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Configuring Sentry error tracking

Reviewed on 10 May 2021 • Published on 07 June 2018
  • compute
  • messaging
  • apache
  • sentry
  • error
  • error-tracking

Sentry - Overview

Sentry is an open source solution for error tracking in applications. It is written in Python and can provide real-time reporting of errors in applications based on a client/server architecture. You can easily integrate it into your applications via its SDK and let them automatically report the errors via common messaging tools like Slack, IRC and more. This helps to reduce the time for development of your applications and increases the user experience. You can find all reports on a dashboard which makes it easy to triage the problem - how often it occurs, which impact it has on the user experience of your application, which part of your code causes the problem and so on.

This tutorial details how to setup a Sentry server on a Scaleway compute instance to start error tracking in your applications.

Requirements:

Installing Sentry

In this tutorial, we will install sentry on a Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04 LTS) based Virtual Instance.

Note:

Sentry needs at a Virtual Instance with at least 4GB of RAM to run on.

  1. Update the system and install the required prerequisites:

    apt update && apt upgrade -y
    apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates certbot curl git gnupg-agent nginx python3-certbot-nginx sendmail software-properties-common ufw -y

  2. Sentry runs in a Docker container using docker-compose. Install the GPG Key of Docker and configure Docker’s software repositories:

    curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | apt-key add -
    add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"

  3. Update the apt package manager and install Docker-Engine using apt:

    apt update && apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io -y

  4. Download the binary file of docker-compose and make the file executable:

    curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.27.3/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
    chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

  5. Enter the /opt directory on your instance and clone the onpremise repository of Sentry:

    cd /opt
    git clone https://github.com/getsentry/onpremise

  6. Enter the onpremise folder and run the automatic installation Script of Sentry:

    cd /opt/onpremise
    ./insall.sh

    The automatic installer runs several compatibility tests on the system and installs Sentry. An output like the following example displays. Fill in the required information when prompted to do so:

    [...]
      Applying sentry.0106_service_hook_project_id_nullable... OK
      Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK
      Applying sites.0001_initial... OK
      Applying sites.0002_alter_domain_unique... OK
      Applying social_auth.0001_initial... OK
    Created internal Sentry project (slug=internal, id=1)

    Would you like to create a user account now? [Y/n]: <- Press **Y**
    Email: me@myemail.org <- Enter your e-mail address
    Password:
    Repeat for confirmation:
    User created: me@myemail.org
    Added to organization: sentry
    Creating missing DSNs
    Correcting Group.num_comments counter
    Unable to find image 'alpine:latest' locally
    latest: Pulling from library/alpine
    df20fa9351a1: Already exists
    Digest: sha256:185518070891758909c9f839cf4ca393ee977ac378609f700f60a771a2dfe321
    Status: Downloaded newer image for alpine:latest

    Generating Relay credentials...
    Creating sentry_onpremise_relay_run ...
    Creating sentry_onpremise_relay_run ... done
    Relay credentials written to relay/credentials.json

    ----------------
    You're all done! Run the following command to get Sentry running:

      docker-compose up -d

  7. Start Sentry by running the following command:

    docker-compose up -d

  8. Test the installation by pointing your web browser to http://<your_instance_ip>:9000. The Sentry login displays:

Configuring a reverse proxy

By default, Sentry listens on port 9000. Therefore we configure a nginx proxy that listens on port 80 (for HTTP) and 443 (for HTTPS) and forwards all requests on these ports to port 9000.

  1. Edit the file /etc/nginx/sites-availble/sentry.example.com.conf and put the following content in it. Edit the server_name to the DNS name of your Sentry instance:

        server {
          listen 80;
          server_name sentry.exaple.com;

          location / {
            proxy_pass         http://localhost:9000;
            proxy_redirect     off;

            proxy_set_header   Host              $host;
            proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For   $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
          }

        }

  2. Create a symlink to enable the new site in nginx:

    ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/sentry.local.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/sentry.local.conf

