mirror of https://github.com/zulip/zulip.git
106 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
# Realms in Zulip
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Zulip allows multiple _realms_ to be hosted on a single instance.
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Realms are the Zulip codebase's internal name for what we refer to in
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user-facing documentation as an organization (the name "realm" comes
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from [Kerberos](https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/)).
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Wherever possible, we avoid using the term `realm` in any user-facing
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string or documentation; "Organization" is the equivalent term used in
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those contexts (and we have linters that attempt to enforce this rule
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in translatable strings). We may in the future modify Zulip's
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internals to use `organization` instead.
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The
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[production docs on multiple realms](../production/multiple-organizations.md)
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are also relevant reading.
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## Creating realms
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There are two main methods for creating realms.
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- Using unique link generator
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- Enabling open realm creation
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#### Using unique link generator
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```bash
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./manage.py generate_realm_creation_link
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```
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The above command will output a URL which can be used for creating a
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new realm and an administrator user for that realm. The link expires
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after the creation of the realm. The link also expires if not used
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within 7 days. The expiration period can be changed by modifying
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`REALM_CREATION_LINK_VALIDITY_DAYS` in settings.py.
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### Enabling open realm creation
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If you want anyone to be able to create new realms on your server, you
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can enable open realm creation. This will add a **Create new
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organization** link to your Zulip homepage footer, and anyone can
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create a new realm by visiting this link (**/new**). This
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feature is disabled by default in production instances, and can be
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enabled by setting `OPEN_REALM_CREATION = True` in settings.py.
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## Subdomains
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One can host multiple realms in a Zulip server by giving each realm a
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unique subdomain of the main Zulip server's domain. For example, if
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the Zulip instance is hosted at zulip.example.com, and the subdomain
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of your organization is acme you can would acme.zulip.example.com for
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accessing the organization.
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For subdomains to work properly, you also have to change your DNS
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records so that the subdomains point to your Zulip installation IP. An
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`A` record with host name value `*` pointing to your IP should do the
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job.
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We also recommend upgrading to at least Zulip 1.7, since older Zulip
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releases had much less nice handling for subdomains. See our
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[docs on using subdomains](../production/multiple-organizations.md) for
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user-facing documentation on this.
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### Working with subdomains in development environment
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Zulip's development environment is designed to make it convenient to
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test the various Zulip configurations for different subdomains:
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- Realms are subdomains on `*.zulipdev.com`, just like `*.zulipchat.com`.
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- The root domain (like `zulip.com` itself) is `zulipdev.com` itself.
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- The default realm is hosted on `localhost:9991` rather than
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`zulip.zulipdev.com`, using the [`REALM_HOSTS`
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feature](../production/multiple-organizations.md) feature.
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Details are below.
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By default, Linux does not provide a convenient way to use subdomains
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in your local development environment. To solve this problem, we use
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the **zulipdev.com** domain, which has a wildcard A record pointing to
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127.0.0.1. You can use zulipdev.com to connect to your Zulip
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development server instead of localhost. The default realm with the
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Shakespeare users has the subdomain `zulip` and can be accessed by
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visiting **zulip.zulipdev.com**.
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If you are behind a **proxy server**, this method won't work. When you
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make a request to load zulipdev.com in your browser, the proxy server
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will try to get the page on your behalf. Since zulipdev.com points
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to 127.0.0.1 the proxy server is likely to give you a 503 error. The
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workaround is to disable your proxy for `*.zulipdev.com`. The DNS
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lookup should still work even if you disable proxy for
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\*.zulipdev.com. If it doesn't you can add zulipdev.com records in
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`/etc/hosts` file. The file should look something like this.
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```text
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127.0.0.1 localhost
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127.0.0.1 zulipdev.com
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127.0.0.1 zulip.zulipdev.com
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127.0.0.1 testsubdomain.zulipdev.com
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```
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These records are also useful if you want to e.g. run the Puppeteer tests
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when you are not connected to the Internet.
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