Installing Lemmy 0.18.1 with Docker on Ubuntu

Last update: 2023-07-07

Why?

Because we want to use a federated forum and link aggregator :)

What do I need to install?

You need a Linux Server with Docker, and Docker-compose installed. creating directories

What's my setup?

Where I can find out more about the project?

How I can install it?

creating directories

mkdir -p /opt/lemmy
mkdir -p /opt/lemmy/{docker,data,config}
mkdir -p /opt/lemmy/data/{postgresql,pictrs,themes}
mkdir -p /opt/lemmy/config/{lemmy,postgresql,nginx}

defining permissions

chown -R 991:991 /opt/lemmy/data/pictrs

nginx config

creating the nginx.conf file

vim /opt/lemmy/config/nginx/nginx.conf

content

worker_processes auto;

events {
    worker_connections 1024;
}

http {

    map "$request_method:$http_accept" $proxpass {
        default "http://lemmy-ui";
        "~^(?:GET|HEAD):.*?application\/(?:activity|ld)\+json" "http://lemmy";
        "~^(?!(GET|HEAD)).*:" "http://lemmy";
    }

    upstream lemmy {
        server "lemmy:8536";
    }

    upstream lemmy-ui {
        server "lemmy-ui:1234";
    }

    server {
        listen 1236;
        listen 8536;

        server_name localhost;
        server_tokens off;

        gzip on;
        gzip_types text/css application/javascript image/svg+xml;
        gzip_vary on;

        client_max_body_size 20M;

        add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

        location / {
            proxy_pass $proxpass;
            rewrite ^(.+)/+$ $1 permanent;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        }

        location ~ ^/(api|pictrs|feeds|nodeinfo|.well-known) {
            proxy_pass "http://lemmy";
            proxy_http_version 1.1;
            proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        }
    }
}

lemmy backend config

creating the lemmy config file

vim /opt/lemmy/config/config.hjson

content

{
  database: {
    host: postgres
    password: "your_postgresql_password_here"
  }
  hostname: "bolha.forum"
  pictrs: {
    url: "http://pictrs:8080/"
    api_key: "your_postgresql_password_here"
  }
  email: {
    smtp_server: "postfix:25"
    smtp_from_address: "noreply@bolha.forum"
    tls_type: "none"
  }
}

docker config

creating the docker-compose.yaml

vim /opt/lemmy/docker/docker-compose.yml

content

version: "3.7"

services:

  proxy:
    image: nginx:1-alpine
    container_name: lemmy_proxy
    ports:
      - "8000:8536"
    volumes:
      - /opt/lemmy/config/nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro,Z
    restart: always
    depends_on:
      - pictrs
      - lemmy-ui

  lemmy:
    image: dessalines/lemmy:0.18.1
    container_name: lemmy_backend
    hostname: lemmy
    restart: always
    environment:
      - RUST_LOG="warn"
    volumes:
      - lemmy_config:/config
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - pictrs

  lemmy-ui:
    image: dessalines/lemmy-ui:0.18.1
    container_name: lemmy_frontend
    environment:
      - LEMMY_UI_LEMMY_INTERNAL_HOST=lemmy:8536
      - LEMMY_UI_LEMMY_EXTERNAL_HOST=bolha.forum
      - LEMMY_UI_HTTPS=true
    volumes:
      - extra_themes:/app/extra_themes
    depends_on:
      - lemmy
    restart: always

  pictrs:
    image: asonix/pictrs:0.4.0-rc.7
    container_name: lemmy_images_backend
    hostname: pictrs
    environment:
      - PICTRS__API_KEY=your_postgresql_password_here
      - RUST_LOG=debug
      - RUST_BACKTRACE=full
      - PICTRS__MEDIA__VIDEO_CODEC=vp9
      - PICTRS__MEDIA__GIF__MAX_WIDTH=256
      - PICTRS__MEDIA__GIF__MAX_HEIGHT=256
      - PICTRS__MEDIA__GIF__MAX_AREA=65536
      - PICTRS__MEDIA__GIF__MAX_FRAME_COUNT=400
    user: 991:991
    volumes:
      - pictrs:/mnt:Z
    restart: always
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          memory: 690m

