Hello! I have been struggling through a few tutorials on getting a lemmy instance to work correctly when setup with Docker. I have it mostly done, but there are various issues each time that I do not have the knowledge to properly correct. I am familiar with Docker, and already have an Oracle VPS set up on ARM64 Ubuntu. I already have portainer and an NGINX proxy set up and working okay. I have an existing lemmy instance “running” but not quite working. My best guess here would be to have someone assist with setting up the docker-compose to work with current updates/settings, as well as the config.hjson.

TIA, and I cant wait to have my own entry into the fediverse working right!

  • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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    2 years ago

    Working Setup files, for my ARM64 Ubuntu host server. The postgres, lemmy, lemmy-ui, and pictrs containers all are on the lemmyinternal network only. The nginx:1-alpine container is in both networks. docker-compose.yml

    spoiler
    
    version: "3.3"
    # JatNote = Note from Jattatak for working YML at this time (Jun8,2023)
    networks:
      # communication to web and clients
      lemmyexternalproxy:
      # communication between lemmy services
      lemmyinternal:
        driver: bridge
        #JatNote: The Internal mode for this network is in the official doc, but is what broke my setup
        # I left it out to fix it. I advise the same.
    #    internal: true
    
    services:
      proxy:
        image: nginx:1-alpine
        networks:
          - lemmyinternal
          - lemmyexternalproxy
        ports:
          # only ports facing any connection from outside
          # JatNote: Ports mapped to nonsense to prevent colision with NGINX Proxy Manager
          - 680:80
          - 6443:443
        volumes:
          - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
          # setup your certbot and letsencrypt config 
          - ./certbot:/var/www/certbot
          - ./letsencrypt:/etc/letsencrypt/live
        restart: always
        depends_on:
          - pictrs
          - lemmy-ui
    
      lemmy:
      #JatNote: I am running on an ARM Ubuntu Virtual Server. Therefore, this is my image. I suggest using matching lemmy/lemmy-ui versions.
        image: dessalines/lemmy:0.17.3-linux-arm64
        hostname: lemmy
        networks:
          - lemmyinternal
        restart: always
        environment:
          - RUST_LOG="warn,lemmy_server=info,lemmy_api=info,lemmy_api_common=info,lemmy_api_crud=info,lemmy_apub=info,lemmy_db_schema=info,lemmy_db_views=info,lemmy_db_views_actor=info,lemmy_db_views_moderator=info,lemmy_routes=info,lemmy_utils=info,lemmy_websocket=info"
        volumes:
          - ./lemmy.hjson:/config/config.hjson
        depends_on:
          - postgres
          - pictrs
    
      lemmy-ui:
      #JatNote: Again, ARM based image
        image: dessalines/lemmy-ui:0.17.3-linux-arm64
        hostname: lemmy-ui
        networks:
          - lemmyinternal
        environment:
          # this needs to match the hostname defined in the lemmy service
          - LEMMY_UI_LEMMY_INTERNAL_HOST=lemmy:8536
          # set the outside hostname here
          - LEMMY_UI_LEMMY_EXTERNAL_HOST=lemmy.bulwarkob.com:1236
          - LEMMY_HTTPS=true
        depends_on:
          - lemmy
        restart: always
    
      pictrs:
        image: asonix/pictrs
        # this needs to match the pictrs url in lemmy.hjson
        hostname: pictrs
        networks:
          - lemmyinternal
        environment:
          - PICTRS__API_KEY=API_KEY
        user: 991:991
        volumes:
          - ./volumes/pictrs:/mnt
        restart: always
    
      postgres:
        image: postgres:15-alpine
        # this needs to match the database host in lemmy.hson
        hostname: postgres
        networks:
          - lemmyinternal
        environment:
          - POSTGRES_USER=AUser
          - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=APassword
          - POSTGRES_DB=lemmy
        volumes:
          - ./volumes/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
        restart: always
    
    

    lemmy.hjson:

    spoiler
    {
      # for more info about the config, check out the documentation
      # https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/administration/configuration.html
      # only few config options are covered in this example config
    
      setup: {
        # username for the admin user
        admin_username: "AUser"
        # password for the admin user
        admin_password: "APassword"
        # name of the site (can be changed later)
        site_name: "Bulwark of Boredom"
      }
    
      opentelemetry_url: "http://otel:4317"
    
