How to Install Healthchecks on Your Synology NAS

How to Install Healthchecks on Your Synology NAS

Healthchecks is a cron job monitoring service. It listens for HTTP requests and email messages (“pings”) from your cron jobs and scheduled tasks (“checks”). When a ping does not arrive on time, Healthchecks sends out alerts. Healthchecks comes with a web dashboard, API, 25+ integrations for delivering notifications, monthly email reports, WebAuthn 2FA support, team management features: projects, team members, read-only access. In this step by step guide I will show you how to install Healthchecks on your Synology NAS using Docker & Portainer.

💡Note: This guide works perfectly with the latest Healthchecks v3.2 release.

  • 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.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 1

  • STEP 5

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

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 2

  • 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 Healthchecks. After that, add the following instructions:

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

Check Enable HSTS

Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: localhost
Port: 8357

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 3

  • 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.

Synology Proxy WebSocket

  • STEP 8

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

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 4

  • STEP 9

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

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 5

  • STEP 10

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

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 6

  • STEP 11

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

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 7

  • STEP 12

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 13

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.

1 Synology Portainer Add Stack

  • STEP 14

In the Name field type in healthchecks. 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: postgres
    container_name: Healthchecks-DB
    hostname: healthchecks-db
    mem_limit: 512m
    cpu_shares: 768
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-q", "-d", "healthchecks", "-U", "hcuser"]
      timeout: 45s
      interval: 10s
      retries: 10
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/healthchecks/db:/var/lib/postgresql/data:rw
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: healthchecks
      POSTGRES_USER: hcuser
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: hcpass
    restart: on-failure:5

  healthchecks:
    image: healthchecks/healthchecks:latest
    command: bash -c 'while !</dev/tcp/healthchecks-db/5432; do sleep 1; done; uwsgi /opt/healthchecks/docker/uwsgi.ini'
    container_name: Healthchecks
    hostname: healthchecks
    mem_limit: 4g
    cpu_shares: 768
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
    read_only: true
    user: 1026:100
    ports:
      - 8357:8000
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/healthchecks/data:/data:rw
    environment:
      DB: postgres
      DB_HOST: healthchecks-db
      DB_PORT: 5432
      DB_NAME: healthchecks
      DB_USER: hcuser
      DB_PASSWORD: hcpass
      DEBUG: 'False'
      REGISTRATION_OPEN: 'True'
      SITE_NAME: mariushosting
      SITE_ROOT: https://healthchecks.yourname.synology.me
      SECRET_KEY: 76JNTas6KDh5H85UyrcJ
      DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL: Your-own-gmail-address
      EMAIL_HOST: smtp.gmail.com
      EMAIL_HOST_USER: Your-own-gmail-address
      EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD: Your-own-app-password
      EMAIL_PORT: 587
      EMAIL_USE_TLS: 'True'
      EMAIL_USE_SSL: 'False'
      EMAIL_USE_VERIFICATION: 'True'
    restart: on-failure:5
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

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 SITE_NAME. Type in your own site name. mariushosting is an example for a site name.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for SITE_ROOT 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 DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 12.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for EMAIL_HOST_USER and type in your own Gmail address. STEP 12.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD and type in your own Gmail app password. STEP 12.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 8

  • STEP 15

Scroll down on the page until you see a button named 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.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 9

⌛Now just wait because the Healthchecks image is about 500MB.

  • STEP 16

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

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 10

  • STEP 17

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

  • STEP 18

Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://healthchecks.yourname.synology.me In my case it’s https://healthchecks.mariushosting.synology.me If everything goes right, you will see the Healthchecks login page. At the top right of the page, click Sign up. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 11

  • STEP 19

Type in your own email address then click Email me a Link. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 12

  • STEP 20

Check your email address to find the Healthchecks email. Open it, then click the green “Sign In” link. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 13

  • STEP 21

At the top right of the page, click Account, then Account Settings. Click Set Password to set a new password. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 15

  • STEP 22

On the left sidebar click Appearance then Dark to set Dark mode. Follow the instructions in the image below.

Healthchecks Synology NAS Set up 16

  • STEP 23

If you want to disable user registration in Healthchecks, just change the following line in the compose at STEP 14:

REGISTRATION_OPEN: 'True'

with the following one:

REGISTRATION_OPEN: 'False'

Click update the stack to update the settings. From this point on, any user that will try to register a new account in Healthchecks will be rejected.

Enjoy Healthchecks!

🆘TROUBLESHOOTING

If you encounter issues by using this container, make sure to check out the Common Docker issues article.

Note: Can I run Docker on my Synology NAS? See the supported models.
Note: How to Back Up Docker Containers on your Synology NAS.
Note: Find out how to update the Healthchecks container with the latest image.
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 Container

This post was updated on Saturday / February 24th, 2024 at 6:05 AM