Installation

Zentik is fully self-hostable and can be installed using Docker Compose. The backend is built with NestJS and uses PostgreSQL 14+ as the database.

Prerequisites

Before installing Zentik, ensure you have:

Docker and Docker Compose installed
PostgreSQL 14+ (tested with PostgreSQL 16)

Quick Start with Docker Compose

The easiest way to run Zentik is using Docker compose

Docker Compose File

The complete docker-compose.yml is available in the repository:

View docker-compose.yml on GitHub

version: '3.9'
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_NAME:-zentik}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DB_USERNAME:-zentik_user}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD:-zentik_password}
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"

  backend:
    image: ghcr.io/zentik-notifier/zentik-notifier:latest
    environment:
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_PORT: 5432
      DB_NAME: ${DB_NAME:-zentik}
      DB_USERNAME: ${DB_USERNAME:-zentik_user}
      DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD:-zentik_password}
      DB_SSL: ${DB_SSL:-false}
      DB_SYNCHRONIZE: ${DB_SYNCHRONIZE:-false}
      DB_DROP_SCHEMA: ${DB_DROP_SCHEMA:-false}
      ADMIN_USERS: ${ADMIN_USERS:-admin}
      ADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD: ${ADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD:-admin}
      PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL: ${PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL:-}
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
      - ./attachments:/attachments
      - ./backups:/backups
    depends_on:
      - db

volumes:
  db_data:

Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be configured in the backend .env file. These are read at startup and cannot be changed at runtime.

Database

Variable	Default	Description
`DB_SYNCHRONIZE`	`false`	Enable automatic schema synchronization (development only)
`DB_DROP_SCHEMA`	`false`	Drop existing schema on startup
`DB_USERNAME`	`zentik_user`	Database username
`DB_PASSWORD`	`zentik_password`	Database password
`DB_NAME`	`zentik`	Database name
`DB_HOST`	`localhost`	Database host
`DB_PORT`	`5432`	Database port
`DB_SSL`	`false`	Enable SSL connection

Server Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
`PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL`	—	Public backend URL

Administration

Variable	Default	Description
`ADMIN_USERS`	`admin`	Comma-separated list of administrator usernames
`ADMIN_DEFAULT_PASSWORD`	`admin`	Default password for administrator users