This guide describes how to deploy fewohbee using Portainer CE.

• Prerequisites
• Creating the Stack
• Initialize the Application
• Database Backups

• Portainer CE is installed and running
• A Docker environment is configured in Portainer

In Portainer, navigate to Stacks → Add Stack.

• Name: e.g. fewohbee
• Build method: Repository

Which compose file to choose?

• docker-compose.yml — for servers with direct internet access. Manages SSL certificates automatically (self-signed or Let's Encrypt) via the acme container.
• docker-compose.no-ssl.yml — for servers behind an external reverse proxy (Traefik, Nginx Proxy Manager, Caddy, etc.) that terminates SSL. The web container only listens on plain HTTP.

Add all required variables under Environment variables. Use the .env.dist file in the repository as a reference for all available variables and their default values.

Infrastructure variables (required to start the stack):

For all application settings (language, mailer, passkey, salutations, etc.) refer to the Configuration page and .env.dist.

Click Deploy the stack. Portainer will clone the repository, pull the referenced images, and start all containers.

Note: The PHP container clones and sets up the fewohbee application on first start. This takes approximately 1–2 minutes. The database container also needs a moment to initialize. Wait until all containers show status running before continuing.

Once all containers are running, the application must be initialized once to create the first admin user and load required base data.

Important: The PHP container clones the application and runs database migrations on first start. This takes approximately 1–2 minutes. Before proceeding, check the Logs of the php container and wait until you see ready to handle connections. Running the command below too early will fail.

1. In Portainer, navigate to Containers and click on the php container.

2. Open the Exec Console tab.

3. Configure the console:

   • Command: /bin/sh
   • User: www-data

4. Click Connect, then run:

   php fewohbee/bin/console app:first-run

   Follow the interactive prompts to create the first admin user.

5. Open the application in your browser: https://<HOST_NAME>

If SELF_SIGNED=true is set, your browser will show a security warning on first visit. Accept it to proceed to the login page.

Backups are stored in the named Docker volume db-backup-vol as compressed .tar.gz files. You can browse them directly in Portainer under Volumes → db-backup-vol → Browse.

Open the Exec Console of the db container (as root) and run:

mariadb-dump -u root -p$MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD fewohbee | gzip > /dbbackup/manual_backup.sql.gz

Open the Exec Console of the db container (as root) and run:

# List available backups
ls /dbbackup

# Decompress and restore
gunzip < /dbbackup/<file>.sql.gz | mariadb -u root -p$MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD fewohbee

The automatic database backup user (MYSQL_BACKUP_USER) is normally created during the first start of the database container. In Portainer CE, this step may be skipped due to a bind-mount limitation. If you want to use automated backups, create the user manually via the db container Exec Console (as root):

mariadb -u root -p$MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD -e \
  "GRANT LOCK TABLES, SELECT ON *.* TO '$MYSQL_BACKUP_USER'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '$MYSQL_BACKUP_PASSWORD';"