Deploy from a template

A template is a recipe someone already wrote. This page takes you from the
catalog to a bench you can open, without filling in a form.

Who this is for. Anybody who needs a working bench and does not care how the
image was built.

Before you start. You need a login. Templates is admin-only, so ask an
admin if the item is missing from your sidebar. You do not need the VPN to
deploy. You need it to open the bench afterwards.

Steps

1. Open Templates in the sidebar, or go to /frontend/labs/templates.

   Screenshot to be added — the BenchPress Templates catalog at 1280 by 800 pixels, showing eight template cards in a three-column grid. Each card carries a logo, a title, a Frappe version, a description, app chips and resource chips. VPN Management and ERPNext are tagged Most used. The first four cards read Already used and offer a Go to lab button. Google, ChatGPT, Claude and BenchPress read a deploy estimate such as 12 min to deploy and offer a Use template button instead. (source image: docs/images/user/deploy-from-template/01-templates.png)

   Every card names the same five things: the app list, the Frappe version, the
   memory and CPU the bench gets, and either a deploy estimate or the lab that
   already exists.

   Template in the frame	Version	Size	Estimate
   VPN Management	version-16	1 GB, 1 vCPU	already used
   ERPNext	version-15	2 GB, 2 vCPU	already used
   Frappe CRM	version-15	1 GB, 1 vCPU	already used
   Frappe	version-16	4 GB, 4 vCPU	already used
   Google	version-16	2 GB, 2 vCPU	~12 min
   ChatGPT	version-16	2 GB, 2 vCPU	~12 min
   Claude	version-16	4 GB, 4 vCPU	~20 min
   BenchPress	version-16	2 GB, 2 vCPU	~8 min

   Use the three controls above the grid to narrow it: a search box, an Apps
   filter and a Version filter.

2. Press the button on the card you want. The button tells you which of two
   things happens.

   Button	What the card says	What the press does
   Use template	a deploy estimate	Creates the lab, then starts the deploy
   Go to lab	Already used — ready	Opens the lab that already exists

   Use template is one press for two actions. BenchPress creates a lab from
   the recipe, then deploys a bench from that lab. The estimate on the card is
   the build time, and it applies only the first time a template is used.

3. Press Deploy on the lab page. A lab that has already been used still
   needs this press, because a lab is a recipe and a bench is a container.

4. Watch the eleven steps. Open the Deploy log tab to see them.

   Animated screen capture to be added — the BenchPress Deploy log tab during a real deploy of the crm-demo lab. The header reads Latest deploy, Deploying, and a counter that climbs from 2 seconds to 1 minute 25 seconds. The eleven steps tick over one at a time from Checking shared infrastructure to Deploy complete, each gaining a check mark, a one-line result and its own duration. The header ends on a green Success chip. (source image: docs/images/user/deploy-from-template/04-pipeline.gif)

   The steps run in this order every time. The order is the order the code
   runs, which is why the WireGuard peer comes fifth and not tenth.

   #	Step	What it does
   1	Checking shared infrastructure	Confirms MariaDB and the Docker network answer
   2	Preparing the lab image	Finds the lab's built image. A deploy never builds one
   3	Creating the container	Starts the container on the bench bridge
   4	Waiting for the container IP	Waits for an address, and for TLS on the wildcard certificate
   5	Configuring the WireGuard peer	Gives the bench its private VPN address
   6	Writing common_site_config.json	Points the bench at the shared database and Redis
   7	Creating the site	Restores the site, or builds it from scratch
   8	Preparing assets	Uses the assets already bundled into the image
   9	Provisioning the SSH user	Creates the SSH account and its password
   10	Starting the lab's services	Starts code-server and reports its address
   11	Deploy complete	Marks the bench Running

   Screenshot to be added — the Deploy log tab of the crm-demo lab part way through a run, at 1280 by 800 pixels. The header reads Latest deploy, a blue Deploying chip and 4s so far. The first six steps carry green check marks and durations of one second or less. Creating the site is bold with a spinner and a blue running label, and reports the site name it is creating. Preparing assets, Provisioning the SSH user, Starting the lab's services and Deploy complete are still gray. (source image: docs/images/user/deploy-from-template/02-pipeline.png)

   Each step keeps its own clock, and each reports one line of its own result.
   In the frame above, six steps are done, Creating the site is running, and
   four have not started.

5. Wait for Success. The header chip turns green and reports the total.

   Screenshot to be added — the same Deploy log tab after the run finished, at 1280 by 800 pixels. The header reads Latest deploy with a green Success chip and 21s. All eleven steps carry check marks. Creating the site took 15 seconds and reports that the site was restored from the image's golden dump. The page header now offers Open VS Code and Open site instead of a Deploy button. (source image: docs/images/user/deploy-from-template/03-complete.png)

   This run took 21 seconds, and 15 of those were step 7. The step-by-step
   times were 1s, 1s, 1s, 0s, 1s, 0s, 15s, 0s, 1s, 1s.

   A deploy is that fast only when the image carries a golden dump. Step 7 then
   reports restored from the image's golden dump. Without one it reports
   built from scratch, and the same step takes minutes rather than seconds.
   Step 2 says so in the log when the dump is missing.

Verify

The deploy worked when all four are true.

• The Deploy log header reads Success and names a duration.
• All eleven steps carry a check mark.
• The page header offers Open site and Open VS Code in place of Deploy.
• The Sites card lists one site and marks it Active.

Troubleshooting

Reference

The two buttons on a template card

What a template sets

The three tabs a deploy fills

Related

• Quick tour — the five screens, and what each one owns.
• Create a lab — when no template fits.
• Read a lab page — what every field on the page means.
• Start, stop and redeploy — what to do after it is running.