      # the domain name of your instance (eg "lemmy.ml")
      hostname: "lemmy.bulwarkob.com"
      # address where lemmy should listen for incoming requests
      bind: "0.0.0.0"
      # port where lemmy should listen for incoming requests
      port: 8536
      # Whether the site is available over TLS. Needs to be true for federation to work.
      # JatNote: I was advised that this is not necessary. It does work without it.
    #  tls_enabled: true
    
      # pictrs host
      pictrs: {
        url: "http://pictrs:8080/"
      # api_key: "API_KEY"
      }
    
      # settings related to the postgresql database
      database: {
        # name of the postgres database for lemmy
        database: "lemmy"
        # username to connect to postgres
        user: "aUser"
        # password to connect to postgres
        password: "aPassword"
        # host where postgres is running
        host: "postgres"
        # port where postgres can be accessed
        port: 5432
        # maximum number of active sql connections
        pool_size: 5
      }
    }
    

    The following nginx.conf is for the internal proxy, which is included in the docker-compose.yml This is entirely separate from Nginx-Proxy-Manager (NPM)

    nginx.conf:

    spoiler
    worker_processes 1;
    events {
        worker_connections 1024;
    }
    http {
        upstream lemmy {
            # this needs to map to the lemmy (server) docker service hostname
            server "lemmy:8536";
        }
        upstream lemmy-ui {
            # this needs to map to the lemmy-ui docker service hostname
            server "lemmy-ui:1234";
        }
    
        server {
            # this is the port inside docker, not the public one yet
            listen 80;
            # change if needed, this is facing the public web
            server_name localhost;
            server_tokens off;
    
            gzip on;
            gzip_types text/css application/javascript image/svg+xml;
            gzip_vary on;
    
            # Upload limit, relevant for pictrs
            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";
    
            # frontend general requests
            location / {
                # distinguish between ui requests and backend
                # don't change lemmy-ui or lemmy here, they refer to the upstream definitions on top
                set $proxpass "http://lemmy-ui";
    
                if ($http_accept = "application/activity+json") {
                  set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
                }
                if ($http_accept = "application/ld+json; profile=\"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\"") {
                  set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
                }
                if ($request_method = POST) {
                  set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
                }
                proxy_pass $proxpass;
    
                rewrite ^(.+)/+$ $1 permanent;
                # Send actual client IP upstream
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            }
    
            # backend
            location ~ ^/(api|pictrs|feeds|nodeinfo|.well-known) {
                proxy_pass "http://lemmy";
                # proxy common stuff
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    
                # Send actual client IP upstream
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
            }
        }
    }
    
    

    The nginx-proxy-manager container only needs to be in the same container network as the internal nginx:1-alpine container from the stack.

    You need to create a proxy host for http port 80 to the IP address of the internal nginx:1-alpine container on the lemmyexternalproxy network in docker. Include the websockets support option.

    https://lemmy.bulwarkob.com/pictrs/image/55870601-fb24-4346-8a42-bb14bb90d9e8.png

    Then, you can use the SSL tab to do your cert and such. NPM is free to work on other networks with other containers as well, as far as I know.

    • bagfatnick@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      hey @Jattatak, you seem to be the only other person I can find who is facing similar troubles to myself when trying to set up a lemmy instance. I’ve redone my docker-compose, nginx.conf, and lemmy.hjson to be exactly the same as yours (with some changes in the password / domain name). I’m also running an nginx proxy manager container.

      However, it seems I’m still having the same problem of being able to see post content but not comments in other instances. I have the added problem of when trying to post a comment on my instance, the form freezes until I refresh the page. The comment does actually get posted.

      I’ve also made sure the ‘lemmyinternal’ network is not isolated. I wonder did you manage to do anything to trouble shoot this issue? are there any ports I need to open on my firewall beyond 80, 443?

  • kellysolo
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    2 years ago

    How did you setup your NGINX proxy? Can you post your NGINX config file as well as your docker-compose.yml file?

    • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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      2 years ago

      Yea Ill do a write up in a bit with everything I can share that helped. Ill post it under the original thread. Not sure if I can sticky things but Ill try.

  • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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    2 years ago

    Most likely it is a nginx reverse-proxy issue. I would recommend to get rid of the nginx in the docker-compose if you still have that and directly proxy the Lemmy backend and Lemmy-ui via the system Nginx in a similar fashion to the Ansible script nginx example.

    But it’s really hard to do “remote” setup support like this, so you will have to experiment a bit yourself.

    • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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      2 years ago

      I am not an NGINX expert by any means. The instance is reachable to the lemmy-ui via the proxy. I can “Sign up” and search for communities and such, but it seems like the backend is failing. Maybe an issues between lemmy and postgres?

      • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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        2 years ago

        More likely a websocket failure. I heard from another project that uses websockets for the frontend to communicate with the backend that Nginx proxy manager seems to have issues with websockets even if they are enabled via that toggle in the UI. But no real idea what the issue might be.

        I hear issues with Nginx proxy manager all the time, but obviously it attracts a certain type of user, so it might not be the tool’s fault after all.

  • notdeadyet@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    @[email protected]

    Did you ever get this up and running? I am also using NPM on top of the nginx in the stack, and I can’t seem to federate with lemmy.ml

    Would love to know if you found a fix that could work for me

  • I eat words@group.lt
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    2 years ago

    hi, can you post your docker-compose.yaml, nginx config and screenshots/logs of failures?

    • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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      2 years ago

      (1/2) Alright, thanks for helping.

      docker-compose.yml

      spoiler
      version: "3.3"
      
      networks:
        # communication to web and clients
        lemmyexternalproxy:
        # communication between lemmy services
        lemmyinternal:
          driver: bridge
          internal: true
      
      services:
        lemmy:
          image: dessalines/lemmy
          # this hostname is used in nginx reverse proxy and also for lemmy ui to connect to the backend, do not change
          hostname: lemmy
          networks:
            - lemmyinternal
          restart: always
          environment:
            - RUST_LOG="warn,lemmy_server=debug,lemmy_api=debug,lemmy_api_common=debug,lemmy_api_crud=debug,lemmy_apub=debug,lemmy_db_schema=debug,lemmy_db_views=debug,lemmy_db_views_actor=debug,lemmy_db_views_moderator=debug,lemmy_routes=debug,lemmy_utils=debug,lemmy_websocket=debug"
            - RUST_BACKTRACE=full
          volumes:
            - ./lemmy.hjson:/config/config.hjson:Z
          depends_on:
            - postgres
            - pictrs
      
        lemmy-ui:
          image: dessalines/lemmy-ui
          # use this to build your local lemmy ui image for development
          # run docker compose up --build
          # assuming lemmy-ui is cloned besides lemmy directory
          # build:
          #   context: ../../lemmy-ui
          #   dockerfile: dev.dockerfile
          networks:
            - lemmyinternal
          environment:
            # this needs to match the hostname defined in the lemmy service
            - LEMMY_UI_LEMMY_INTERNAL_HOST=lemmy:8536
            # set the outside hostname here
            - LEMMY_UI_LEMMY_EXTERNAL_HOST=lemmy.bulwarkob.com:1236
            - LEMMY_HTTPS=false
            - LEMMY_UI_DEBUG=true
          depends_on:
            - lemmy
          restart: always
      
        pictrs:
          image: asonix/pictrs:0.4.0-beta.19
          # this needs to match the pictrs url in lemmy.hjson
          hostname: pictrs
          # we can set options to pictrs like this, here we set max. image size and forced format for conversion
          # entrypoint: /sbin/tini -- /usr/local/bin/pict-rs -p /mnt -m 4 --image-format webp
          networks:
            - lemmyinternal
          environment:
            - PICTRS_OPENTELEMETRY_URL=http://otel:4137
            - PICTRS__API_KEY=API_KEY
            - 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:
            - ./volumes/pictrs:/mnt:Z
          restart: always
      
        postgres:
          image: postgres:15-alpine
          # this needs to match the database host in lemmy.hson
          # Tune your settings via
          # https://pgtune.leopard.in.ua/#/
          # You can use this technique to add them here
          # https://stackoverflow.com/a/30850095/1655478
          hostname: postgres
          command:
            [
              "postgres",
              "-c",
              "session_preload_libraries=auto_explain",
              "-c",
              "auto_explain.log_min_duration=5ms",
              "-c",
              "auto_explain.log_analyze=true",
              "-c",
              "track_activity_query_size=1048576",
            ]
          networks:
            - lemmyinternal
            # adding the external facing network to allow direct db access for devs
            - lemmyexternalproxy
          ports:
            # use a different port so it doesnt conflict with potential postgres db running on the host
            - "5433:5432"
          environment:
            - POSTGRES_USER=noUsrHere
            - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=noPassHere
            - POSTGRES_DB=noDbHere
          volumes:
            - ./volumes/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data:Z
          restart: always
      

