CORTX-Flask-MediaViewer

CORTX-flask-app

CORTX is very useful as a mass storage tool, and when I considered what I personally found to be most valuable about cloud storage, I kept coming back to media: my personal images and videos. Being able to back up these memories and have the peace of mind that I won’t lose them is a huge benefit of cloud storage. So I decided to build a Flask project which allowed me to not only upload these images to CORTX, and replicate them to IPFS, but also access them through a static web page, connected to the database. This means that not only are my images backed up, but they are accessible remotely, meaning I can show them to friends and family on the go.

My project allows images to be uploaded to CORTX and IPFS, and also viewed via a static web page, all powered by a Flask app.

Link to my video - https://youtu.be/iwQ2beyMFtg

1. Create CORTX instance:

• To create a CORTX instance you can follow the steps outlined here

2. Connect CORTX to IPFS

• You can see how to do this in this guide
• Alternatively:
  1. Start with a fresh install of Ubuntu 22.04
  2. Update apt and install necessary libraries

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt full-upgrade
  sudo apt install   ocl-icd-opencl-dev gcc wget git pkg-config  curl hwloc  libhwloc-dev clang mesa-opencl-icd

  3. Install golang

  wget -c https://go.dev/dl/go1.17.10.linux-amd64.tar.gz
  rm -rf /usr/local/go && tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.17.10.linux-amd64.tar.gz
  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
  export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin
  export GOPATH=$(go env GOPATH)

  Check golang is installed:

  go version

  4. Install IPFS with s3 plugin

  git clone https://github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs
  cd go-ipfs
  export GO111MODULE=on
  go get github.com/ipfs/go-ds-s3/[email protected]
  echo -e "\ns3ds github.com/ipfs/go-ds-s3/plugin 0" >> plugin/loader/preload_list
  make build
  go mod tidy
  make build
  make install

  5. Run the IPFS binary

  ipfs init

  6. Update the ~/.ipfs config and datastore_spec files
  • vi config

    "Datastore": {
    "StorageMax": "10GB",
    "StorageGCWatermark": 90,
    "GCPeriod": "1h",
    "Spec": {
      "mounts": [
        {
          "child": {
            "type": "s3ds",
            "region": "us-east-1",
            "bucket": "picture",
            "rootDirectory": "uploads",
            "regionEndpoint": "http://uvo15mtkooygylat1ef.vm.cld.sr:31949",
            "accessKey": "sgiamadmin",
            "secretKey": "ldapadmin"
          },
          "mountpoint": "/blocks",
          "prefix": "s3.datastore",
          "type": "measure"
        },
        {
          "child": {
            "compression": "none",
            "path": "datastore",
            "type": "levelds"
          },
          "mountpoint": "/",
          "prefix": "leveldb.datastore",
          "type": "measure"
        }
      ],
      "type": "mount"
    },
    "HashOnRead": false,
    "BloomFilterSize": 0
    },

  • datastore_spec

  {"mounts":[{"bucket":"picture","mountpoint":"/blocks","region":"us-east-1","rootDirectory":"uploads"},    {"mountpoint":"/","path":"datastore","type":"levelds"}],"type":"mount"}

3. Start IPFS

• Once ipfs is installed you should be able to start the daemon process
• Run the below command in a new terminal:

  cd ~/go-ipfs/cmd/ipfs
  ./ipfs daemon

4. Start flask-app

• Once your storage servers running you can start your flask app

  python3 app.py

5. All done!

• Now you can enjoy your photos from anywhere in the world with the comfort of knowing they are secure thanks to CORTX!
• Here is what it looks like