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Deployment Guide

General notes on deploying the Plato federated learning server in the cloud

The Plato federated learning server is designed to use Socket.IO over HTTP and HTTPS, and can be easily deployed in a production server environment in the public cloud.

To deploy such a production federated learning server in a virtual machine from any public cloud provider, a nginx web server will first need to be installed to serve as a reverse proxy server. To install the nginx web server in Ubuntu 24.04, follow Step 1 in the guide on How To Install Nginx on Ubuntu.

Once nginx has been installed and tested, use the following configuration file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com (where example.com is the domain name for the server):

server {
    listen      80;
    listen      443 ssl;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /home/username/example.com;
    index index.html index.htm index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/example.cer;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.key;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location /socket.io {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000/socket.io;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_buffering off;

        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

This configuration file assumes that the certificate and private key for establishing a HTTPS connection to the server are stored as /etc/nginx/ssl/example.cer and /etc/nginx/ssl/example.key, respectively. It also assumes that all static content for the website is stored at /home/username/example.com.

If there is a need for using load balancing available from nginx, sticky sessions must be used for Socket.IO:

Load Balancing Configuration

If there is a need for using load balancing available from nginx, sticky sessions must be used for Socket.IO:

upstream example_servers {
    ip_hash; # enabling sticky sessions for Socket.IO
    server 127.0.0.1:8000;
    server 127.0.0.1:8001;
}

server {
    ...
    location /socket.io {
        proxy_pass http://example_servers;
        ...
    }
}

After the configuration file is created, create a symbolic link in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Then test and restart the web server:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

The Plato federated learning server can be started as usual. For example:

cd examples/customized
uv run custom_server.py

On the clients, make sure that the configuration file contains the correct domain name of the production server deployed in the cloud:

[server]
address = "example.com"
use_https = true

And then run the clients as usual. For example: 

uv run custom_client.py -i 1

There is no need to specify the port number for production servers deployed in the cloud.

Deploying a Plato Federated Learning Server with DigitalOcean

Here is some more detailed documentation on deploying a Plato federated learning server in one of the production environments: DigitalOcean.

Prerequisites

Creating your droplet

First thing first, create an account on DigitalOcean if you haven't, and sign in.

For your future convenience, follow this tutorial to use SSH keys with your Droplets (DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines that run on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet you create is a new server you can use.)

Then go back to your DigitalOcean homepage (control panel), click the green button Create on the upper right corner and choose Droplets. Here we need to create a droplet to use it as your Plato federated learning server. Choose Ubuntu 24.04 (LTS) x64 image.

Note: Don't forget to check IPv6 in the Select additional options to enable public IPv6 networking, so that you can SSH to your server right after you create it.

Important

Don't forget to check IPv6 in the Select additional options to enable public IPv6 networking, so that you can SSH to your server right after you create it.

After creating your droplet, click Droplets under MANAGE on the left-hand side of your control panel, you will see the name of the droplet you just create. Click it and you will see all the information of it, including its IP address.

Open terminal on your local machine and you should be able to log in to your droplet as the root user:

$ ssh root@<IP address of your droplet>

Then configure a regular user account by following this guide.

Purchasing a domain name

Purchase a domain name that will be used later. A recommended place to purchase it is Namecheap, where you can easily search and buy affordable domain names.

Installing Nginx

To deploy a production federated learning server in a virtual machine from any public cloud provider, a nginx web server will first need to be installed to serve as a reverse proxy server.

To install the nginx web server in Ubuntu 24.04, follow the guide on How To Install Nginx on Ubuntu, including Step 5 – Setting Up Server Blocks (Recommended). It will help you set up a domain, which will be used very soon.

Generating SSL certificates

To generate SSL certificates of your domain name for free, please go to Cloudflare.

Click Add Site to add your domain name. They will give you two Cloudflare nameservers. Add these two nameservers as your CustomDNS on Namecheap by following this guideline.

Then on the page of your domain name on Cloudflare, click DNS and add the following two DNS records:

Type Name Content
A your domain name IPv4 address of your DigitalOcean Droplet
CNAME www your domain name

Finally, click SSL/TLS and then Origin Server to Create Certificate. Follow their steps to install a certificate. You should get an Origin Certificate and a Private Key.

Log in to your droplet and copy your Origin Certificate and Private Key to /etc/nginx/ssl/<your domain name>.cer and /etc/nginx/ssl/<your domain name>.key, respectively.

Certificate Installation

After obtaining your Origin Certificate and Private Key from Cloudflare:

  1. Log in to your droplet
  2. Copy your Origin Certificate to /etc/nginx/ssl/<your domain name>.cer
  3. Copy your Private Key to /etc/nginx/ssl/<your domain name>.key

Important SSL/TLS Configuration

On Cloudflare, under SSL/TLS, please make sure you:

  1. Choose Full Encrypts end-to-end, using a self signed certificate on the server under Overview
  2. Check Always Use HTTPS under Edge Certificates

After all of the above-mentioned steps, enter your domain name into your browser's address bar, you should see a padlock symbol at the beginning of the address bar.

Adjusting Your Nginx Server for Deploying Plato

Use the following configuration file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com (where example.com is the domain name for the server):

server {
    listen      80;
    listen      443 ssl;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /home/username/example.com;
    index index.html index.htm index.php;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/example.cer;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.key;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location /socket.io {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000/socket.io;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_buffering off;

        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

This configuration file assumes that the certificate and private key for establishing an HTTPS connection to the server are stored as /etc/nginx/ssl/example.cer (your Origin Certificate) and /etc/nginx/ssl/example.key (your Private Key), respectively. It also assumes that all static content for the website is stored at /home/username/example.com.

If there is a need for using load balancing available from nginx, sticky sessions must be used for Socket.IO:

upstream example_servers {
    ip_hash; # enabling sticky sessions for Socket.IO
    server 127.0.0.1:8000;
    server 127.0.0.1:8001;
}

server {
    ...
    location /socket.io {
        proxy_pass http://example_servers;
        ...
    }
}

After the configuration file is modified, test it to make sure that there are no syntax errors:

$ sudo nginx -t

After seeing

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

restart the web server:

$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Installing Plato with uv

Clone the Plato repository to the desired directory on your server

$ git clone https://github.com/TL-System/plato.git
$ cd plato

Before using Plato, first install uv with the commands below:

$ curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
$ source $HOME/.local/bin/env

Troubleshooting uv

If it prompts uv: command not found when you enter any uv commands after successfully installing uv, use the command:

$ source $HOME/.local/bin/env

Install Plato and its dependencies using uv:

$ uv sync

Installation Troubleshooting

If the installation gets killed when downloading packages, you can try:

$ uv sync --no-cache

Time-Saving Alias

Use alias to save your time for running Plato in the future.

$ vim ~/.bashrc

Then add:

alias plato='cd <directory of plato>/; source .venv/bin/activate'

After saving this change and exiting:

$ source ~/.bashrc

Next time, after you SSH into this server, just type plato :)

Starting Your Plato Server

The Plato federated learning server can be started as usual. For example:

$ cd examples/customized
$ uv run custom_server.py

On the side of a client, make sure that its configuration file contains the correct domain name of the production server deployed in the cloud:

[server]
address = "example.com"
use_https = true

Port Configuration

Do NOT specify port: 8000 in a client's configuration file when deploying in production.

And then run the client as usual. For example:

$ uv run custom_client.py -i 1

There is no need to specify the port number for production servers deployed in the cloud.