Self-hosting

In this article, you will be guided through how to host Lowcoder on your own server using Docker-Compose or Docker.

There are multiple ways of installation. We directly support:

• Single Docker Image to run with a single line of command.

• Multi-Docker Image deployment for scaling scenarios with Docker Compose

• Kubernetes-based deployment with HELM Charts.

• Heroku based deployment

• Google Cloud Platform

• Raspberry Pi

1) Start easy:

For easy setup and deployment, we provide an all-in-one image that bundles frontend, backend, and data persistence services altogether in one single container.

All-in-one image

Prerequisites

• Docker (version 20.10.7 or above)

• Docker-Compose (version 1.29.2 or above)

Recommended system spec: 1-core CPU and 2 GB RAM.

Windows users are recommended to use PowerShell for running the commands below.

In your working directory, run the following commands to make a directory named Lowcoder to store the data of Lowcoder:

mkdir lowcoder
cd lowcoder

Deploy

Docker-Compose (Recommended)

Follow the steps below:

1. Download the configuration file by clicking docker-compose.yml or running the curl command:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lowcoder-org/lowcoder/main/deploy/docker/docker-compose.yaml -o $PWD/docker-compose.yml

2. Start the Docker container by running this command:

   docker-compose up -d

   The docker image, about 400 MB, is downloaded during the initial start-up.

   After downloading, it usually takes less than 30 seconds to start the service.

3. Check the logs by running this command:

   docker logs -f lowcoder

   When you see frontend, backend, redis, and mongo entered the RUNNING state, the Lowcoder service has officially started:

4. Visit http://localhost:3000 and click Sign up. Lowcoder will automatically create a workspace for you, then you can start building your apps and invite members to your workspace.

Docker

Run the command below:

docker run -d --name lowcoder -p 3000:3000 -v "$PWD/stacks:/lowcoder-stacks" lowcoderorg/lowcoder-ce

Update to the latest version

Docker-Compose

Run the following commands to update to the latest Lowcoder image:

docker-compose pull
docker-compose rm -fsv lowcoder
docker-compose up -d

Docker

Run the following commands to update to the latest Lowcoder image:

docker pull lowcoderorg/lowcoder-ce
docker rm -fv Lowcoder
docker run -d --name Lowcoder -p 3000:3000 -v "$PWD/stacks:/Lowcoder-stacks" lowcoderorg/lowcoder-ce

2) Scale

For bigger expected loads that need scaling in a cluster environment, we provide separate images of backend and frontend services with a customizable Dockerfile.

Separate images: services in stateless containers

For bigger expected loads that need scaling in a cluster environment, we offer separate images for stateless containers of the backend and frontend service with a customizable Dockerfile. A well-functioning Lowcoder deployment consists of below services:

• api-service: Backend service.

• node-service: Backend service.

• frontend: Frontend service.

• MongoDB: Used for persisting data of users, apps, data sources, etc.

• Redis: Used for maintaining user sessions, rate-limiter, etc.

Prerequisites

• Docker-Compose (version 1.29.2 or above)

Deploy

1. In your working directory, run the following commands to make a directory named lowcoder to store the data of Lowcoder:

   mkdir lowcoder
   cd lowcoder

2. Download the configuration file by clicking docker-compose-multi.yml or running the curl command:

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lowcoder-org/lowcoder/main/deploy/docker/docker-compose-multi.yaml -o $PWD/docker-compose-multi.yml

3. Modify service configurations in the downloaded Dockerfile according to your needs:

   • mongodb: Start a new MongoDB instance on your host. You can delete this part and modify the environment variable MONGODB_URI of the api-service to use your own MongoDB.

   • redis: Start a new Redis instance on your host. You can delete this part and modify the environment variable REDIS_URI of the api-service to use your own Redis.

   • api-service: Required.

   • node-service: Required.

   • frontend: Required. Can be optional if you deploy the frontend on CDN.

4. Start Docker containers by running this command:

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

5. Visit http://localhost:3000 and click Sign up. Lowcoder will automatically create a workspace for you, then you can start building your apps and invite members to your workspace.

3) Update to the latest version

Run the following commands to update services to the latest in a Docker Compose installation:

Please also have a look at this migration / update guide

docker-compose -f docker-compose-multi.yml pull
docker-compose -f docker-compose-multi.yml up -d

4) Customize the deployment

This section shows how to customize deployment configurations by setting environment variables.

