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Self-host Supabase with Docker

Published by Nathaniel Stickman
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Supabase is an open source Firebase alternative featuring a Postgres database, user authentication, and REST API capabilities. It offers a robust framework for creating the backend to Angular, React, Next.js, and other frontend applications.

This tutorial, the first in our series on Supabase, introduces you to the basics of Supabase. It covers installing your own self-hosted Supabase instance with Docker, setting up an initial configuration, and securing your instance.

Before You Begin

  1. Familiarize yourself with our Getting Started with Linode guide, and complete the steps for setting your Linode’s hostname and timezone.

  2. This guide uses sudo wherever possible. Complete the sections of our How to Secure Your Server guide to create a standard user account, harden SSH access, and remove unnecessary network services.

  3. Update your system.

    • Debian and Ubuntu:

        sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

    • AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream, Fedora, and Rocky Linux:

        sudo dnf upgrade
Note
This guide is written for a non-root user. Commands that require elevated privileges are prefixed with sudo. If you’re not familiar with the sudo command, see the Users and Groups guide.

How to Install Supabase with Docker

Docker is the recommended solution for self-hosting Supabase. Moreover, Docker’s containerization makes setting up and managing a platform like Supabase more convenient.

These next few sections show you how to use Docker and Docker Compose to get your own Supabase instance up and running. This includes steps for installing Docker and downloading the necessary Supabase files.

Afterward, keep reading to see how you can start configuring your instance to fit your security needs.

Installing Docker and Docker Compose

The first step is to install Docker and Docker Compose. Docker runs your Supabase instance while Docker Compose organizes and coordinates the instance’s parts.

  1. Install Docker using the steps outlined in sections two and three of the following guides, depending on your Linux distribution.

  2. Install the Docker Compose plugin using your distribution’s package manager.

    • Debian and Ubuntu:

        sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin

    • AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream, Fedora, and Rocky Linux:

        sudo dnf install docker-compose-plugin

  3. Verify your Docker Compose installation:

     docker -v

    Your version may be different the one shown below, but that’s okay, you just want to get a version response:

    Docker version 20.10.17, build 100c701

Download the Supabase Repository

Supabase operates its Docker Compose setup out of its Git repository. Thus, you need to download your own copy of the repository to run your Supabase instance. Once you have it, the cloned repository houses your Supabase files and configuration.

  1. Clone the Supabase repository from GitHub. This creates a supabase subdirectory to your current directory:

     git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/supabase/supabase
    Note

    You may first need to install Git. Typically, you can do so through your system’s package manager.

    Debian and Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install git

    AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream, Fedora, and Rocky Linux:

    sudo dnf install git

  2. Change into the repository’s Docker subdirectory:

     cd supabase/docker

  3. Make a copy of the included configuration file, .env.example. For now, you can leave the contents of the file as is, but this file is where most of your instance’s configuration resides. Later, you can get some ideas for how to customize it for your security needs:

     cp .env.example .env

Run Supabase

You are now ready to start running your Supabase instance. You can start it up by running the appropriate Docker Compose command within the supabase/docker subdirectory:

sudo docker compose up -d

If you’re on a local machine, simply, navigate to localhost:3000 in your web browser to see the Supabase interface:

Supabase dashboard

However, if you are wanting to access Supabase remotely, you need to open the port in your system’s firewall. You can learn about how to do so through our guide on securing your server.

You also need to modify the URL values in your Supabase instance’s configuration to match your server’s remote address. Open Supabase’s .env file, and change the SITE_URL, API_EXTERNAL_URL, and PUBLIC_REST_URL variables, replacing localhost with your server’s remote address.

This example uses a remote IP address of 192.0.2.0 for the server and assumes Supabase’s default ports:

File: .env
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# [...]
## General
SITE_URL=http://192.0.2.0:3000
# [...]
API_EXTERNAL_URL=http://192.0.2.0:8000

# [...]

############
# Studio - Configuration for the Dashboard
############

STUDIO_PORT=3000
PUBLIC_REST_URL=http://192.0.2.0:8000/rest/v1/ # replace if you intend to use Studio outside of localhost

Similar changes need to be made again should you alter the server address or the instance’s ports. That is the case with the steps for implementing a reverse proxy server as shown further on in this tutorial.

