Crater on Synology

Crater

Crater is an open-source invoicing program.

Requirements

I use a Synology NAS. It is a DS220+(Amazon Affiliate Link) with 10 GB RAM(Amazon Affiliate Link).

However, Crater only requires a few resources. The instructions can also be applied analogously to other devices with Docker.

A reverse proxy manager in the network is helpful, regardless of whether it is located onanother device or the Synology NAS. Also, a domain accordingly.

Preparation

Docker should be installed on the NAS. I have written here more about setting up a Synology DiskStation.

User Docker

I first set up a Docker group for better rights management.

I create a new user who will ultimately have the rights to the Crater container.

I add this user to the Docker group.

Creating a single user for each service is too time-consuming, so I only have one Docker user.

Crater folder

Next, I need a folder in which I want to save all the files. In my case, the folder ends up in the docker shared folder. I remember the path of the folder; in my case, it is /volume1/docker/crater, and I grant all permissions to the docker user.

I also check the box that it should apply to subfolders.

Git Server

I install the Git server from the package center.

This makes it easier for me to clone the repository.

Crater Download

Next, I want to download Crater. To do this, I check the release page to see which version is the latest. Right now, it is version 6.0.6.

Next, I activate the SSH service and connect to the NAS via SSH.

ssh adminusername@{ip-address-from-nas}

I move to the Crater folder.

cd /volume1/docker/crater

Then, I clone the repository.

git clone -b 6.0.6 https://github.com/crater-invoice/crater --single-branch .

All the necessary files should now be in my folder.

I would like to know the UserID of the docker user.

id -u docker

I remember this number as the UserID.

Crater installation

Next, I copy the environment file.

cp .env.example .env

And then I edit it:

vim .env

About Vim: This is a text editor that is pre-installed by default. If you press i, you switch to edit mode. Press esc to exit edit mode again. If you are not in edit mode, you can exit the editor again with :q if you have not changed anything. If you have changed something, you can either save with :x or exit with :q! without saving.

Crater environment variables

• I change APP_DEBUG to false
• I change APP_LOG_LEVEL to info
• APP_URL I change to my https://crater.mydomain.de
• DB_CONNECTION I change to pgsql
• DB_PORT I change to 5432
• DB_PASSWORD I change to my password
• Mail arguments are optional
• For SANCTUM_STATEFUL_DOMAINS and SESSION_DOMAIN I enter my domain (without https://).

If you use localhost or the IP address, it looks something like this:

SANCTUM_STATEFUL_DOMAINS=localhost:8080
SESSION_DOMAIN=localhost

I leave the rest and exit the file with :x.

Database folder

I create two new folders.

mkdir docker-compose/db
mkdir docker-compose/db-backup

Add Postgresql

Then I edit the Dockerfile and change two sections.

vim Dockerfile

[...]

# Install system dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    git \
    curl \
    libpng-dev \
    libonig-dev \
    libxml2-dev \
    zip \
    unzip \
    libzip-dev \
    libmagickwand-dev \
    mariadb-client \
    libpq-dev

[...]

# Install PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql mbstring zip exif pcntl bcmath gd pdo_pgsql

[...]

Crater Docker Compose

The next step is to edit the docker-compose.yml.

vim docker-compose.yml

version: "3"

networks:
    internal:
        external: false

services:
    app:
        container_name: crater-app
        build:
            args:
                user: docker
                uid: 1234
            context: ./
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
        image: crater-app
        restart: unless-stopped
        working_dir: /var/www/
        volumes:
            - ./:/var/www
            - ./docker-compose/php/uploads.ini:/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/uploads.ini:rw,delegated
        networks:
            - internal

    db:
        container_name: crater-db
        image: postgres:14
        restart: always
        volumes:
            - ./docker-compose/db:/var/lib/postgresql/data:rw,delegated
        environment:
            POSTGRES_USER: crater
            POSTGRES_PASSWORD: qwertzSMO4Yaqx7tUHhX
            POSTGRES_DB: crater
        networks:
            - internal

    db-backup:
        container_name: crater-db-backup
        image: postgres:14
        volumes:
            - ./docker-compose/db-backup:/dump
            - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
        environment:
            PGHOST: db
            PGDATABASE: crater
            PGUSER: crater
            PGPASSWORD: qwertzSMO4Yaqx7tUHhX
            BACKUP_NUM_KEEP: 10
            BACKUP_FREQUENCY: 7d
        entrypoint: |
            bash -c 'bash -s <<EOF
            trap "break;exit" SIGHUP SIGINT SIGTERM
            sleep 2m
            while /bin/true; do
              pg_dump -Fc > /dump/dump_\`date +%d-%m-%Y"_"%H_%M_%S\`.psql
              (ls -t /dump/dump*.psql|head -n $$BACKUP_NUM_KEEP;ls /dump/dump*.psql)|sort|uniq -u|xargs rm -- {}
              sleep $$BACKUP_FREQUENCY
            done
            EOF'
        networks:
            - internal

    redis:
        container_name: crater-redis
        image: redis
        restart: unless-stopped
        networks:
            - internal

    nginx:
        image: nginx:1.17-alpine
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
            - 8011:80
        volumes:
            - ./:/var/www
            - ./docker-compose/nginx:/etc/nginx/conf.d/
        networks:
            - internal

    cron:
        build:
            context: ./
            dockerfile: ./docker-compose/cron.dockerfile
        volumes:
            - ./:/var/www
        networks:
            - internal

The UID and the password for the database can be customized. The port can also be changed from 8011 to something else. Suppose the Proxy Manager is on the Synology. You can delete it in that case, provided you add nginx to the Proxy Manager network.

Then run sudo docker-compose up -d and wait.

Install Composer

Finally, the start script must be executed.

sudo ./docker-compose/setup.sh

I then exit the terminal.

exit

I also switch SSH off again.

Crater WebGUI

Now, I either call the IP address from the NAS with port 8011 or set up a proxy host.

I adjust a few of the values.

The database is pgsql, port 5432 and host db. The rest should be self-explanatory.

Backup

If you want to back up your data in the cloud, this is easy to do on a Synology DiskStation. To do this, install the Cloud Sync program from the Package Center.

With this, I set up a new task that should synchronize the folders docker-compose/db-backup and docker/compose/php with Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive etc.

Please use the comment function for questions / suggestions for improvement / criticism etc.