  postgres:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    container_name: lemmy_database
    hostname: postgres
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=lemmy
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your_postgresql_password_here
      - POSTGRES_DB=lemmy
    volumes:
      - postgresql:/var/lib/postgresql/data:Z
      - /opt/lemmy/config/postgresql/postgresql.conf:/etc/postgresql.conf
    restart: always

  postfix:
    image: mwader/postfix-relay
    container_name: lemmy_smtp_relay
    environment:
      - POSTFIX_myhostname=bolha.forum
      - POSTFIX_smtp_sasl_auth_enable= yes
      - POSTFIX_smtp_sasl_password_maps=static:user@domain.tld:user_password_here
      - POSTFIX_smtp_sasl_security_options=noanonymous
      - POSTFIX_relayhost=smtp.domain.tld:587
    restart: "always"

volumes:
  lemmy_config:
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      device: /opt/lemmy/config/lemmy
      o: bind
  extra_themes:
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      device: /opt/lemmy/data/themes
      o: bind
  pictrs:
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      device: /opt/lemmy/data/pictrs
      o: bind
  postgresql:
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      device: /opt/lemmy/data/postgresql
      o: bind

spinning up the lemmy instance

$ cd /opt/lemmy/docker
$ docker-compose up -d

checking

$ docker-compose ps

NAME                   IMAGE                        COMMAND                  SERVICE             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS
lemmy_backend          dessalines/lemmy:0.18.1      "/app/lemmy"             lemmy               34 minutes ago      Up 34 minutes
lemmy_database         postgres:15-alpine           "docker-entrypoint.s…"   postgres            34 minutes ago      Up 34 minutes       5432/tcp
lemmy_frontend         dessalines/lemmy-ui:0.18.1   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   lemmy-ui            34 minutes ago      Up 34 minutes       1234/tcp
lemmy_images_backend   asonix/pictrs:0.4.0-rc.7     "/sbin/tini -- /usr/…"   pictrs              34 minutes ago      Up 34 minutes       6669/tcp, 8080/tcp
lemmy_proxy            nginx:1-alpine               "/docker-entrypoint.…"   proxy               34 minutes ago      Up 34 minutes       80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8000->8536/tcp, :::8000->8536/tcp
lemmy_smtp_relay       mwader/postfix-relay         "/root/run"              postfix             34 minutes ago      Up 34 minutes       25/tcp

You can see that our lemmy_proxy (nginx) is running on the port 8000.

Now let's configure the external reverse proxy.

external reverse-proxy config

certbot + letsencrypt

we're using cloudflare plugin with certbot, you need to have the configuration ready, like this example

# cat /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare/bolha-forum.conf
dns_cloudflare_email = dns@bolha.forum
dns_cloudflare_api_key = your_token_here

then you can generate the certificate

# certbot certonly --dns-cloudflare --dns-cloudflare-credential /etc/letsencrypt/cloudflare/bolha-forum.conf -d "*.bolha.forum,bolha.forum"

now we can configure our nginx!

nginx config

external reverse proxy

server {
    listen your_listen_ip_here:80;
    server_name bolha.forum;
    location / {
        return 301 https://bolha.forum$request_uri;
    }
}

server {
    listen your_listen_ip_here:443 ssl http2;
    server_name bolha.forum;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/bolha.forum/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/bolha.forum/privkey.pem;

    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;

    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/dh-param.pem;

    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256';

    # Specifies a curve for ECDHE ciphers.
    ssl_ecdh_curve prime256v1;

    # Server should determine the ciphers, not the client
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
    ssl_session_tickets off;

    # Enable compression for JS/CSS/HTML bundle, for improved client load times.
    # It might be nice to compress JSON, but leaving that out to protect against potential
    # compression+encryption information leak attacks like BREACH.
    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/css application/javascript image/svg+xml;
    gzip_vary on;

    # Only connect to this site via HTTPS for the two years
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000";

    # Various content security headers
    add_header Referrer-Policy "same-origin";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";
    add_header X-Frame-Options "DENY";
    add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";

    # Upload limit for pictrs
    client_max_body_size 25M;


    location / {
      proxy_pass http://your_docker_host_ip_here:your_port_here;
      proxy_http_version 1.1;
      proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
      proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
      proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
      proxy_set_header Host $host;
      proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
}

check the config

nginx -t

expected output

nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

and reload the configuration

# nginx -s reload

that's it!

Go to your lemmy!

Now you can access your lemmy instance

Enjoy!

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