Once you have made the updates, restart your instance:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

After making the above preparations, you can access the Supabase interface remotely by navigating to port 3000 on your server’s remote IP address. For instance, if your server’s remote IP address is 192.0.2.0, navigate in a web browser to http://192.0.2.0:3000.

Note
You may need to open the port in your system’s firewall. You can learn about how to do so through our guide on securing your server.

How to Configure Supabase

With your Supabase instance up and running, you can now adjust its configuration to fit your needs.

Much of the Supabase configuration is controlled via the .env file as shown in the previous section. Open that file with your preferred text editor, make the desired changes, and save the file. For the changes to take effect you then need to stop your Supabase services and start them back up, like so:

sudo docker compose down
sudo docker compose up -d

Securing Supabase

The next several sections of this tutorial show you specific configurations you can use to make your Supabase instance more secure. This includes applying API keys and secrets as well as using a reverse proxy with SSL.

Generating API Keys and Secrets

Setting keys and secrets for your Supabase instance helps keep it secure. Doing so is actually part of the basic setup steps in Supabase’s documentation. These should certainly be set before running the instance in any production context.

  1. Generate two passwords without special characters and consisting of at least 32 characters, referred to henceforth as examplePassword1 and examplePassword2. You can generate random passwords for this purpose using Bitwarden’s password generator.

  2. Navigate to Supabase’s API-key generator. This tool takes examplePassword2 and creates two specific JavaScript Web Tokens (JWTs) from it. Input examplePassword2into the JWT Secret field, and make sure ANON_KEY is selected as the Preconfigured Payload. Then, click the Generate JWT button to generate exampleJWT1 and save it along with your passwords.

    Using a random example password like from above, the result could look like:

    eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyAgCiAgICAicm9sZSI6ICJhbm9uIiwKICAgICJpc3MiOiAic3VwYWJhc2UiLAogICAgImlhdCI6IDE2NjE3NDkyMDAsCiAgICAiZXhwIjogMTgxOTUxNTYwMAp9.uUxRvehMuKsaDDvaQlm-phfgB58NjkiH7dg05kpnO8s

  3. Repeat the above step, input examplePassword2into the JWT Secret field, but this time select SERVICE_KEY as the Preconfigured Payload. Click the Generate JWT button to generate exampleJWT2 and save it along with your passwords.

    Using the same random example password, the result may resemble:

    eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyAgCiAgICAicm9sZSI6ICJzZXJ2aWNlX3JvbGUiLAogICAgImlzcyI6ICJzdXBhYmFzZSIsCiAgICAiaWF0IjogMTY2MTc0OTIwMCwKICAgICJleHAiOiAxODE5NTE1NjAwCn0.93ec0gljiKlnrPUGEBqGOukXoNymz6EBgtHK33zkYpI

  4. Open the .env file in your supabase/docker directory. Replace the values for POSTGRES_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET, ANON_KEY, and SERVICE_ROLE_KEY with your examplePassword1, examplePassword2, exampleJWT1, and exampleJWT2, respectively:

    File: .env
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    # [...]
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=examplePassword1
JWT_SECRET=examplePassword2
ANON_KEY=exampleJWT1
SERVICE_ROLE_KEY=exampleJWT2
# [...]

  5. Open the Kong configuration file, which is located at volumes/api/kong.yml in the supabase/docker directory. Find the consumers section of the file, and replace the key values under the anon and service_role usernames with your exampleJWT1 and exampleJWT2, respectively:

    File: volumes/api/kong.yml
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    consumers:
- username: anon
  keyauth_credentials:
  - key: exampleJWT1
- username: service_role
  keyauth_credentials:
  - key: exampleJWT2

  6. Restart your Supabase instance for these changes to take effect:

     sudo docker compose down
 sudo docker compose up -d

Using a Reverse Proxy

NGINX provides an excellent proxy. It routes traffic between the various Supabase endpoints, giving you control over what gets exposed and how.

Moreover, using NGINX gives a solution for applying SSL certification to your endpoints. Doing so, which is outlined in the next section, provides a vast improvement to your server’s security.

