Webots Server

This repository contains the files to be deployed on a server machine to run Webots simulations online.

The documentation on how to set-up a Webots simulation server is provided in the Webots user guide.

Quick start

Configure Apache

sudo a2enmod proxy proxy_http proxy_wstunnel

Edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/fftai.conf and add the following lines at the end of the VirtualHost section:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName platform.fftai.top

    RewriteEngine on
    # port redirection rules (for session_server.py, simulation_server.py and webots)
    # websockets (should come first)
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
    RewriteRule ^/(\d*)/(.*)$ "ws://localhost:$1/$2" [P,L]
    # http traffic (should come after websocket)
    RewriteRule ^/load$ "http://localhost:1999/load" [P,L]
    RewriteRule ^/monitor$ "http://localhost:1999/monitor" [P,L]
    RewriteRule ^/session$ "http://localhost:1999/session" [P,L]
    RewriteRule ^/(\d*)/(.*)$ "http://localhost:$1/$2" [P,L]

</VirtualHost>

For platform.fftai.top enabled SSL:

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
LoadModule proxy_wstunnel_module modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName fftai.top
  ServerAlias platform.fftai.top

  [ ... ]

  RewriteEngine on

  # this rule redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS, removing the 'www.' prefix if any
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =%{SERVER_NAME} [OR]
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.%{SERVER_NAME}
  RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
  ServerName fftai.top
  ServerAlias platform.fftai.top

  [ ... ]

  RewriteEngine on

  # this rule removes the 'www.' prefix from the hostname in the URL if any
  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =www.webserver.com
  RewriteRule ^ https://webserver.com%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]

  # port redirection rules (for session_server.py, simulation_server.py and webots)
  # websockets (should come first)
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} websocket [NC]
  RewriteCond %{HTTP:Connection} upgrade [NC]
  RewriteRule ^/(\d*)/(.*)$ "ws://%{SERVER_NAME}:$1/$2" [P,L]
  # http traffic (should come after websocket)
  RewriteRule ^/(\d*)/(.*)$ "http://%{SERVER_NAME}:$1/$2" [P,L]

</VirtualHost>

Enable the site: sudo a2ensite fftai.conf

Edit 000-default.conf and/or fftai.conf to configure for webots static page:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    # Alias /wwi to /home/$user/luban-server/html/wwi
    Alias /wwi /home/$user/luban-server/html/wwi
    <Directory /home/$user/luban-server/html/wwi>
        Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # Alias /webots to /home/$user/luban-server/html/webots
    Alias /webots /home/$user/luban-server/html/webots
    <Directory /home/$user/luban-server/html/webots>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

If on ubuntu, need to whitelist the folder in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

    <Directory /home/$user/luban-server/html/wwi>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    <Directory /home/$user/luban-server/html/webots>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

Grant execution permission to the folders:

sudo chmod 755 /home/fourier
sudo chmod 755 /home/fourier/luban-server
sudo chmod 755 /home/fourier/luban-server/html
sudo chmod 755 /home/fourier/luban-server/html/webots
sudo chmod 755 /home/fourier/luban-server/html/wwi

Restart Apache:

sudo a2enmod headers
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Start Luban Server

pip install pynvml requests psutil tornado distro
./server.sh start fftai

Run Webots in Docker

Need to execute

xhost +

or

xhost +local:docker
on the host