Monica can run with Docker images.

You can use Docker and docker-compose to pull or build and run a Monica image, complete with a self-contained MySQL database. This has the nice properties that you don't have to install lots of software directly onto your system, and you can be up and running quickly with a known working environment.

For any help about how to install Docker, see their documentation

There are two versions of the image you may choose from.

The apache tag contains a full Monica installation with an apache webserver. This points to the default latest tag too.

The fpm tag contains a fastCGI-Process that serves the web pages. This image should be combined with a webserver used as a proxy, like apache or nginx.

This image contains a webserver that exposes port 80. Run the container with:

docker run -d -p 8080:80 monica

This image serves a fastCGI server that exposes port 9000. You may need an additional web server that can proxy requests to the fpm port 9000 of the container. Run this container with:

docker run -d -p 9000:9000 monica:fpm

To have a persistent storage for your datas, you may want to create volumes for your db, and for monica you will have to save the /var/www/html/storage directory.

Run a container with this named volume:

docker run -d 
-v monica_data:/var/www/html/storage
monica

Monica needs a database connection, and currently supports mysql/mariadb only. Run these to have a running environment:

mysqlCid="$(docker run -d \
 -e MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=true \
 -e MYSQL_DATABASE=monica \
 -e MYSQL_USER=homestead \
 -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=secret \
 "mariadb:11")"
docker run -d \
 --link "$mysqlCid":mysql \
 -e DB_HOST=mysql \
 -p 8080:80 \
 monica

If you want to use a mysql installation that already exists, you can pass the database environment variables directly into the docker run command, with DB_HOST indicating the IP address of the MySQL database. Ensure all permissions are granted to the user specified in the enviornment variable DB_USERNAME.

docker run -d \
 -e DB_PORT=3306 \
 -e DB_DATABASE=monica \
 -e DB_USERNAME=homestead \
 -e DB_PASSWORD=secret \
 -e DB_HOST=0.0.0.0 \
 -p 8080:80 \
 monica

Wait until all migrations are done and then access Monica at http://localhost:8080/ from your host system. If this looks ok, add your first user account.

Like every Laravel application, the php artisan command is very usefull for Monica. To run a command inside the container, run

docker exec CONTAINER_ID php artisan COMMAND

or for docker-compose

docker-compose exec monica php artisan COMMAND

where monica is the name of the service in your docker-compose.yml file.

See some examples of docker-compose possibilities in the example section.

This version will use the apache image and add a mysql container. The volumes are set to keep your data persistent. This setup provides no ssl encryption and is intended to run behind a proxy.

Make sure to pass in values for APP_KEY variable before you run this setup.

Set APP_KEY to a random 32-character string. You can for instance copy and paste the output of echo -n 'base64:'; openssl rand -base64 32.

1. Create a docker-compose.yml file

version: "3.4"

services:
  app:
    image: monica
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    environment:
      - APP_KEY=
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_USERNAME=usermonica
      - DB_PASSWORD=secret
    volumes:
      - data:/var/www/html/storage
    restart: always

  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    environment:
      - MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=true
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=monica
      - MYSQL_USER=usermonica
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=secret
    volumes:
      - mysql:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: always

volumes:
  data:
    name: data
  mysql:
    name: mysql

2. Set a value for APP_KEY variable before you run this setup. You can for instance copy and paste the output of

   echo -n 'base64:'; openssl rand -base64 32

3. Run

   docker-compose up -d

   Wait until all migrations are done and then access Monica at http://localhost:8080/ from your host system. If this looks ok, add your first user account.

4. Run this command once:

   docker-compose exec app php artisan setup:production

When using FPM image, you will need another container with a webserver to proxy http requests. In this example we use nginx with a basic container to do this.

1. Download nginx.conf and Dockerfile file for nginx image. An example can be found on the example section

   mkdir web
   curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/monicahq/docker/master/.examples/nginx-proxy/web/nginx.conf -o web/nginx.conf
   curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/monicahq/docker/master/.examples/nginx-proxy/web/Dockerfile -o web/Dockerfile

The web container image should be pre-build before each deploy with: docker-compose build

2. Create a docker-compose.yml file

version: "3.4"

services:
  app:
    image: monica:fpm
    depends_on:
      - db
    environment:
      - APP_KEY=
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_USERNAME=usermonica
      - DB_PASSWORD=secret
    volumes:
      - data:/var/www/html/storage
    restart: always
  
  web:
    build: ./web
    ports:
      - 8080:80
    depends_on:
      - app
    volumes:
      - data:/var/www/html/storage:ro
    restart: always

  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    environment:
      - MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=true
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=monica
      - MYSQL_USER=usermonica
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=secret
    volumes:
      - mysql:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: always

volumes:
  data:
    name: data
  mysql:
    name: mysql

3. Set a value for APP_KEY variable before you run this setup. You can for instance copy and paste the output of

   echo -n 'base64:'; openssl rand -base64 32

4. Run

   docker-compose up -d

   Wait until all migrations are done and then access Monica at http://localhost:8080/ from your host system. If this looks ok, add your first user account.

5. Run this command once:

   docker-compose exec app php artisan setup:production

To expose your Monica instance for the internet, it's important to set APP_ENV=production in your .env file or environment variables. In this case https scheme will be mandatory.

One way to expose your Monica instance is to use a proxy webserver from your host with SSL capabilities. This is possible with a reverse proxy.

See some examples of docker-compose possibilities in the example section to show how to a proxy webserver with ssl capabilities.