  1. Install NGINX. Follow steps two and three from our guide on How to Install and Use NGINX. Use the drop down at the top of the guide to select your Linux distribution and get the steps matched to it.

    Additionally, follow any directions in the above guide related to locating and preparing the NGINX default configuration. On Debian and Ubuntu, for instance, this just means finding the configuration file at /etc/nginx/sites-available/default. On AlmaLinux, by contrast, you need first to comment out a section in the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file and create a /etc/nginx/conf.d/example.com.conf file (replacing example.com with your domain).

  2. Open the NGINX configuration file that you located/created as part of the above step. For this and following examples, the location is presumed to be /etc/nginx/sites-available/default, but know that your location may be different. Remove the configuration file’s default contents, and replace them with the following contents. Be sure to replace the example IP address 192.0.2.0 with your server’s IP address and example.com with your domain.

    File: /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
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    map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
    default upgrade;
    '' close;
}

upstream supabase {
    server localhost:3000;
}

upstream kong {
    server localhost:8000;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost 192.0.2.0 example.com;

    # REST
    location ~ ^/rest/v1/(.*)$ {
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://kong;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }

    # AUTH
    location ~ ^/auth/v1/(.*)$ {
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://kong;
        proxy_redirect off;
    }

    # REALTIME
    location ~ ^/realtime/v1/(.*)$ {
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_pass http://kong;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
    }

    # STUDIO
    location / {
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_pass http://supabase;
        proxy_redirect off;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
    }
}

  3. Restart the NGINX service, which you can typically do with:

     sudo systemctl restart nginx

Afterward, you should be able to access the Supabase dashboard without having to specify port 3000.

Note

Should you encounter a “bad gateway” error, your system may be denying NGINX due to SELinux rules. You can verify this by checking the NGINX logs at /var/log/nginx/error.log and looking for “Permission denied”.

According to Stack Overflow, the issue can typically be resolved with the following command. This allows NGINX to make network connection on your system:

sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

Adding an SSL Certificate

The following steps show you how to apply an SSL certificate to Supabase using Certbot. Certbot allows you to easily request and download free certificates from Let’s Encrypt.

With an SSL certificate, your instance’s traffic gets encrypted and secured over HTTPS.

  1. Follow along with our guide on Enabling HTTPS Using Certbot with NGINX up to the step for executing the certbot command. Be sure to select the appropriate Linux distribution from the dropdown at the top of that guide.

  2. Certbot needs to use port 80 for Let’s Encrypt verification, so temporarily stop NGINX:

    sudo systemctl stop nginx

  3. This guide uses a variant of the certbot command to retrieve the certificate only and to use a standalone verification method. Doing so gives more control over how the certificate is applied.

    You can achieve this with the command:

    sudo certbot certonly --standalone

    Follow along with the prompts, entering an email address for renewal notifications, accepting the terms of service, and entering your server’s domain name.

    Take note of the locations of your certificate files. Certbot outputs these locations upon success, and you need these locations for the next step. Typically, the locations resemble the following, replacing example.com with your actual domain name:

    /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
/etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;

  4. Open your NGINX configuration file again (typically located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/default. Make the following changes to the beginning of the server section.

    Be sure to replace the ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key values here with the locations of the fullchain.pem and privkey.pem files created by Certbot. And replace the example.com in the server_name with your domain name:

    File: /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
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    # [...]
server {
    listen      80;
    server_name localhost;
    access_log  off;
    rewrite ^ https://$host$request_uri? permanent;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem;
# [...]

  5. Restart NGINX:

     sudo systemctl start nginx

Now, you can access your Supabase instance in a web browser via the HTTPS version of your domain. And you can be assured that your Supabase instance is secured using SSL certification.

Note
You can optionally also add your server’s remote IP address to the NGINX configuration above and use that as well. However, you may receive a certificate warning in your browser. This is because the certificate was issued for your server’s domain name, not its IP address.

Conclusion

Now you have your Supabase instance running and configured for your security needs. Take advantage of your instance by reading the Supabase documentation. There, you can find guides on getting started with the wide range of features Supabase has to offer.

And continue learning with us in our upcoming series of guides on Supabase. These cover everything from setting up your instance, to linking your instance to Linode Object Storage, to building JavaScript applications with Supabase.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

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