A NoSQL database used by Parse Server for data persistence.
  • Parse Server: A backend-as-a-service (BaaS) framework that handles API requests, Cloud Functions, and data management.

This guide provides practical considerations for deploying and managing these components in a production environment.

1. MongoDB Management

MongoDB is the primary data store for Parse Server. Proper management ensures data integrity, performance, and scalability.

Best Practices

  • Deployment Options:
    • Managed Services (Recommended): Use cloud-managed MongoDB services like MongoDB Atlas, AWS DocumentDB, Azure Cosmos DB for MongoDB, or Google Cloud MongoDB Atlas. These services handle backups, scaling, patching, and high availability.
    • Self-Hosted: If self-hosting, deploy MongoDB as a replica set for high availability and data redundancy. Configure journaling.
  • Indexing: Create indexes on frequently queried fields to optimize read performance. Monitor slow queries (db.setProfilingLevel(1) or db.currentOp()).
  • Sharding: For very large datasets or high write throughput, implement sharding to distribute data across multiple servers.
  • Backup and Restore: Implement regular, automated backup procedures. Test restore operations periodically.
  • Monitoring: Monitor key MongoDB metrics: CPU, memory, disk I/O, network usage, active connections, query performance. Use tools like MongoDB Atlas Monitoring, Prometheus/Grafana, or specialized APM tools.
  • Security:
    • Authentication: Enable authentication (auth) and create dedicated user accounts with least privilege.
    • Authorization: Implement role-based access control (RBAC).
    • Encryption: Encrypt data at rest and in transit (TLS/SSL).
    • Network Access: Restrict network access to MongoDB instances (firewall rules, VPC private endpoints).
    • Auditing: Enable auditing for security-critical operations.
  • Version Management: Keep MongoDB updated to benefit from performance improvements, security patches, and new features.

2. Parse Server Management

Parse Server acts as the backend logic layer. Efficient deployment and scaling are crucial.

Best Practices

  • Deployment Options:
    • PaaS (Platform as a Service): Deploy to Heroku, Google App Engine, AWS Elastic Beanstalk (Docker containers). Simplifies setup and scaling.
    • Container Orchestration: Use Kubernetes (EKS, GKE, AKS) with Docker containers for robust orchestration, auto-scaling, and self-healing capabilities.
    • Serverless (e.g., AWS Lambda, Azure Functions): Consider for event-driven Cloud Functions, but be aware of cold start latencies and execution limits. Typically, serverless is less suitable for the main Parse Server API.
  • Scaling:
    • Horizontal Scaling: Run multiple Parse Server instances behind a load balancer. Parse Server is stateless (except for session tokens, which are handled by MongoDB), making horizontal scaling straightforward.
    • Database Sizing: Ensure your MongoDB instance is appropriately sized and scaled to support Parse Server.
    • Cloud Functions Scaling: Cloud Functions generally scale automatically with requests but can be optimized for cold starts and execution time.
  • Configuration:
    • Environment Variables: Manage sensitive configurations (database URIs, master keys) using environment variables.
    • parse-server Options: Configure Parse Server efficiently (e.g., maxUploadSize, fileKey, jsonBody, logLevel).
  • Monitoring: Monitor Parse Server metrics like request rate, response times, CPU/memory usage, error rates for Cloud Functions.
  • Security:
    • Master Key: Protect your Parse Master Key with extreme care. Never expose it client-side.
    • Client Keys: Use X-Parse-Client-Key or JavaScript Key for frontend applications.
    • ACLs/CLPs: Rigorously apply Access Control Lists (ACLs) and Class Level Permissions (CLPs) to secure your Parse data.
    • HTTPS: All Parse Server endpoints exposed to the internet must be secured with HTTPS. Implement strong TLS/SSL configurations.
    • CORS: Properly configure CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) headers to only allow requests from trusted domains.
    • Rate Limiting: Implement application-level rate limiting to prevent DoS attacks and API abuse.
  • Logging: Centralize Parse Server logs with a logging solution (e.g., ELK Stack, Splunk, Datadog) for easy analysis and troubleshooting.
  • Continuous Integration/Deployment (CI/CD): Automate the build, test, and deployment process for your Parse Server application and Cloud Code.

3. Load Balancing and High Availability

For production environments, implementing load balancing and high availability (HA) for your Parse Server and MongoDB ensures continuous service.

Best Practices

  • Load Balancer: Deploy a load balancer (e.g., Nginx, HAProxy, AWS ELB/ALB, Azure Load Balancer, GCP Load Balancing) in front of multiple Parse Server instances.
  • Health Checks: Configure load balancers to perform health checks on Parse Server instances and remove unhealthy ones from rotation.
  • Auto Scaling: Utilize cloud provider auto-scaling groups (ASG) to dynamically adjust the number of Parse Server instances based on traffic load.
  • Geographic Redundancy: For disaster recovery, deploy infrastructure across multiple availability zones or regions.
  • Database Replication: As mentioned, deploy MongoDB as a replica set.
  • Stateless Services: Design Cloud Functions and API endpoints to be stateless where possible to facilitate horizontal scaling and fault tolerance.