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!
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.
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?
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.
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
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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:
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{ # 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:
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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.
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?
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
Not yet. Based on my error logs, Im thinking some sort of websocket issue where operations are timing out trying to communicate with other instances. Unfortunately I am not well familiar with NGINX and proxies in gerenal (hence using GUI based NPM). Im hoping I can find a kind soul to basically walk with me through my setup and see if the issue can be pinpointed. Ill definitely post how it got working if/when I get there.
Awesome, thank you.
I am in the same boat, although I am quite comfortable with most tech things, NGINX is a new world for me.
I’m wondering if I should migrate my NPM to caddy or something.
Hey, does your instance have the “UI: v0.XX.X” tag at the bottom of the page? Mine does not, only the BE tag. I see other successful instances DO have it. Wondering if somehow related.
Mine does, I see UI: v0.17.3
Ive noticed mine DOES have it when viewed from another instance, however when I view it natively, I do not have it. Stuff is weird.
I got mine all squared away (I hope), if you still need assistance.
Hey, I do.
Everything is working amazing, except I can’t subscribe to anything on lemmy.ml.
What did you do to fix yours?
Im actually making my little write up right now. Will post under the root thread shortly
Just posted