Multi-node wikipedia

A project to have a Wikipedia mirror running at multiple Nodes across a Region (using Merri-bek as our test case). Things will still be changing rapidly at this point, so it’s ok if these nodes are at the homes of our volunteers rather than actually at community facilities. This will still give us experience in managing redundant nodes, monitoring availability and doing traffic routing.

What success looks like

At least 3 nodes are running a Wikipedia mirror
We collect basic information on the uptime of all the public urls
Wikipedia is accessible at a local URL if on the same network as a node
Wikipedia is accessible at a public URL specific for each node
Wikipedia is accessible at a single public URL for the region that directs traffic to the correct region.

Non-goals

The following things are specifically out of scope for this project, even though they might be good ideas in the future:

Power monitoring
Battery backup
Solar power
Updating Kiwix automatically

in-progress

Easy node setup

Node stewards can setup a new node on a Raspberry Pi or similar

testing

Nodes join region

Nodes can join a region without relying on their being a centralised master node

in-progress

Wikipedia app

Node stewards can install a wikipedia app that uses Kiwix to serve offline wikipedia.

Multiple available test nodes

A region has been demonstrated to run multiple nodes, which are generally available although they might be in hobbiest homes rather than community facilities.

Peer app URL monitoring

Node’s monitor each other’s public URLs so they know what is up from their perspective. This informs some basic availability reporting.

Regional traffic routing

Traffic to a single public URL for wikipedia for the region is directed to nodes that are known to be up.