Manager installation

The Fleetdock Manager is the control plane — the dashboard and API. This page covers installing it on a server, the environment variables it reads, and how to run it safely in production. To run it only on your own computer instead, see Install on your computer.

System requirements

You also need Docker Engine 24+ and Docker Compose v2.23+, with ports 80 and 443 free. TLS is handled for you by the bundled Caddy, which obtains a Let's Encrypt certificate automatically — a domain pointed at the host is optional but recommended.

Database requirements

The Manager stores metadata in PostgreSQL. The Compose stack bundles a local Postgres container for development. In production, point FLEETDOCK_DATABASE_URL at managed PostgreSQL (Neon, RDS, Cloud SQL, or any PostgreSQL 14+) with sslmode=require.

Install

curl -sSL https://fleetdock.dev/install.sh | sudo sh

Run in a terminal, it asks where you are installing (a server, or only this computer), the domain — press Enter for a free <ip>.sslip.io name with HTTPS — and the admin email. It shows a summary and waits for you to confirm, then installs Docker if missing, writes /opt/fleetdock/{docker-compose.yml,.env} with generated secrets, starts the stack, and prints the dashboard URL, the bootstrap password and the next steps. Re-running it upgrades in place without touching .env.

For automation (CI, cloud-init), pass the answers as flags and add --yes; without a terminal it never asks anything:

curl -sSL https://fleetdock.dev/install.sh | sudo sh -s -- \
  --domain db.example.com --admin-email [email protected] --yes

Manage it afterwards with the fleetdock command it installs — status, credentials, logs, update, domain, gateway, doctor, backup-db, backup-config, reset-admin-password, delete. fleetdock help lists them all.

From source

git clone https://github.com/Fleetdock/fleetdock.git
cd fleetdock
cp .env.example .env
./scripts/generate-secrets.sh >> .env

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

Environment variables

Variables use the FLEETDOCK_* prefix. The most important ones:

See .env.example in the repository for the full list, including optional SMTP variables for email notifications and gateway configuration for external database access.

HTTPS and reverse proxy

The stack ships Caddy on 80/443 with automatic certificates, so there is nothing to set up. Nothing else is published — the control plane's 8080 stays on the internal network.

If you replace it with your own proxy, there is no path routing to reproduce: the control plane serves the API and the dashboard on one port, so a single upstream is the whole config.

db.example.com {
    encode zstd gzip
    reverse_proxy fleetdock:8080
}

Persistent storage

The bundled Postgres writes to a Docker named volume (postgres_data). In production, your managed PostgreSQL provider is the source of truth — the metadata database holds users, server enrollment, encrypted credentials, backup destinations, and job history. Losing it without a backup means re-enrolling every server and re-entering every external credential.

Verify

curl -fsS https://db.example.com/healthz    # {"status":"ok"}
curl -fsS https://db.example.com/readyz     # {"status":"ready"} once the DB is up

Then sign in and change the bootstrap admin password on the Profile page. Interactive API docs are also available on this site under API reference (with an interactive playground). The Manager itself serves Redoc at /docs over the embedded OpenAPI spec.

Update

fleetdock update              # latest
fleetdock update --tag v0.2.0 # a specific release

fleetdock update backs up the metadata database first and stops if that fails.

Or, from a source checkout:

git fetch origin && git checkout v0.2.0
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.build.yml up --build -d

Migrations run automatically on API start. Confirm GET /readyz returns ready, then spot -check login and a connection test. Watch the Operations page for stuck jobs after an upgrade.

Uninstall

fleetdock uninstall   # stop and remove containers; data and configuration stay
fleetdock delete      # remove everything: containers, volumes, images, configuration