      The NGINX I am using is not the one that came with the stack, but a separate single container for nginx-proxy-manager. I did not customize the conf that it installed with, and only used the UI to set up the proxy host and SSL, both of which are working (front end, at least.). The config seems to be unrelated on this, however I can share it if the rest of the information below is not enough.

        • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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          2 years ago

          Sure thing. lemmy.hjson:

          spoiler
          {
            # for more info about the config, check out the documentation
            # https://join-lemmy.org/docs/en/administration/configuration.html
            # only few config options are covered in this example config
          
            setup: {
              # username for the admin user
              admin_username: "noUsrHere"
              # password for the admin user
              admin_password: "noPassHere"
              # name of the site (can be changed later)
              site_name: "Bulwark of Boredom"
            }
          
            # the domain name of your instance (eg "lemmy.ml")
            hostname: "lemmy.bulwarkob.com"
            # address where lemmy should listen for incoming requests
            bind: "0.0.0.0"
            # port where lemmy should listen for incoming requests
            port: 8536
            # Whether the site is available over TLS. Needs to be true for federation to work.
            tls_enabled: true
          
            # pictrs host
            pictrs: {
              url: "http://pictrs:8080/"
              api_key: "API_KEY"
            }
          
            # settings related to the postgresql database
            database: {
              # name of the postgres database for lemmy
              database: "noDbHere"
              # username to connect to postgres
              user: "noUsrHere"
              # password to connect to postgres
              password: "noPassHere"
              # host where postgres is running
              host: "postgres"
              # port where postgres can be accessed
              port: 5432
              # maximum number of active sql connections
              pool_size: 5
            }
          }
          

          I am not certain if I am somehow getting the wrong location of the config in the container. There is no volume or link for a conf file from host:container, so I am just grabbing from the default area /etc /nginx/nginx.conf:

          spoiler
          # run nginx in foreground
          daemon off;
          pid /run/nginx/nginx.pid;
          user npm;
          
          # Set number of worker processes automatically based on number of CPU cores.
          worker_processes auto;
          
          # Enables the use of JIT for regular expressions to speed-up their processing.
          pcre_jit on;
          
          error_log /data/logs/fallback_error.log warn;
          
          # Includes files with directives to load dynamic modules.
          include /etc/nginx/modules/*.conf;
          
          events {
          	include /data/nginx/custom/events[.]conf;
          }
          
          http {
          	include                       /etc/nginx/mime.types;
          	default_type                  application/octet-stream;
          	sendfile                      on;
          	server_tokens                 off;
          	tcp_nopush                    on;
          	tcp_nodelay                   on;
          	client_body_temp_path         /tmp/nginx/body 1 2;
          	keepalive_timeout             90s;
          	proxy_connect_timeout         90s;
          	proxy_send_timeout            90s;
          	proxy_read_timeout            90s;
          	ssl_prefer_server_ciphers     on;
          	gzip                          on;
          	proxy_ignore_client_abort     off;
          	client_max_body_size          2000m;
          	server_names_hash_bucket_size 1024;
          	proxy_http_version            1.1;
          	proxy_set_header              X-Forwarded-Scheme $scheme;
          	proxy_set_header              X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
          	proxy_set_header              Accept-Encoding "";
          	proxy_cache                   off;
          	proxy_cache_path              /var/lib/nginx/cache/public  levels=1:2 keys_zone=public-cache:30m max_size=192m;
          	proxy_cache_path              /var/lib/nginx/cache/private levels=1:2 keys_zone=private-cache:5m max_size=1024m;
          
          	log_format proxy '[$time_local] $upstream_cache_status $upstream_status $status - $request_method $scheme $host "$request_uri" [Client $remote_addr] [Length $body_bytes_sent] [Gzip $gzip_ratio] [Sent-to $server] "$http_user_agent" "$http_referer"';
          	log_format standard '[$time_local] $status - $request_method $scheme $host "$request_uri" [Client $remote_addr] [Length $body_bytes_sent] [Gzip $gzip_ratio] "$http_user_agent" "$http_referer"';
          
          	access_log /data/logs/fallback_access.log proxy;
          
