# How to access Vikunja docker-compose container from my home network **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [7 November 2021 12:50 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453 "2021-11-07T12:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 12:50 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/1 "2021-11-07T12:50:13Z")
Hello, I am wondering if someone can tell me how to access Vikunja in the web browser from a PC on my home network? At the moment I can only access it from the local host where the container has been deployed. I followed these instructions exactly : [Docker Walkthrough | Vikunja](https://vikunja.io/docs/docker-walkthrough/) and it works perfectly on the local host. I am not extremely experienced with Linux, and totally new to docker-compose, so if someone could explain in simple terms how to set up networking to be able to access Vikunja from other PCs on my network, that would be hugely appreciated. Thank you ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 13:29 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/2 "2021-11-07T13:29:29Z")
Did you try to point the other device in your home network to the ip of the host you have VIkunja running on? If you’re running the config from the example you linked that should work. On linux, you can get the ip of your host pc by running `ip a` in a terminal, then look for an ip address starting with `192.168.xx`. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 13:37 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/3 "2021-11-07T13:37:09Z")
Thanks for the reply, I’m not sure if this helps but, from my home network devices I can ping/ssh the device on which Vikunja is running. But I cannot ping the docker container. I can only ping the docker container locally from the device on which Vikunja is running. Does this mean I need a route on my home network devices to point to the Vikunja container? (I use mac for my home network devices, and Vikunja is running on an Ubuntu device) ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 14:03 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/4 "2021-11-07T14:03:56Z")
Also, the nginix config the line: proxy\_pass [http://frontend:80](http://frontend:80); should frontend be edited to be the IP address of frontend, or should be left as is? For what it is worth, I did try to edit it, but it made no difference. ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 14:18 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/5 "2021-11-07T14:18:41Z")
> [@heeep](#): > > But I cannot ping the docker container. I can only ping the docker container locally from the device on which Vikunja is running. That’s expected. Did you expose the port of the proxy container? Can you share your Vikunja docker-compose file? > [@heeep](#): > > Does this mean I need a route on my home network devices to point to the Vikunja container? It should be fine to use the public IP of the ubuntu box, but that will only work if you exposed the ports. ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 14:21 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/6 "2021-11-07T14:21:33Z")
> [@heeep](#): > > should frontend be edited to be the IP address of frontend, or should be left as is? For what it is worth, I did try to edit it, but it made no difference. That should be `frontend`. Since both the proxy container and the frontend container are in the same docker network, they can talk to each other via their hostname. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 14:33 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/7 "2021-11-07T14:33:19Z")
Ahhh, my fundamental understanding of docker has been flawed. Thank you in pointing me in the right direction. All I needed to do was to use the ubuntu address and NOT the container address! Everything works beautifully on my home network now. Regarding the docker-compose file, I am using exact copy taken from https://vikunja.io/docs/docker-walkthrough/ To access Vikunja from the internet I now set up port forwarding on my router on port 80 to point to my Ubuntu server, and I can access it form the web perfectly well. I am however worried about security implications of this. Would you advise against this kind of set up? ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 15:46 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/8 "2021-11-07T15:46:22Z")
Container addresses are only valid on the host network stack, as you’ve already figured out. > [@heeep](#): > > I am however worried about security implications of this. Would you advise against this kind of set up? It should be fine to use it like this. You might want to make it reachable from the outside (in your router) under a different port than 80, something really high to avoid automated scanners to detect your Vikunja installation. While Vikunja itself isn’t vulnerable to security issues (as far as I can tell right now) this might increase the load on your server for no good reason. Vikunja-wise, you probably want to disable the registration if you don’t intend to use it with other people. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 17:53 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/9 "2021-11-07T17:53:04Z")
Ok that makes sense. Thanks! Can you please explain how to disable user registration? I read [Config options | Vikunja](https://vikunja.io/docs/config-options/) and following the instruction I used the provided default config.yml. I created a directory /etc/vikunja and this is where I placed the config.yml . inside the config I changed the variable enableregistration: so that it states false at this point i restarted the container with the following commands so that the changes in the config take effect (is this required?) sudo docker-compose down sudo docker-compose up but still when I go to Vikunja login screen there is a Registration box which successfully allows me to register. What am I doing wrong? I read your response to a similar question here, but it isn’t very clear to me [Disable Registration and User management](https://community.vikunja.io/t/disable-registration-and-user-management/306) is what you are saying is that I have to mount the /etc/vikunja/ **config.yml**? How can I do that? I also tried adding VIKUNJA\_SERVICE\_ENABLEREGISTRATION: false to the docker-compose.yml but then when i tried running sudo docker-compose down I received the error: ERROR: The Compose file ‘./docker-compose.yml’ is invalid because: services.api.environment.VIKUNJA\_SERVICE\_ENABLEREGISTRATION contains false, which is an invalid type, it should be a string, number, or a null Thank you for all your help, and also for wiring such an incredible piece of software! EDIT: could you also advise on creating a self signed certificate so that the connection is https instead of http ? I looked through all the docs but can’t see anything pointing to this. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [7 November 2021 20:21 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/10 "2021-11-07T20:21:48Z")
