A First Look at Fly

Fly is a platform for fullstack applications and databases build with Dockerfiles or Buildpacks that need to run globally.

Outline

• Introduction
• Fly Setup
  • Install flyctl
  • Create Fly Account
  • Login to Fly Account
• Create Project
  • Create Server
  • Run Server
  • Create Dockerfile
• Launch Application on Fly
  • Deploy Application
  • Show Current Application Status

All of this project’s code can be found in the First Look monorepo on my GitHub.

Introduction

Fly is a platform for fullstack applications and databases that need to run globally. Fly executes your code close to users and scales compute in cities where your app is busiest. You can run arbitrary Docker containers and host popular databases like Postgres.

Fly Setup

Install flyctl

You can download the CLI on Mac, Linux, or Windows.

brew install superfly/tap/flyctl

Create Fly Account

If you are a new user you can create an account with flyctl auth signup.

flyctl auth signup

After your browser opens you can either:

• Sign-up with your name, email and password.
• Sign-up with GitHub and check your email for link to set a password for verification.

You will also be prompted for credit card payment information, required for charges outside the free plan on Fly. See Pricing for more details.

Login to Fly Account

If you already have an account you can login with flyctl auth login.

flyctl auth login

After your browser opens, sign in with your username and password. If you signed up with GitHub, use the Sign-in with GitHub button to sign in.

Create Project

mkdir ajcwebdev-fly
cd ajcwebdev-fly
npm init -y
npm i express --save
echo > index.js
echo > Dockerfile
echo > .dockerignore
echo 'node_modules\n.DS_Store' > .gitignore

Create Server

const express = require("express")
const app = express()

const port = process.env.PORT || 3000

app.get("/",
  (req, res) => {
    greeting = "<h1>ajcwebdev-fly</h1>"
    res.send(greeting)
  }
)

app.listen(port,
  () => console.log(`Hello from port ${port}!`)
)

Run Server

node index.js

Hello from port 3000!

Create Dockerfile

Add the following code to Dockerfile in the root directory of your project.

FROM node:14-alpine
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm i
COPY . ./
EXPOSE 8080
CMD [ "node", "index.js" ]

Add the following code to .dockerignore in the same directory as your Dockerfile.

node_modules
Dockerfile
.dockerignore
.git
.gitignore
npm-debug.log

Launch Application on Fly

Run flyctl launch in the directory with your source code to configure your app for deployment. This will create and configure a fly app by inspecting your source code and prompting you to deploy.

flyctl launch --name ajcwebdev-fly

Creating app in /Users/ajcwebdev/ajcwebdev-fly
Scanning source code
Detected Dockerfile app
Automatically selected personal organization: Anthony Campolo
Created app ajcwebdev-fly in organization personal
Wrote config file fly.toml
Your app is ready. Deploy with `flyctl deploy`
? Would you like to deploy now? No

This creates a fly.toml file.

app = "ajcwebdev-fly"

kill_signal = "SIGINT"
kill_timeout = 5

[env]

[experimental]
  allowed_public_ports = []
  auto_rollback = true

[[services]]
  http_checks = []
  internal_port = 8080
  protocol = "tcp"
  script_checks = []

[services.concurrency]
  hard_limit = 25
  soft_limit = 20
  type = "connections"

[[services.ports]]
  handlers = ["http"]
  port = 80

[[services.ports]]
  handlers = ["tls", "http"]
  port = 443

[[services.tcp_checks]]
  grace_period = "1s"
  interval = "15s"
  restart_limit = 6
  timeout = "2s"

Add the following PORT number under env.

[env]
  PORT = 8080

Deploy Application

flyctl deploy

Show Current Application Status

Status includes application details, tasks, most recent deployment details and in which regions it is currently allocated.

flyctl status

App
  Name     = ajcwebdev-fly
  Owner    = personal
  Version  = 0
  Status   = running
  Hostname = ajcwebdev-fly.fly.dev

Deployment Status
  ID          = d94d886a-f338-28cf-4078-1ed838eea224
  Version     = v0
  Status      = successful
  Description = Deployment completed successfully
  Instances   = 1 desired, 1 placed, 1 healthy, 0 unhealthy

Instances
ID       VERSION REGION DESIRED STATUS  HEALTH CHECKS      RESTARTS CREATED
40591407 0       sjc    run     running 1 total, 1 passing 0        37s ago

Open your browser to current deployed application with flyctl open.

flyctl open

Opening http://ajcwebdev-fly.fly.dev/

Visit your link (ajcwebdev-fly.fly.dev in my case) to see the site.