From now on you can become the author of your own book! All thanks to Dan Brown, the man behind BookStack, a free and open source Wiki designed for creating beautiful documentation. Featuring a simple, but powerful WYSIWYG editor, it allows for teams to create detailed and useful documentation with ease. Bookstack is a great alternative to DokuWiki that can be used for storing and organizing information and documentation. In this step by step guide I will show you how to install BookStack on your Synology NAS using Docker & Portainer.

💡Note: This guide works perfectly with the latest BookStack version Bookstack v23.02.2

• STEP 1

Please Support My work by Making a Donation.

• STEP 2

Install Portainer using my step by step guide. If you already have Portainer installed on your Synology NAS, skip this STEP. Attention: Make sure you have installed the latest Portainer version.

• STEP 3

Make sure you have a synology.me Wildcard Certificate. Follow my guide to get a Wildcard Certificate. If you already have a synology.me Wildcard certificate, skip this STEP.

• STEP 4

Go to Control Panel / Login Portal / Advanced Tab / click Reverse Proxy. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 5

Now click the “Create” button. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 6

After you click the Create button, the window below will open. Follow the instructions in the image below.

On the General area, set the Reverse Proxy Name description: type in BookStack. After that, add the following instructions:

Source:
Protocol: HTTPS
Hostname: bookstack.yourname.synology.me
Port: 443

Check Enable HSTS

Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: localhost
Port: 6875

• STEP 7

On the Reverse Proxy Rules click the Custom Header tab. Click Create and then, from the drop-down menu, click WebSocket. After you click on WebSocket, two Header Names and two Values will be automatically added. Click Save. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 8

Go to Control Panel / Network / Connectivity tab/ Check Enable HTTP/2 then click Apply. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 9

Go to Control Panel / Security / Advanced tab/ Check Enable HTTP Compression then click Apply. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 10

Go to File Station and open the docker folder. Inside the docker folder, create one new folder and name it bookstack. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

• STEP 11

Now create three new folders inside the bookstack folder that you created at STEP 10 and name them db, storage-uploads, uploads. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.

• STEP 12

Right click on the uploads folder that you have previously created at STEP 11 then click Properties. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 13

Go to the Permission tab then click Advanced options. From the drop-down menu choose “Make inherited permissions explicit“. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 14

Select Everyone then click the Edit tab. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 15

Check all Read and Write Permissions. Click Done. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 16

After you click Done on STEP 15, check “Apply to this folder, sub-folders and files“. Click Save. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 17

Right click on the storage-uploads folder that you have previously created at STEP 11 then click Properties. Add the Everyone permission to that folder too, just like you did with the uploads folder.

• STEP 18

Follow my step by step guide on how to activate SMTP for your Gmail account. This step is mandatory. Note: If you don’t want to use the easiest way for SMTP with Google and you already have SMTP details from your own Mail Server, you can just skip this STEP and use your personalized email SMTP details instead.

• STEP 19

Log into Portainer using your username and password. On the left sidebar in Portainer, click on Stacks then + Add stack. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 20

In the Name field type in bookstack. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Note: Copy Paste the code below in the Portainer Stacks Web editor.

version: "3.9"
services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:jammy
    container_name: BookStack-DB
    hostname: bookstack-db
    mem_limit: 1g
    cpu_shares: 768
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    user: 1026:100
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "mysqladmin ping -u root -prootpass | grep 'mysqld is alive' || exit 1"]
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/bookstack/db:/var/lib/mysql:rw
    environment:
      TZ: Europe/Bucharest
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpass
      MYSQL_USER: bookstackuser
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: bookstackpass
      MYSQL_DATABASE: bookstack
    restart: on-failure:5

  bookstack:
    image: solidnerd/bookstack
    container_name: BookStack
    hostname: bookstack
    mem_limit: 1g
    cpu_shares: 768
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true

    healthcheck:
      test: wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:8080/ || exit 1
    ports:
      - 6875:8080
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/bookstack/uploads:/var/www/bookstack/public/uploads:rw
      - /volume1/docker/bookstack/storage-uploads:/var/www/bookstack/storage/uploads:rw
    environment:
      DB_HOST: bookstack-db:3306
      DB_DATABASE: bookstack
      DB_USERNAME: bookstackuser
      DB_PASSWORD: bookstackpass
      APP_URL: https://bookstack.yourname.synology.me
      MAIL_DRIVER: smtp
      MAIL_HOST: smtp.gmail.com
      MAIL_PORT: 587
      MAIL_ENCRYPTION: tls
      MAIL_USERNAME: Your-own-gmail-address
      MAIL_PASSWORD: Your-own-app-password
      MAIL_FROM: Your-own-gmail-address
      MAIL_FROM_NAME: BookStack
    restart: on-failure:5
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_started

Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value numbers for user with your own UID and GID values. (Follow my step by step guide on how to do this.) 1026 is my personal UID value and 100 is my personal GID value. You have to type in your own values.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for TZ. (Select your current Time Zone from this list.)
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for APP_URL and type in your own synology.me DDNS with https:// at the beginning that you have previously created at STEP 6.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for MAIL_USERNAME and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 17.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for MAIL_PASSWORD and type in your own Gmail app password. STEP 17.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for MAIL_FROM and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 17.

• STEP 21

Scroll down on the page until you see a button called Deploy the stack. Click on it. Follow the instructions in the image below. The installation process can take up to a few minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection.

• STEP 22

If everything goes right, you will see this message at the top right of your screen: “Success Stack successfully deployed“.

• STEP 23

Go back to STEP 1 or you will deal with karma 🙂

• STEP 24

The installation process can take up to a few seconds/minutes. Please wait approximately 5 minutes or you will get a blank synology error page if you try to connect too soon. Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://bookstack.yourname.synology.me In my case it’s https://bookstack.mariushosting.synology.me If everything goes right, you will see the BookStack Log In page. Click Create account. Type in the default Email and Password, then click LOG IN.

⚠️Warning: the default email is admin@admin.com and the default password is password

• STEP 25

Edit your profile and change the default email, password, avatar, language etc. Follow the instructions in the images below.

• STEP 26

Scroll down the page a little bit, then hit the SAVE button. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 27

At the top right of the page click Settings to Customize your BookStack instance. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 28

Scroll down the page a little bit then click SAVE SETTINGS. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 29

At the top right of the page, click Books to create your new Book. Follow the instructions in the image below

• STEP 30

At the top right of the page click Settings then Maintenance. Click SEND TEST EMAIL to test your email. Follow the instructions in the image below.

If you correctly Followed STEP 18 and STEP 20, you will receive a successful email confirmation. Email is very useful in case you lose your BookStack password.

Enjoy BookStack!

Note: Find out how to update the Bookstack container with the latest image.
Note: Can I run Docker on my Synology NAS? See the supported models.
Note: How to Free Disk Space on Your NAS if You Run Docker.
Note: How to Schedule Start & Stop For Docker Containers.
Note: How to Activate Email Notifications.
Note: How to Add Access Control Profile on Your NAS.
Note: How to Change Docker Containers Restart Policy.
Note: How to Use Docker Containers With VPN.
Note: Convert Docker Run Into Docker Compose.
Note: How to Clean Docker.
Note: How to Clean Docker Automatically.
Note: Best Practices When Using Docker and DDNS.
Note: Some Docker Containers Need WebSocket.
Note: Find out the Best NAS Models For Docker.
Note: Activate Gmail SMTP For Docker Containers.

This post was updated on Sunday / March 26th, 2023 at 1:57 AM