You should use environment variables, just as you tried in your second attempt. Try putting in a `'0'` instead of `false` and it should work. Vikunja running in the container does not have access to your host file system so if you add a config.yml file on your host, the container has no way of knowing this until you tell it to. That’s what mounts are for. [The docker docs on volumes](https://docs.docker.com/storage/volumes/) (that’s the docker term for mounts) provides a bit more information if you’re curious about it. For configuration, environment variables is generally preferred over config files mounted in the container because that keeps everything in one place. > [@heeep](#): > > EDIT: could you also advise on creating a self signed certificate so that the connection is https instead of http ? I looked through all the docs but can’t see anything pointing to this. Thanks! For that you’ll need a proxy that sits between Vikunja’s proxy container and the outside world. There’s a few options available, you can do it with a self signed certificate and Vikunja’s proxy container you already have, or use something like traefik to handle all of this. There’s examples for traefik [in the docs](https://vikunja.io/docs/full-docker-example/#example-with-traefik-2), for self signed just search for something like “nginx with self signed TLS”. If you go down that road, I’d advise you to read up a bit on how reverse proxies work. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [8 November 2021 18:50 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/11 "2021-11-08T18:50:33Z")
Thanks for the comments above. I got the registration disabled now. One final outstanding issue is that of https. I really need to get this to work before allowing Vakunja it to be accessible from the web. The traefik instructions are sadly over my head by some distance… but i am trying to set up self signed certificate inside the vikunja proxy (nginx) docker container. I created the certificate using this line openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -subj “/C=CA/ST=QC/O=Company, Inc./CN=[mydomain.com](http://mydomain.com)” -addext “subjectAltName=DNS:mydomain.com” -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/nginx-selfsigned.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/nginx-selfsigned.crt; I followed parts of this guide to help me. This guide is about setting up container from scratch, but obviously I am working in the existing container. [https://codingwithmanny.medium.com/configure-self-signed-ssl-for-nginx-docker-from-a-scratch-7c2bcd5478c6](https://codingwithmanny.medium.com/configure-self-signed-ssl-for-nginx-docker-from-a-scratch-7c2bcd5478c6) I tried the different lines in the nginx config file from the guide, but non of them get me to be able to access Vikunja from https:// So I really have no idea what to put in the nginx.conf file. As it stands, it is very basic: server { listen 80; ``` location / { proxy_pass http://frontend:80; } location ~* ^/(api|dav|\.well-known)/ { proxy_pass http://api:3456; client_max_body_size 20M; } ``` } ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [8 November 2021 19:37 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/12 "2021-11-08T19:37:42Z")
I’ve been reading about mounting different files and so now I tried to create certificate on my host system and mount them. This is successful, but when I do docker-compose up I get the following error proxy\_1 I nginx: [emerg] cannot load certiftcate “/etc/ngtnx/my-stte.con.crt”: PEM\_read\_bto\_X509\_AUX() fatled (SSL: error: 0909006C:PEN routtnes:get\_name:no start ltne:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE) I do understand this is perhaps a bit much to help on a forum board, but if you could point me in the right direction, that would be awesome, i feel like I’m so damn close! (I get the above by trying to follow parts of this guide: [Using Self-Signed SSL Certificates with Docker and Nginx](https://www.johnmackenzie.co.uk/posts/using-self-signed-ssl-certificates-with-docker-and-nginx/) ) ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [9 November 2021 18:03 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/13 "2021-11-09T18:03:13Z")
The [Vikunja Frontend docker container](https://kolaente.dev/vikunja/frontend/src/branch/main/Dockerfile#L27) actually already contains a self-signed certificate. You should be able to use parts of that as a blueprint. Something like this should work for the proxy container (untested): Dockerfile: ```auto FROM nginx RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y apt-utils openssl && \ mkdir -p /etc/nginx/ssl && \ openssl genrsa -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.key 2048 && \ openssl req -new -key /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.key -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.csr -subj "/C=DE/L=Berlin/O=Vikunja/CN=Vikunja Snakeoil" && \ openssl x509 -req -days 3650 -in /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.csr -signkey /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.key -out /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.crt COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf ``` nginx.conf (you will need to put that in the same directory as the Dockerfile): ```auto user nginx; worker_processes 1; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn; pid /var/run/nginx.pid; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; sendfile on; #tcp_nopush on; keepalive_timeout 65; server { listen 80; listen 443 default_server ssl http2; server_name _; expires $expires; ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.crt; ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.key; location / { proxy_pass http://frontend:80; } location ~* ^/(api|dav|\.well-known)/ { proxy_pass http://api:3456; client_max_body_size 20M; } } } ``` Save both files next to your `docker-compose.yml` file as `Dockerfile` and `nginx.conf` and change the `proxy` service in to this: ```auto proxy: build: . ports: - 443:443 depends_on: - api - frontend restart: unless-stopped ``` In theory, you could also just mount the `nginx.conf` from above to `/etc/nginx/nginx.conf` and mount the ssl certificates generated in the previous step. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [9 November 2021 23:39 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/14 "2021-11-09T23:39:15Z")
