Setup Sentry via Python on Ubuntu 16.04

• Introduction
• Prerequisites
• Installation

Introduction

Sentry is an open source solution for error tracking. Sentry tracks exceptions and other useful messages from applications that would traditionally be written to log files, and instead utilizes a user-friendly interface.

Prerequisites

Some basic prerequisites which you’ll need in order to run Sentry:

• An up-to-date Ubuntu 16.04 Server.
• A sudo user.

Installation

First update your system:

sudo apt-get update

Create the sentry user that will be running the software:

sudo adduser sentry
sudo adduser sentry sudo

Install python and build-essential packages:

sudo apt-get install -y python build-essential

Create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list:

sudo touch /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list

Import the signing key and update package lists:

wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update

Install PostgreSQL:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-9.5

Download the Latest Redis 4.x source:

wget http://download.redis.io/releases/redis-4.0.1.tar.gz

Unzip the Redis source into its own folder, so we can cd in and build it in the next step:

tar -xvf redis-4.0.1.tar.gz

Build it from source:

cd redis-4.0.1
make

Run Redis in background:

src/redis-server --daemonize yes

Install pip and related libraries:

cd ~
sudo apt-get install python-setuptools python-dev libxslt1-dev gcc libffi-dev libjpeg-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libyaml-dev libpq-dev python-pip

Install Python virtual environment:

sudo pip install -U virtualenv

Install postgresql-contrib:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-contrib-9.5

Login as the postgres user and enable the citext extension:

sudo su - postgres
$ psql -d template1 -U postgres
psql (9.5.12)
Type "help" for help.
template1=# create extension citext;
CREATE EXTENSION
template1=# \q

Create the sentry database:

$ createdb sentry_db
$ createuser sentry --pwprompt
$ psql -d template1 -U postgres

template1=# GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE sentry_db to sentry;
GRANT
template1=# ALTER USER sentry WITH SUPERUSER;
ALTER ROLE
template1=# \q
exit

Login as the sentry user and create a virtual environment for Sentry:

sudo su - sentry
virtualenv ~/sentry_app/
source ~/sentry_app/bin/activate

Install Sentry on the machine:

pip install -U sentry

Initialize Sentry:

sentry init

This command will create the configuration files in the directory ~/.sentry/.

Open the configuration file ~/.sentry/sentry.conf.py:

nano ~/.sentry/sentry.conf.py

Then add the database credentials. It should look like the following example:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'sentry.db.postgres',
        'NAME': 'sentry_db',
        'USER': 'sentry',
        'PASSWORD': 'securedpassword',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '5432',
        'AUTOCOMMIT': True,
        'ATOMIC_REQUESTS': False,
    }
}

Initialize the database:

sentry upgrade

Running Sentry as a service

Log out of the sentry user:

exit

Install Supervisor:

sudo apt-get install -y supervisor

Configure the Sentry server to startup whenever the server boots using supervisord. Put the following configuration in the file /etc/supervisor/conf.d/sentry.conf:

[program:sentry-web]
directory=/home/sentry/sentry_app/
environment=SENTRY_CONF="/home/sentry/.sentry"
command=/home/sentry/sentry_app/bin/sentry run web
autostart=true
autorestart=true
redirect_stderr=true
user=sentry
stdout_logfile=syslog
stderr_logfile=syslog

[program:sentry-worker]
directory=/home/sentry/sentry_app/
environment=SENTRY_CONF="/home/sentry/.sentry"
command=/home/sentry/sentry_app/bin/sentry run worker
autostart=true
autorestart=true
redirect_stderr=true
user=sentry
stdout_logfile=syslog
stderr_logfile=syslog

[program:sentry-cron]
directory=/home/sentry/sentry_app/
environment=SENTRY_CONF="/home/sentry/.sentry"
command=/home/sentry/sentry_app/bin/sentry run cron
autostart=true
autorestart=true
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=syslog
stderr_logfile=syslog

Save the file and reload Supervisor:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start all

Sentry is now configured and listens on port 9000. Navigate to http://you_server_ip:9000 in your favorite browser to finish setting up Sentry.