  3. Restart nginx to activate the new configuration:

    service nginx restart

  4. Run certbot to request a Let’s Encrypt TLS certificate for HTTPS connections to Sentry:

    certbot --ngnix

The interactive certificate creation wizard of certbot prompts for additional information during certificate creation:

```
Enter email address (used for urgent renewal and security notices) (Enter 'c' to
cancel): me@myemail.com <- Enter your email address

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Please read the Terms of Service at
https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf. You must
agree in order to register with the ACME server at
https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(A)gree/(C)ancel: a <- Type **a** to accept the terms of service

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Would you be willing to share your email address with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a founding partner of the Let's Encrypt project and the non-profit
organization that develops Certbot? We'd like to send you email about our work
encrypting the web, EFF news, campaigns, and ways to support digital freedom.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(Y)es/(N)o: y <- If you like to share your email address with the EFF, press **y**, otherwise **n**

Which names would you like to activate HTTPS for?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: sentry.example.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate numbers separated by commas and/or spaces, or leave input
blank to select all options shown (Enter 'c' to cancel): 1 <-- Select the appropriate number for the certificate name. In this example **1**
Obtaining a new certificate
Performing the following challenges:
http-01 challenge for sentry.example.com
Waiting for verification...
Cleaning up challenges
Deploying Certificate to VirtualHost /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/sentry.example.com

Please choose whether or not to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS, removing HTTP access.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1: No redirect - Make no further changes to the webserver configuration.
2: Redirect - Make all requests redirect to secure HTTPS access. Choose this for
new sites, or if you're confident your site works on HTTPS. You can undo this
change by editing your web server's configuration.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Select the appropriate number [1-2] then [enter] (press 'c' to cancel): 2 <- Type **2** to automatically redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS. Type **1** to allow plain HTTP connections.
Redirecting all traffic on port 80 to ssl in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/sentry.example.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled https://sentry.example.com

You should test your configuration at:
https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=sentry.example.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

IMPORTANT NOTES:
- Congratulations! Your certificate and chain have been saved at:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/sentry.example.com/fullchain.pem
  Your key file has been saved at:
  /etc/letsencrypt/live/sentry.example.com/privkey.pem
  Your cert will expire on 2020-12-23. To obtain a new or tweaked
  version of this certificate in the future, simply run certbot again
  with the "certonly" option. To non-interactively renew *all* of
  your certificates, run "certbot renew"
- Your account credentials have been saved in your Certbot
  configuration directory at /etc/letsencrypt. You should make a
  secure backup of this folder now. This configuration directory will
  also contain certificates and private keys obtained by Certbot so
  making regular backups of this folder is ideal.
- If you like Certbot, please consider supporting our work by:

  Donating to ISRG / Let's Encrypt:   https://letsencrypt.org/donate
  Donating to EFF:                    https://eff.org/donate-le
```

Your certificate has been generated and nginx has been configured by certbot. Your reverse proxy server is now ready to accept HTTPS connections.

Disabling direct access to the Sentry application

We disable direct access to the Sentry application, running on port 9000 for security reasons. All requests to the application have to pass via the nginx reverse proxy. To do this we use the UFW firewall.

  1. Start by defining the policy, that refuses everything by default:

    ufw default deny

  2. Enable outgoing traffic

    ufw default allow outgoing

  3. Authorize SSH, HTTP and HTTPS connections to the machine:

    ufw allow 22/tcp
    ufw allow 80/tcp
    ufw allow 443/tcp

  4. Enable the new firewall configuration:

    ufw enable
    Command may disrupt existing ssh connections. Proceed with operation (y|n)? y <- type **y**
    Firewall is active and enabled on system startup

Connecting to the Sentry interface

  1. Once the installation is finished, connect from a browser: https://sentry.example.com/

  2. Login with the user that you have created during the installation.

You will be requested to finish the installation by providing some additional parameters and, once done, the Sentry Dashboard displays:

To create a new project click the Projects button in the menu click New Project. Select your environment and provide some more details about it. Sentry will show you instructions how to implement it in your project.

Your Sentry server is running now, and you can integrate it with your applications. You can also add additional features by adding different Plugins into Sentry. Sentry is a mighty tool that can be used to automatize your workflow and increase the user experience by reducing the time to market of your applications. There are many SDK’s for various programming languages available and you can check the documentation for your favourite language.