Vikunja is an open source, selfhosted application. With Vikunja you can easily organize all of your tasks in lists. Put lists together in a namespace to keep related stuff grouped together. Vikunja lets you easily share a list or a namespace with another user or a whole team! You can also assign tasks to people so everybody knows who’s working on what. In this step by step guide I will show you how to install Vikunja on your Synology NAS using Docker and Portainer.

Note: This guide works perfectly with the latest Vikunja v0.19.2 release.

• STEP 1

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• 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 / Network / Connectivity tab/ Check Enable HTTP/2 then click Apply. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 5

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

• STEP 6

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

• STEP 7

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

• STEP 8

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 Vikunjapi. After that, add the following instructions:

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

Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: localhost
Port: 3456

• STEP 9

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 10

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

• STEP 11

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

• STEP 12

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 Vikunja. After that, add the following instructions:

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

Destination:
Protocol: HTTP
Hostname: localhost
Port: 4441

• STEP 13

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 14

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

• STEP 15

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 16

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

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

version: '3'

services:
  db:
    image: mariadb
    command: --character-set-server=utf8mb4 --collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: vikunja
      MYSQL_USER: vikunja
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: vikunja
      MYSQL_DATABASE: vikunja
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/vikunjadb:/var/lib/mysql
    restart: always
  api:
    image: vikunja/api
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_HOST: db
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_PASSWORD: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_TYPE: mysql
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_USER: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_DATABASE: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_JWTSECRET: mariushosting
      PUID: 1026
      PGID: 100
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_FRONTENDURL: https://vikunjapi.yourname.synology.me/
    ports:
      - 3456:3456
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/vikunjapi:/app/vikunja/files
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: always
  frontend:
    image: vikunja/frontend
    ports:
      - 4441:80
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_API_URL: https://vikunjapi.yourname.synology.me/api/v1
    restart: always

Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for VIKUNJA_SERVICE_JWTSECRET and add your own secret password. mariushosting is an example of a secret password; you have to add your own secret password.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value numbers for PUID and PGID with your own values. (Follow my step by step guide on how to do this.)
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for VIKUNJA_SERVICE_FRONTENDURL and add your own synology.me DDNS address https://vikunjapi.yourname.synology.me followed by the slash /
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for VIKUNJA_API_URL and add your own synology.me DDNS address https://vikunjapi.yourname.synology.me followed by /api/v1
Note: Basically the synology.me DDNS address that you use in the code is the Reverse Proxy that you have created at STEP 8 of this article.

• STEP 17

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.

• STEP 18

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

• STEP 19

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

• STEP 20

Please wait approximately 2 minutes for the installation to be completed or you will get a Synology blank page if you try to connect too soon. Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://vikunja.yourname.synology.me In my case it’s https://vikunja.mariushosting.synology.me If everything goes right, you will see the Vikunja Login page. Click Create Account. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Basically the synology.me DDNS address that you type in in the browser is the Reverse Proxy that you have created at STEP 12 of this article.

• STEP 21

Add your own Username, Email address and Password then hit the CREATE ACCOUNT button. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 22

Vikunja at a Glance!

• STEP 23

You can change different parameters. At the top right of the page click on your own username, then Settings. Change the Color Scheme, Language, Time Zone etc. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 24

One of the most important things you need to know about Vikunja is that anyone who can access your HTTPS Vikunja link at STEP 20 can register for a new account by default. Follow my step by step guide below to disable registration of new users in Vikunja.

• STEP 25

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

• STEP 26

Open the Docker package. On the left sidebar click Container and select your vikunja-api-1 instance. Stop the Container. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 27

After the container is stopped, select your vikunja-api-1 instance then click the Edit tab. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 28

After you click Edit at STEP 27 a new window will open. Click Advanced Settings. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 29

Click on the Environment tab then Add. On the Variable area type in VIKUNJA_SERVICE_ENABLEREGISTRATION and in the Value area type in false. Click Save. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 30

Click Save. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 31

Select then Start your vikunja-api-1 Container. Follow the instructions in the image below.

• STEP 32

When new users try to register, they will receive the following error message: “Not Found“.

Note: Even if you have added the variable VIKUNJA_SERVICE_ENABLEREGISTRATION and the value false, the Create Account button will still be shown in the Vikunja Login page interface, but actually attempting to create an account will result in an error message.

Troubleshooting: If you experience connection issues with Vikunja, make sure Rule 5 is correctly applied on your Synology NAS Firewall configuration.

Note: Find out how to update the Vikunja 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.

This post was updated on Wednesday / September 7th, 2022 at 2:44 PM