If you have already started Docker containers, you need to restart the containers for new configurations to take effect. For example, the way to restart your container running an all-in-one image is:

Docker-Compose (Recommend)

One single command:

docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d

It picks up configuration changes by stopping containers already in service and recreating new ones.

Docker

Run the following commands to stop, remove the container already in service, and start up a new one using the newly customized deployment command.

docker stop lowcoder
docker rm lowcoder
# run your new docker run command

Below are examples of configuring the all-in-one image by setting environment variables in docker-compose.yml. If you are self-hosting with separate images, modify the lowcoder-api-service part of the docker-compose-multi.yml file instead.

For more information about configurations and environment variables, see Configuration.

Use your own MongoDB and Redis

By default, Lowcoder uses the built-in MongoDB and Redis installed inside the container, and you can replace them with your own MongoDB and Redis clusters.

Docker-Compose

Add environment variables MONGODB_URI and REDIS_URI in docker-compose.yml downloaded in your working directory.

Docker

Add environment variables MONGODB_URI and REDIS_URI to the deployment command, as shown below:

docker run -d --name lowcoder -e MONGODB_URI=YOUR_MONGODB_URI REDIS_URI=YOUR_REDIS_URI -p 3000:3000 -v "$PWD/stacks:/lowcoder-stacks lowcoderorg/lowcoder-ce

Run as non-root user

By default, the supervisor will run under the user uid=9001. You can specify the uid by adding a docker environment variable LOCAL_USER_ID and setting its value to a different number, such as 10010.

Docker-Compose

Add an environment variable LOCAL_USER_ID in docker-compose.yml downloaded in your working directory.

Docker

Add an environment variable LOCAL_USER_ID to the deployment command, as shown below:

docker run -d --name lowcoder -e LOCAL_USER_ID=10010 -p 3000:3000 -v "$PWD/stacks:/lowcoder-stacks" lowcoderorg/lowcoder-ce

5) Secure your deployment

Install SSL certificate

With an SSL certificate, you can securely visit self-hosted Lowcoder with HTTPS protocol. Here are the steps to install your SSL certificate before starting a container:

Docker-Compose

1. Copy fullchain.pem and privkey.pem to the $PWD/lowcoder-stacks/ssl directory.

2. In $PWD/docker-compose.yml, change the value of ports to "3443:3443".

Docker

1. Copy fullchain.pem and privkey.pem to the $PWD/lowcoder-stacks/ssl directory.

2. Change the ports in the deployment command to 3443:3443, as shown below:

docker run -d --name lowcoder -p 3443:3443 -v "$PWD/stacks:/lowcoder-stacks" lowcoderorg/lowcoder-ce

In cases where you have certificates with names: server.crt and server.key, you need to rename them first as follows: server.crt => fullchain.pem server.key => privkey.pem

6) Configure the Environment

ENV Variables for Helm, Docker Compose, and Docker installations are to find in the most current version on our Github Repository.

ENV Variables for the all-in-one image

This image contains all services needed to run Lowcoder platform in one container.

API Key Secret

Also, you should set the API-KEY secret, whcih should be a string of at least 32 random characters On linux/mac, generate one eg. with: head /dev/urandom | head -c 30 | shasum -a 256

SMTP Server

To enable secure Password Reset flow for the users, you need to configure your own SMTP Server. You can do this with the following Variables (from Lowcoder v2.4.x on):

ENV Variables for the api-service image

API Key Secret

Also, you should set the API-KEY secret, whcih should be a string of at least 32 random characters On linux/mac, generate one eg. with: head /dev/urandom | head -c 30 | shasum -a 256

SMTP Server

To enable secure Password Reset flow for the users, you need to configure your own SMTP Server. You can do this with the following Variables (from Lowcoder v2.4.x on):

ENV Variables for the node-service image

ENV Variables for the web frontend image

Health checks

The API Service has an included health check endpoint from v2.4.1 on.

You can check the health of the running API Service and it's connected MongoDB & Redis by the following HTTP Call:

```
GET /api/status/health HTTP/1.1
```

In response, you will get a 200 Status code if the service is up and running and a JSON like this:

{
    "status": "UP",
    "components": {
        "mongo": {
            "status": "UP",
            "components": {
                "reactiveMongoSlaveTemplate": {
                    "status": "UP"
                },
                "reactiveMongoTemplate": {
                    "status": "UP"
                }
            }
        },
        "ping": {
            "status": "UP"
        },
        "redis": {
            "status": "UP"
        }
    }
}