Firefox Sync Server on its own host

 

Firefox Sync makes bookmarks available synchronously on any device, including the timeline, tabs, add-ons, settings, and credentials, which can be matched on request.

The Mozilla-hosted Firefox account server can be easily used in combination with a self-hosted synchronization server and storage.Authentication and encryption protocols are designed so that the account server does not know the user’s plaintext password and therefore cannot access the stored synchronization data.

CONTENT

Firefox Sync Server Installatio
nFirefox Sync Basic Configurat
ionFirefox Sync Apache Configurat
ionFirefox Sync HTTPS Let’s Enc
ryptFirefox Browser Setting
Troubleshoting & Settings

This tutorial shows how to install Firefox Sync 1.5 servers on Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS. The Ubuntu server, here sync.server.net as an example, is accessible via the Apache 2.4 web server on the Internet.

Firefox Sync Server Installation

Prerequisite for Sync 1.5 servers is Python 2.7 and Python Virtualenv, python-dev, make, git, as well as the C and C++ compiler. To ensure this, the following pacts will be made available:

We install the sync server under /opt, who prefers /usr/local, can choose this path, we will root and execute the following lines:

To verify that the installation was successful, the following can provide the following:

Firefox Sync Basic Configuration

Create users and assign permission:

The sync server is configured using the ini file to pass different runtime settings.The syncserver .ini file serves as a starting point.

Most settings can be applied before the sync server runs, the URL that can be reached for clients must be adapted to the sync server. For productive use, we open the syncserver .ini file and edit the public_url:

Change the public_url from localhost:5000 to our sync.server.net. In another section, the configuration is set up on the HTTPS protocol.

Then adjust the sqluri for our data beacon:

A secret key with the random generator is generated from a terminal, running the following line:

Enter this key generated in the syncserver configuration file .ini:

Assign enough rights to the database:

Create automatic start in systemd for Firefox Sync:

and insert the following content:

Start the Firefox Sync Service:

Firefox Sync Apache Configuration

Create an Apache Virtualhost as follows in this example:

Activate and restart the Apache Virtualhost:

Firefox Sync HTTPS Let’s Encrypt

Provide Let’s Encrypt for our sync server, adding the repository and installing the ACME packages:

Now the Let’s Encrypt certificate can be created, certbot makes it easy for us, the SSL configuration required for our virtual host is created automatically.

Under /etc/apache2/sites-enabled is now the symlink of this to file sync.server.net-le-ssl.conf shows, this i
s stored under/etc/apache2/sites-available.

In the file sync.server.net-le-ssl.conf, the WSGI configuration still needs to be added, we edit wiedersync
.server.net-le-ssl.conf, which then shows the following content:

Now the Apache web server needs to be restarted:

Firefox browser setting

In order for Firefox to be able to synchronize via its own sync server, the URL must be changed, for this purpose you enter about:config in the address bar and confirm with the enter key.

After confirming the warning, enter identity.sync.tokenserver.uri into the search box.

Double-clicking changes the value to your own sync server
https://sync.server.net/token/1.0/sync/1.5

Finally, the Mozilla account is created via the following URL:

The account itself is located on the Mozilla server, the data is stored on the own sync server.

It is important that the synchronization was made only after the entry to the own sync server in Firefox. If bookmarks and data are on the sync server with Mozilla, the data can be deleted, with the following command lines:

email.account@server.net with actual account email.

Troubleshoting & Settings

To check that The Firefox Sync sync is running correctly, open the log file /var/log/apache2/access_sync.server.net.log:

Note that the Let’s Encrypt certbot for validation, the host must be reachable via port 80, for the firewall included in Ubuntu in the default, the command is as follows:

When you call the Sync Server URL, or https://sync.server.net in the browser, the following output should appear:

If the Apache web server does not start, the syntax of the configuration can be validated:

After all accounts have been created, access to other users can be blocked in the syncserver .ini file:

The Firefox Sync protocol contains the debug information in case of errors and can be queried with the following command in the browser line.

Sources Link:
Run your own Sync-1.5 Server
Github mozilla-services/syncserver