Thanks for all that, it looked very promising the first time I run docker-compose up. The Dockerfile has been executed. Unfortunately https still did not work, I tried again and now I keep getting this error and the proxy container keeps restarting proxy\_1 | 2021/11/09 23:31:26 [emerg] 1#1: unknown “expires” variable proxy\_1 | nginx: [emerg] unknown “expires” variable Each time I run docker-compose up I do not see the certificates being generated (only saw it the first time), does this mean that the first time it run, they got saved (committed) inside the docker container? ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [10 November 2021 18:24 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/15 "2021-11-10T18:24:22Z")
I guess I should’ve tested the config before posting 🙂 Try this `nginx.conf`: ```auto user nginx; worker_processes 1; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn; pid /var/run/nginx.pid; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; sendfile on; keepalive_timeout 65; server { listen 80; listen 443 default_server ssl http2; server_name _; ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.crt; ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/dummy.key; location / { proxy_pass http://frontend:80; } location ~* ^/(api|dav|\.well-known)/ { proxy_pass http://api:3456; client_max_body_size 20M; } } } ``` You’ll need to run `docker-compose build` and then `docker-compose up` again to make sure the changes are picked up. > [@heeep](#): > > Each time I run docker-compose up I do not see the certificates being generated (only saw it the first time), does this mean that the first time it run, they got saved (committed) inside the docker container? The steps to generate it are set in the `Dockerfile`. That means they will only be executed when the image is built. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [10 November 2021 19:23 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/16 "2021-11-10T19:23:57Z")
Thank you for the correction, but it looks like something is still not right, now I keep getting the following proxy\_1 | 2021/11/10 19:22:37 [emerg] 1#1: unknown directive “ser” in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1 proxy\_1 | nginx: [emerg] unknown directive “ser” in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:1 ops… looks like when I revert the nginx.conf and docker-compose.xml to the original version, I still get the error ☹ next time I will be taking a Timeshift snapshot before anything ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [10 November 2021 19:49 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/17 "2021-11-10T19:49:06Z")
> [@heeep](#): > > Thank you for the correction, but it looks like something is still not right, now I keep getting the following What does your `nginx.conf` look like? The error message sounds like there’s a `u` missing in the very first line - that should be `user`. > [@heeep](#): > > ops… looks like when I revert the nginx.conf and docker-compose.xml to the original version, I still get the error ☹ next time I will be taking a Timeshift snapshot before anything Did you rebuild the container? ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [10 November 2021 21:04 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/18 "2021-11-10T21:04:38Z")
I must of skipped the letter in the user field as you said! All works fine over https now! Thank you for all your help! Two hopefully final questions 1. What is the update procedure for when there is a new version of Vikunja 2. I am doing daily Timeshift snapshots at the moment, but if I wanted to back up the db manually, how can I do that? Thank you heeep ---
**Author:** ![kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/user_avatar/community.vikunja.io/kolaente/32/5_2.png) [@kolaente](https://community.vikunja.io/u/kolaente)\ **Post date:** [10 November 2021 21:23 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/19 "2021-11-10T21:23:55Z")
> [@heeep](#): > > I must of skipped the letter in the user field as you said! All works fine over https now! > > Thank you for all your help! Glad to hear it works now! > [@heeep](#): > > What is the update procedure for when there is a new version of Vikunja Pretty much pulling the containers and restarting them, if you’re using the `:latest` tag on them (that will always contain the latest stable version. The full commands are ```auto docker-compose pull docker-compose down docker-compose up -d ``` > [@heeep](#): > > I am doing daily Timeshift snapshots at the moment, but if I wanted to back up the db manually, how can I do that? There’s a bit of instructions [in the docs](https://vikunja.io/docs/what-to-backup/#mysql) (actually, I just noticed the docs are slightly outdated on that page, will work fine for the db though). In your case on docker that would be something like this (assuming you did not change the default username and db name from the tutorial): ```auto docker-compose exec db mysqldump -u vikunja -p vikunja > backup.sql ``` It will ask you for the db password from the you set in the compose file as `MYSQL_PASSWORD`. ---
**Author:** ![heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/d6d6ee/32.png) [@heeep](https://community.vikunja.io/u/heeep)\ **Post date:** [10 November 2021 22:04 UTC](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453/20 "2021-11-10T22:04:04Z")
nice one, the mysql dump works great. I wanted to test out docker-compose pull docker-compose down docker-compose up -d and it appears to of broken something. I have done the commands above, but now I get Network Error on the Vikunja login page when trying to log in? 🤨 I also tried docker-compose pull docker-compose down docker-compose build docker-compose up -d but that did not help either edit: I figured it would be good opportunity to test the Timeshift restore. It restored successfully, and I can see that the files were reverted to previous versions, but sadly the issue persists edit2: It is all working, I am not sure what was wrong, but I have re-run the commands a couple of times ( down / build / up) and everything is working again. I also cleared cache in Firefox in case that was causing an issue, I thought to do this as initially it worked in Safari while I was still receiving Network Error in Firefox. [Next page](https://community.vikunja.io/t/how-to-access-vikunja-docker-compose-container-from-my-home-network/453.md?page=2)