Vikunja self-hosted (step by step)

I have tested a lot of different open source software with the aim of replacing Trello. I stopped using them after 1 period of experience with the demo.

Only Vikunja made me stay. Vikunja is so beautiful. The most beautiful I’ve seen. It is also mobile-friendly.

And most of all, it fits my company’s needs.

But…

I am a newbie. I was confused for a long time. I don’t even understand the steps below.

This is a compilation of tutorials out there, organized and tweaked for a successful installation in my case.

Hope the steps below will help newbies like me.

Step 1: Prepare the server

1.1. Register for a VPS account

Refer to good VPS providers such as: Linode, DigitalOcean, Vultr, Amazon…

1.2. Server initialization

Select Linux Ubuntu 20.04 operating system. RAM, CPU parameters depending on the budget.

1.3. Login to SSH / root

Create a password for the Root account:

sudo passwd root

Then type the self-generated password. When typing it will not show any characters. Just type the password and press Enter

Then re-enter the password again.

Grant login permission for Root:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Edit:

PermitRootLogin prohibit-password to PermitRootLogin yes

PasswordAuthentication no to PasswordAuthentication yes

• Remove the # in front if any.
• Press Ctrl + O > Enter to save
• Press Ctrl + X to exit

Update changes:

sudo service sshd restart

Step 2: Point the domain and setup SSL

I point the Domain Nameserver to Cloudflare

And set up DNS on Cloudflare to VPS

For example in my case, I use the subdomain task.sitebycat.com to install Vikunja.

p/s: The sitebycat.com website is located on a different server.

I also choose yellow cloud (Proxied) to take advantage of Cloudflare’s free SSL

Step 3: Install Portainer Docker Manager in Ubuntu 20.04

3.1. Install docker

Update the apt package index

sudo apt-get update

Install the dependencies

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

Press “y” if there is a question to confirm

Add docker’s official GPG key

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

Now run the following command to set up the stable Docker repository.

echo \
"deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
$(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Now update the repository index and setup docker-engine

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Press “y” if there is a question to confirm

Once the installation is completed, reboot the system

sudo reboot

Wait about 2 minutes and connect SSH again. Continue typing the following command to enable docker service

sudo systemctl start docker

sudo systemctl enable docker

3.2. Install Docker Compose

Once the docker is installed, run the following command to install docker-compose on Ubuntu.

sudo curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.21.2/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Set the permission using the command:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

3.3. Configure Portainer

Create a persistent docker volume to store portainer data

sudo docker volume create portainer_data

Now create the portainer container using the following command.

sudo docker run -d -p 9000:9000 -p 8000:8000 --name portainer --restart always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /srv/portainer:/data portainer/portainer-ce

Go to your VPS firewall settings and open port 9000. The opening of this TCP port depends on your VPS provider

Browse your server’s IP address with port 9000 in the browser and create a user. (ex: https://22.274.14.1155:9000)

Step 4. Create Docker-Compose.yml file

Navigate to the directory where the Docker container is located

cd /srv/portainer/docker_config

Then, create a new folder:

mkdir vikunja

Next, navigate into the newly created folder:

cd /srv/portainer/docker_config/vikunja

To create the docker-compose file for Vikunja, enter this command:

touch docker-compose.yml

Edit it:

nano docker-compose.yml

Paste the code below in.

version: '3'

services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:10
    command: --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: supersecret
      MYSQL_USER: vikunja
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_DATABASE: vikunja
    volumes:
      - ./db:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: unless-stopped
  api:
    image: vikunja/api
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_HOST: db
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_PASSWORD: secret
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_TYPE: mysql
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_USER: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_DATABASE: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_FRONTENDURL: https://task.sitebycat.com/
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_ENABLETASKATTACHMENTS: 1
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_ENABLEREGISTRATION: 1
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_ENABLEEMAILREMINDERS: 1
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_ENABLED: 1
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_FORCESSL: 1
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_HOST: smtp.gmail.com
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_PORT: 465
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_USERNAME: your-email@gmail.com
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_PASSWORD: app_password_for_gmail

    volumes:
      - ./files:/app/vikunja/files
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: unless-stopped
  frontend:
    image: vikunja/frontend
    restart: unless-stopped
  proxy:
    image: nginx
    ports:
      - 80:80
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:ro
    depends_on:
      - api
      - frontend
    restart: unless-stopped

Don’t forget to change the content in the lines:

• VIKUNJA_SERVICE_FRONTENDURL: https://task.sitebycat.com/
• VIKUNJA_MAILER_USERNAME: your-email@gmail.com
• VIKUNJA_MAILER_PASSWORD: app_password_for_gmail

Press Ctrl + O > Enter to save. Press Ctrl + X to exit

Step 5: Create Nginx.conf file

Navigate into vikunja folder

cd /srv/portainer/docker_config/vikunja

Create a new file called nginx.conf:

touch nginx.conf

Edit it:

nano nginx.conf

Paste this in:

server {
    listen 80;

    location / {
        proxy_pass https://frontend:80;
    }

    location ~* ^/(api|dav|\.well-known)/ {
        proxy_pass https://api:3456;
        client_max_body_size 20M;
    }
}

Press Ctrl + O > Enter to save. Press Ctrl + X to exit

Step 6: Confirm both files have been created

To confirm both files have successfully been created, you can simply run this when in your Vikunja directory

ls

Step 7: Launch and Run Vikunja Containers

Launch the containers.

sudo docker-compose up -d

Step 8: Climb on the back of Vikunja camel and ride it

All near as complete.

Now I can access https://task.sitebycat.com to use Vikunja

Create a new account and login

Explore a new land on the back of a Vikunja camel.

Wish you have a great experience

References:

• How to Install Portainer Docker Manager in Ubuntu 20.04 | vitux.com
• Install Vikunja in Docker for self-hosted Task Tracking | smarthomepursuits.com
• Official documentation from developer Vikunja