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Installation

Overview​

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:

Next Steps​

Troubleshooting​

Check Health​

curl http://localhost:3000/api/health

Database Connection Issues​

# Check PostgreSQL is running
docker ps | grep postgres

# Check backend can connect
docker logs zentik-notifier_backend_1 | grep -i "database"

Port Conflicts​

Edit the docker-compose.yml file to change ports:

ports:
  - "3001:3000"  # Change host port to 3001

Migration Issues​

Migrations run automatically on startup. To check:

docker logs zentik-notifier_backend_1 | grep -i migration

Support​