Deploy to Google Cloud

Video Tutorial

Watch how to deploy OpenReplay in your GCP infrastructure

If you don't like reading, you can follow this video tutorial showing you how to deploy OpenReplay in GCP

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OpenReplay stack can be installed on a single machine and Google Cloud is an ideal candidate.

1. Go to ‘Compute Engine’ Dashboard and select ‘VM Instances’ from the left-side menu bar
2. Click ‘Create Instance’
3. Select your preferred ‘region’ and ‘zone’
4. Choose your machine type. The minimum specs are 2 vCPUs, 8 GB of RAM, 50 GB of storage, otherwise OpenReplay backend services won’t simply start. So, we recommend at least the n2-standard-2 (or an equivalent - note that the e2-standard-2 has been known to give issues during deployment) which is enough for a low/moderate volume. If you’re expecting high traffic, you should scale from here.
5. Change your boot disk to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or higher, then pick SSD persistent disk for the boot disk type and set the size to 50 GB.
6. Check both ‘Allow HTTP traffic’ and ‘Allow HTTPS traffic’ in Firewall
7. Click ‘Create’

Once your instance is Running, connect to it by hitting the SSH button then install OpenReplay by providing the domain on which it will be running (e.g. DOMAIN_NAME=openreplay.mycompany.com):

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openreplay/openreplay/main/scripts/helmcharts/openreplay-cli -O /bin/openreplay 
sudo chmod +x /bin/openreplay
openreplay -i DOMAIN_NAME

OpenReplay deals with sensitive user data and therefore requires HTTPS to run. This is mandatory, otherwise the tracker simply wouldn’t start recording. Same thing for the dashboard, without HTTPS you won’t be able to replay user sessions.

The easiest way to handle SSL in Google Cloud is to setup a load balancer (Google Load Balancing) and run OpenReplay behind it. Another option is to generate or use your own SSL certificate and point your subdomain (i.e. openreplay.mycompany.com) to the OpenReplay instance. More on both options below.

First step is to add an instance group which is required later for the load balancer:

1. Go to ‘Compute Engine’ > ‘Instance Groups'
2. 'Create Instance Group’ and select New unmanaged instance group
3. Pick your preferred ‘Location’ then select the ‘Network’ and choose the OpenReplay VM instance
4. Click ‘Create’

Now it’s time to create the load balancer:

1. Go to ‘Network Services’ > ‘Load Balancing'
2. 'Create Load Balancer’ and pick HTTP(S) Load Balancing
3. Choose ‘From Internet to my VMs’ then click ‘Continue’
4. Start with ‘Backend configuration’ and click on ‘Backend services’ > ‘Create a backend service’
5. Select Instance group for ‘Backend type’. In ‘Backends’ > ‘New backend’, choose the instance group you previously created, set the port to 80 then hit ‘Done’.
6. Scroll down to ‘Health Check’ and ‘Create a health check’. Choose HTTP for the ‘Protocol’, set the ‘Port’ to 80 then change the ‘Request path’ to /healthz. Keep the other default values, then hit ‘Save’.
7. Click ‘Create’
8. In ‘Frontend configuration’, choose HTTPS for ‘Protocol’ then in ‘Certificate’ create a new certificate (managed by Google) or bring yours. Hit ‘Done’.
9. Review then click ‘Create’

Once created, go to Cloud DNS (or your DNS service provider) and create an A Record that points to the load balancer using its IP (can be found in Load Balancing dashboard).

Finally, enable the use-forwarded-headers, by uncommenting the below line under the ingress-nginx section, in /var/lib/openreplay/vars.yaml:

ingress-nginx: &ingress-nginx
  controller:
    config:
      use-forwarded-headers: true

You’re all set now, OpenReplay should be securely accessible on the subdomain you just set up. You can create an account by visiting the /signup page (i.e. openreplay.mycompany.com/signup).

Alternatively to creating a load balancer, you can bring (or generate) your own SSL certificate.

1. First, go to Cloud DNS (or your other DNS service provider) and create an A Record. Use the domain you previously provided during the installation step and point it to the VM using its public IP (can be found in Compute Engine dashboard).

2. If you’re bringing your own certificate, create an SSL secret using the following command: kubectl create secret tls openreplay-ssl -n app --key="private_key_file.pem" --cert="certificate.crt".

Note: If you don’t have a certificate, generate one, that auto-renews, for your subdomain (the one provided during installation) using Let’s Encrypt. Simply connect to OpenReplay instance, run cd /var/lib/openreplay/openreplay/scripts/helmcharts && bash certmanager.sh and follow the steps.

3. If you wish to enable http to https redirection (recommended), then uncomment the below block, under the ingress-nginx section, in /var/lib/openreplay/vars.yaml:

ingress-nginx: &ingress-nginx
  controller:
    config:
      ssl-redirect: true
      force-ssl-redirect: true

It’s worth mentioning that our ingress-nginx runs by default on ports 80|443, but this can be easily changed, if needed, in vars.yaml:

ingress-nginx: &ingress-nginx
  controller:
    service:
      ports:
        http: 80
        https: 443

4. Finally reinstall OpenReplay NGINX:

openreplay -R

You’re all set now, OpenReplay should be accessible on your subdomain. You can create an account by visiting the /signup page (i.e. openreplay.mycompany.com/signup).

If you encounter any issues, connect to our Slack or check out our Forum and get help from our community.