Deployment

Deploy Notiway manually by pulling the Docker image from Docker Hub and wiring it to your own infrastructure. This gives you full control over every component.

Architecture

  graph LR
    Client[Clients] -->|WSS| LB[Load Balancer]
    LB --> GW[Notiway Notify<br/>Host Plugin]
    Producer[Your Services] -->|Publish| Broker[Broker Plugin]
    Broker --> Buffer[Buffer Plugin]
    Buffer --> GW
    GW <--> Storage[Storage Plugin]

Deployment Checklist

1. Choose Your Hosting Environment
2. Select Compatible Plugins
3. Prepare Infrastructure
4. Choose Your Image
5. Configure Environment Variables
6. Set Up a Load Balancer
7. Plan for Scaling
8. Deploy and Verify

Choose Your Hosting Environment

Notiway is cloud-agnostic. You can host it on any cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP) or on-premise. You need a Docker runtime or Kubernetes cluster to run the gateway container.

Select Compatible Plugins

Choose the right plugins for your hosting environment. You need to select a Host, Broker, Buffer, and optionally a Storage plugin that are compatible with your provider and with each other.

Recommended Plugin Combinations

Prepare Infrastructure

Follow the infrastructure requirements of your selected plugins. Each plugin documents what resources need to be created before Notiway starts and what permissions are required.

Not all components need to be created manually:

Choose Your Image

Pull the Notiway gateway image from Docker Hub:

docker pull notiway/notify:portable-0.5.0

Configure Environment Variables

All Notiway configuration is done through environment variables.

General Settings

Plugin Selection

Plugin selection follows this pattern:

Infra__Plugins__{Type}__Name            # Plugin name
Infra__Plugins__{Type}__Version         # Plugin version

Where {Type} is one of: Host, Broker, Buffer, Storage, Auth, TenantValidation.

Infrastructure configuration is provider-specific and configures resources like broker addresses, database table names, and regions. See each plugin’s documentation for the full list of required variables.

Full Configuration Examples

# Environment
Environment=production

# AWS
Infra__AWS__Account=123456789012
Infra__AWS__Region=eu-central-1

# Host
Infra__Plugins__Host__Name=ECS
Infra__Plugins__Host__Version=0.7.0

# Broker
Infra__Plugins__Broker__Name=SNS
Infra__Plugins__Broker__Version=0.12.0
Infra__AWS__Broker__Address=arn:aws:sns:eu-central-1:123456789012:notiway-notifications

# Buffer
Infra__Plugins__Buffer__Name=SQS
Infra__Plugins__Buffer__Version=0.17.0
Infra__AWS__Buffers__Notifications__DeadletterQueueArn=arn:aws:sqs:eu-central-1:123456789012:notiway-dlq

# Storage
Infra__Plugins__Storage__Name=DynamoDb
Infra__Plugins__Storage__Version=0.9.0
Infra__AWS__Databases__PersistedNotifications__TableName=notiway-notifications
Infra__AWS__Databases__NoficicationUsers__TableName=notiway-notification-users

# Auth
Infra__Plugins__Auth__Name=NoAuth
Infra__Plugins__Auth__Version=0.10.0

# Tenant Validation
Infra__Plugins__TenantValidation__Name=NoValidation
Infra__Plugins__TenantValidation__Version=0.9.0

# Environment
Environment=production

# Host
Infra__Plugins__Host__Name=Kubernetes
Infra__Plugins__Host__Version=0.7.0

# Broker
Infra__Plugins__Broker__Name=RabbitMQ
Infra__Plugins__Broker__Version=0.12.0

# Buffer
Infra__Plugins__Buffer__Name=RabbitMQ
Infra__Plugins__Buffer__Version=0.17.0

# Storage
Infra__Plugins__Storage__Name=PostgreSQL
Infra__Plugins__Storage__Version=0.9.0

# Auth
Infra__Plugins__Auth__Name=NoAuth
Infra__Plugins__Auth__Version=0.10.0

# Tenant Validation
Infra__Plugins__TenantValidation__Name=NoValidation
Infra__Plugins__TenantValidation__Version=0.9.0

Set Up a Load Balancer

Clients connect to the gateway from outside your network. Place the gateway behind a load balancer that is accessible from the internet (or your client network) and supports WebSocket connections.

upstream notiway {
    server notiway-1:8080;
    server notiway-2:8080;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name notiway.example.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/ssl/certs/notiway.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/notiway.key;

    location /notifications {
        proxy_pass http://notiway;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_read_timeout 120s;
    }
}

Plan for Scaling

Notiway is stateless. The broker and buffer plugins handle cross-instance communication, so you can scale horizontally.

Deploy and Verify

Once the gateway is running, verify the deployment:

1. Check health by hitting the health endpoint through your load balancer
2. Test a WebSocket connection using the client examples
3. Send a test notification following the Sending Notifications guide

Troubleshooting

Container fails to start

• Check container logs: docker logs notiway
• Verify all required environment variables are set (plugin Name and Version are always required)
• Ensure the configured infrastructure (broker, storage) is reachable from the container network

WebSocket connections fail

• Verify your load balancer forwards Upgrade headers
• Check that TLS certificates are valid
• Ensure the idle timeout is long enough (at least 60 seconds)

Notifications not delivered

• Confirm your service publishes to the correct broker endpoint
• Check that buffer resources were created (e.g., SQS queues in the AWS console)
• Review Notiway logs for deserialization or permission errors

Next Steps

• Sending Notifications — publish notifications from your backend
• Connecting Clients — set up client connections
• Plugins — explore all available plugins and their configuration
• Security — configure authentication and transport security