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Focalboard - Project Management

Focalboard is an open source, self-hosted alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana. It provides a centralized Kanban board application for the Fawkes platform to manage features, incidents, and stories.

Overview

Focalboard is deployed as part of the Fawkes platform to provide:

  • Kanban Boards: Visual task management with drag-and-drop cards
  • Multiple Views: Board, table, gallery, and calendar views
  • Real-time Collaboration: Changes are immediately visible to all team members
  • Data Persistence: All data stored in PostgreSQL with high availability

Access

Environment URL
Local Dev http://pm.127.0.0.1.nip.io
Production https://pm.fawkes.io

Quick Start

Creating Your First Board

  1. Navigate to the Focalboard URL
  2. Log in with your platform credentials
  3. Click + Add Board to create a new board
  4. Choose a template or start from scratch

Board Templates

The platform provides a default template with the following columns:

Column Purpose
Backlog Items waiting to be prioritized
To Do Ready to be worked on
In Progress Currently being worked on
Review Pending review or approval
Done Completed items

Working with Cards

  1. Create a Card: Click + New in any column
  2. Move a Card: Drag and drop between columns
  3. Edit a Card: Click to open and add details
  4. Assign Priority: Use the properties panel to set priority
  5. Add Comments: Collaborate with team members on cards

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Ingress (nginx)                    │
│              pm.127.0.0.1.nip.io                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               Focalboard Service                     │
│                  (ClusterIP)                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Focalboard Deployment                   │
│         mattermost/focalboard:7.11.4                 │
│                                                      │
│  ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │ Config Vol  │    │    Files PVC (5Gi)          │ │
│  │ (ConfigMap) │    │    Attachments/Uploads      │ │
│  └─────────────┘    └─────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│         PostgreSQL (CloudNativePG)                   │
│         db-focalboard-dev cluster                    │
│         3 replicas for High Availability             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Configuration

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are available in env.example:

Variable Description Default
FOCALBOARD_URL Internal service URL http://focalboard.fawkes.svc:8000
FOCALBOARD_EXTERNAL_URL External URL via ingress http://pm.127.0.0.1.nip.io
POSTGRESQL_HOST PostgreSQL primary host db-focalboard-dev-rw.fawkes.svc.cluster.local
POSTGRESQL_DATABASE Database name focalboard
POSTGRESQL_USER Database user focalboard_user

Resource Limits

Resource Request Limit
CPU 100m 500m
Memory 128Mi 512Mi

Storage

Volume Size Purpose
PostgreSQL 10Gi Database storage (per replica)
Files PVC 5Gi File attachments and uploads

Database

Focalboard uses a dedicated PostgreSQL cluster managed by CloudNativePG:

  • Cluster Name: db-focalboard-dev
  • Instances: 3 (1 primary + 2 replicas)
  • High Availability: Automatic failover within 90 seconds
  • TLS: Encrypted connections required

Connection Details

Host (Read-Write): db-focalboard-dev-rw.fawkes.svc.cluster.local
Host (Read-Only): db-focalboard-dev-ro.fawkes.svc.cluster.local
Port: 5432
Database: focalboard
Username: focalboard_user
SSL Mode: require

Credentials

Database credentials are stored in Kubernetes Secrets:

  • Secret Name: db-focalboard-credentials
  • Keys: username, password

For production, use External Secrets Operator to pull credentials from your secret manager.

Monitoring

Focalboard exposes Prometheus metrics at port 9092:

  • Endpoint: http://focalboard.fawkes.svc:9092/metrics
  • Scrape Interval: 30s

Key Metrics

Metric Description
focalboard_api_request_duration_seconds API request latency
focalboard_active_users Number of active users
focalboard_boards_total Total number of boards
focalboard_cards_total Total number of cards

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Service Not Accessible

  1. Check if the pod is running:
kubectl get pods -n fawkes -l app=focalboard
  1. Check pod logs:
kubectl logs -n fawkes -l app=focalboard
  1. Verify ingress configuration: 
    kubectl get ingress -n fawkes focalboard

Database Connection Failed

  1. Verify PostgreSQL cluster is healthy:
kubectl get cluster -n fawkes db-focalboard-dev
  1. Check database credentials:
kubectl get secret -n fawkes db-focalboard-credentials
  1. Test database connectivity from the pod: 
    kubectl exec -n fawkes -it deployment/focalboard -- \
  psql "postgres://focalboard_user@db-focalboard-dev-rw:5432/focalboard?sslmode=require"

Pod Restart Loop

Check for resource constraints:

kubectl describe pod -n fawkes -l app=focalboard

Support

For issues with Focalboard on the Fawkes platform:

  1. Check the Troubleshooting Guide
  2. Search existing GitHub Issues
  3. Open a new issue if needed
  4. Contact the Platform Team via Mattermost