          	# Dynamically generated resolvers file
          	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/include/resolvers.conf;
          
          	# Default upstream scheme
          	map $host $forward_scheme {
          		default http;
          	}
          
          	# Real IP Determination
          
          	# Local subnets:
          	set_real_ip_from 10.0.0.0/8;
          	set_real_ip_from 172.16.0.0/12; # Includes Docker subnet
          	set_real_ip_from 192.168.0.0/16;
          	# NPM generated CDN ip ranges:
          	include conf.d/include/ip_ranges.conf;
          	# always put the following 2 lines after ip subnets:
          	real_ip_header X-Real-IP;
          	real_ip_recursive on;
          
          	# Custom
          	include /data/nginx/custom/http_top[.]conf;
          
          	# Files generated by NPM
          	include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
          	include /data/nginx/default_host/*.conf;
          	include /data/nginx/proxy_host/*.conf;
          	include /data/nginx/redirection_host/*.conf;
          	include /data/nginx/dead_host/*.conf;
          	include /data/nginx/temp/*.conf;
          
          	# Custom
          	include /data/nginx/custom/http[.]conf;
          }
          
          stream {
          	# Files generated by NPM
          	include /data/nginx/stream/*.conf;
          
          	# Custom
          	include /data/nginx/custom/stream[.]conf;
          }
          
          # Custom
          include /data/nginx/custom/root[.]conf;
          
          
          
            • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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              2 years ago

              I may be mistaken in my choice of proceeding, but as many are reporting, the install guide provided docker-compose and general docker instructions dont quite seem to work as expected. I have been trying to piecemeal this together, and the Included lemmy nginx service container was completely excluded (edited out/deleted) once I had the standalone nginx-proxy-manager setup and working for regular 80,443 ->1234 proxy requests to the lemmy-ui container.

              Does the lemmy nginx have a specific role or tie in? I am still fairly new to reverse proxying in general.

              • I eat words@group.lt
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                2 years ago

                yeah, nginx config for lemmy is not very straighforward. you need to mimic this:

                worker_processes  1;
                events {
                    worker_connections  1024;
                }
                http {
                    upstream lemmy {
                        server "lemmy:8536";
                    }
                    upstream lemmy-ui {
                        server "lemmy-ui:1234";
                    }
                    server {
                      listen       1236;
                      server_name  localhost;
                
                      # frontend
                      location / {
                        set $proxpass "http://lemmy-ui";
                        if ($http_accept = "application/activity+json") {
                          set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
                        }
                        if ($http_accept = "application/ldr+json; profile=\"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\"") {
                          set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
                        }
                        if ($request_method = POST) {
                          set $proxpass "http://lemmy";
                        }
                        proxy_pass $proxpass;
                
                        rewrite ^(.+)/+$ $1 permanent;
                
                        # Send actual client IP upstream
                        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                        proxy_set_header Host $host;
                        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                      }
                
                      # backend
                      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";
                
                        # Add IP forwarding headers
                        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
                        proxy_set_header Host $host;
                        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                      }
                    }
                }
                

                also - can you check if all containers are running? just do docker-compose ps in the lemmy dir.

                • Jattatak@beehaw.orgOP
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                  2 years ago

                  All containers are running. I handle them with Portainer, though I build the stack from the CLI in the lemmy dir, so Portainer cant fully manage them. Reboots and logs and networking and such work fine though.

                  As for the nginx config, the nginx proxy manager I use currently has all proxy-host/settings setup from the webGUI, where I use the GUI to set up the proxy host information and SSL information. I did no manual edits to any configurations or settings of the container during or after compose. Only GUI actions. When looking at the nginx.conf I replied with here (my current conf), I do not see anything related to that proxy host I created from the GUI. I am not sure if that is normal or not, or if I maybe have a wrong .conf included here.

                  With that in mind, would you suggest I simply overwrite and/or add your snippet to my existing conf file?