1. What is Docker?

Docker is software that runs programs in isolated environments (called containers). Think of containers like sealed boxes: each box contains everything the program needs and doesn’t interfere with other programs.

APBoard uses several containers:

• apboard – the PHP application container (Apache + PHP 8.5)
• db – the database (MariaDB)
• traefik (optional) – reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS

The advantage: you do not need to install PHP, Apache and MariaDB on your server. Docker handles that for you.

2. Install Docker

If Docker is not yet installed on your server, follow these steps. First connect to your server via SSH.

Ubuntu / Debian (recommended)

# Remove old Docker if present
sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc 2>/dev/null

# Install dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

# Add official Docker GPG key
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Add Docker repository
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

# Install Docker
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Start Docker service and enable autostart
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

# Check if Docker is running
docker --version
docker compose version

3. Clone the APBoard repository

Download the APBoard source code to your server. Choose a directory where APBoard will permanently reside.

# Navigate to the target directory (e.g. /opt or your home directory)
cd /opt

# Clone the repository
git clone https://gitlab.apboard.de/app/apboard3.git apboard

# Change to the APBoard directory
cd apboard

Directory structure

After cloning you will see the following files and folders:

apboard/
├── docker-compose.yml          # Docker configuration (main file)
├── docker-compose.traefik.yml  # Optional Traefik extension
├── .env.example                # Template for your configuration
├── Dockerfile                  # Builds the PHP container
├── src/                        # APBoard PHP source code
│   ├── public/                 # Web root (index.php, assets)
│   ├── config/                 # Configuration files
│   ├── app/                    # Application logic
│   └── ...
└── storage/                    # Uploads, logs (created automatically)

4. Configure .env

Copy the example configuration and adjust it:

cp .env.example .env
nano .env   # or: vim .env

All .env variables at a glance

5. Choose setup: Traefik or Standalone

APBoard offers two Docker setups:

Option A: With Traefik (recommended for new servers)

Traefik is a reverse proxy that automatically fetches and manages HTTPS certificates from Let’s Encrypt. You don’t need to configure anything else – Traefik does everything.

Traefik minimal setup

First create a shared Docker network for Traefik:

docker network create traefik-public

Create the Traefik configuration file for ACME/Let’s Encrypt:

touch acme.json
chmod 600 acme.json

Start APBoard with Traefik:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.traefik.yml up -d

Option B: Standalone (without Traefik)

The standalone setup is simpler: APBoard runs on port 80 without HTTPS. You can set up HTTPS afterwards with an existing reverse proxy (Nginx, Apache).

docker compose up -d

6. Start APBoard

After adjusting .env and choosing the setup:

# Build and start containers
docker compose up -d --build

# Follow logs (Ctrl+C to stop)
docker compose logs -f

# Check status
docker compose ps

On first start it takes 1–3 minutes until all containers are ready. This is normal.

7. What happens automatically on first start

• Database tables are created (migrations)
• An admin account is created (with data from .env)
• Default configuration is stored in the database
• An example board and category are created
• The APP_KEY is automatically generated if not yet set

8. First login

Click Log in in the top right and log in with the admin account you configured in .env (ADMIN_USERNAME / ADMIN_PASSWORD).

9. Useful Docker commands

10. Update APBoard

Detailed information on the update process can be found on the Update APBoard page. Quick version:

cd /opt/apboard
git pull
docker compose up -d --build