Adding an Instance

Where to find it?

The Instances icon in the top bar, then the Add Instance button. Only an Administrator can add, confirm, block, and delete instances

About link

To add an external instance, you need a link to its public state /instances/current. On the external instance, any authorized User can copy it in the About section.

1. Sign in to the target instance
2. Click your name in the top right corner
3. Click About
4. In the Current Instance block, copy the link with the button next to it

Link format:

https://domain.com/pepeunit/api/v1/instances/current

WARNING

The link must end with /instances/current. Only the http or https scheme is allowed. Do not add a query, fragment, or username and password to the URL

How to add an Instance

1. Open the Instances modal
2. Click Add Instance
3. Paste the /current link into the Paste /current links field
4. Click Add

After a successful add, the instance immediately gets the Trust status and appears in the list.

INFO

Instances can also be discovered automatically. Once an hour, the current instance polls all neighbors with the Trust status and takes their lists of known URLs and public RepositoryRegistry entries. New URLs are created with the Pending status. Only an Administrator assigns a trust status to them: without Trust, a discovered instance is not polled

Confirmation, blocking, and deletion

Actions are available in the Instances list row and depend on the current status.

Status	Available buttons
Pending	Trust, Block, Delete
Trust	Block, Scan, Delete
Blocking	Trust, Delete

1. Trust — start polling the instance and accept data from it
2. Block — stop polling. The current instance does not trust responses from such an instance
3. Scan — force-poll one trusted instance. Creates an Operation Task of type Scan Instance
4. Delete — delete the record

WARNING

An Administrator cannot set the Pending status. That quarantine is only for automatically discovered instances. Such records are not polled and are not deleted by retention

Forced scan of all instances

In the Instances list, the Scan All button starts polling all records with the Trust status. The task is stretched over about 10 minutes so it does not hit the network at once. The same command cannot be started again for 10 minutes.

An Operation Task of type Scan All Instances is created. The result looks like Scanned N, failed M.

Automatic polling and retention

If the PU_FF_FEDERATION_ENABLE flag is on, the Backend polls trusted instances every hour. Before polling, each instance is assigned a random delay of 1-3600 s

An instance with the Trust status is deleted if a successful poll has not happened for longer than PU_INSTANCE_RETENTION_DAYS. A mandatory extra poll is performed before deletion. Pending records are not deleted automatically.

Related Backend variables:

Variable	Purpose
PU_FF_FEDERATION_ENABLE	Enables polling of external instances and the scan buttons
PU_INSTANCE_RETENTION_DAYS	How many days without a successful poll to keep a trusted instance, 1–120
PU_INSTANCE_MAX_STATE_SIZE	Maximum size of an external instance response in bytes, 4096–65536
PU_ADMIN_EMAIL	Public email that appears in the current instance contacts
PU_ADMIN_TG	Public Telegram contact in the current instance card
PU_HTTP_TIMEOUT	Timeout for outgoing requests to external instances
PU_HTTP_CONNECT_TIMEOUT	Connection timeout used during polling