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Aaron W Morris edited this page Jan 29, 2026 · 65 revisions

Overview

indi-allsky has full support for operating in a docker containerized environment. Each component (ie process) is broken out to a separate container, per docker best practices. (The container list is below)

If you do not already have a docker host setup, it will be necessary to install and setup docker.

Platforms

  • x86_64
    • Linux
    • Windows
    • Mac
  • arm64
    • Linux
    • Mac - Apple Silicon (Mac M1+)

Docker setup

Install docker from the docker repositories.

🚩 The version of docker that is distributed with Debian and Ubuntu are too old to properly build the containers, therefore it will be necessary to install the latest version of docker from the main docker repositories.

https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

Non-privileged user

You can setup a non-privileged user on your docker host to manage your environment.

sudo usermod -a -G docker username

# Logout and login again for change take effect

indi-allsky setup

Code checkout

The indi-allsky code will need to be checked out on your docker host in order to build the container images.

  1. Install git

     sudo apt-get install git

  2. Clone the indi-allsky git repository

     git clone https://github.com/aaronwmorris/indi-allsky.git

Setup

Use the setup_env.sh script to setup your .env environment file and ssl certificates

  1. Navigate to the indi-allky sub-directory

     cd indi-allsky/docker/

 ./setup_env.sh

Update camera driver

If you have a ZWO camera, change the driver to the following

INDIALLSKY_INDI_CCD_DRIVER=indi_asi_ccd

(Optional) libcamera docker setup

  • The CSI/MIPI camera must be setup and available in the docker host before starting the containers
  • Uncomment the libcamera build script in Dockerfile.indi_base_debian13
  • Uncomment privileged flag for capture container in docker-compose.yaml
  • Uncomment udev volume mapping for capture container in docker-compose.yaml

Build containers

docker compose build

If you experience dependency problems with the build, it may be necessary to manually build the base image first.

docker compose build indi.base

⚠️ Do NOT use the docker-compose syntax (with the dash) which implies docker compose v1. Docker compose v2 uses docker compose.

Camera drivers

INDI

In most cases, INDI (core and 3rd-party) will probably have to be installed on the host running the indiserver container. The indiserver does not need to run on the host, but the host needs to create the device nodes and load the firmware so the indiserver container may connect to the devices. With privileged containers, only the devices that exist when the container is started are created within the container.

libcamera

The capture container needs to be privileged to permit access to the camera device for libcamera. A udev related folder needs to be mapped to the container, too. These settings are available, but commented out, in the docker-compose.yaml.

The CSI/MIPI camera must be setup and available in the docker host before starting the containers. With privileged containers, only the devices that exist when the container is started are created within the container.

Run containers

docker compose up

or

docker compose up --detach

Notes

  • There are delays up to 120s for services to completely start
  • Your camera must be plugged in prior to starting the indiserver_indi_allsky container

Stop containers

docker compose down

Info

The docker compose setup sets up a single container per process.

Containers

  • indiserver.indi.allsky
    • privileged container
  • capture.indi.allsky
    • capture process
  • gunicorn.indi.allsky
    • python application server
    • Flask database migrations managed here
  • webserver.indi.allsky
    • reverse proxy
  • mariadb.indi.allsky
    • MariaDB database
  • mosquitto.indi.allsky
    • Mosquitto MQTT broker
  • indi.base
    • intermediate image
    • does not run
  • indi.allsky.base
    • intermediate image
    • does not run

Exposed Ports

  • webserver
    • 8080:80
    • 8443:443
  • indiserver
    • 17624:7624
  • gunicorn
    • 8000:8000 (commented out)
  • mariadb
    • 13306:3306 (commented out)
  • mosqutto
    • 18883:8883
    • 18081:8081

Volumes

  • images_indi_allsky
  • migrations_indi_allsky (flask)
  • database_indi_allsky (MariaDB)
  • mosquitto_indi_allsky (Mosquitto)

Updating indi-allsky

  1. Navigate to the current git clone

     cd indi-allsky

  2. Pull the latest changes via git

     git pull origin main

  3. Rebuild containers

    • capture.indi.allsky

    • gunicorn.indi.allsky

    • webserver.indi.allsky

      docker compose build capture.indi.allsky gunicorn.indi.allsky webserver.indi.allsky

Special scenarios

Start only web interface

docker compose up mariadb.indi.allsky gunicorn.indi.allsky webserver.indi.allsky

Docker maintenance

Periodically, you may want to clean up artifacts left over by the docker build process. These commands should not result in any data loss.

  • Prune images
    • docker image prune
  • Prune volumes
    • docker volume prune
  • Prune full system
    • docker system prune
    • ⚠️ This will delete the intermediate build layers which may trigger a full rebuild if you need to update an image (for a code deploy).

Run commands in container

You can run some of the command line scripts in the container using the following pattern. Find the capture container ID by running docker ps | grep capture.indi.allsky

User management

docker exec -it 012345678901 /home/allsky/venv/bin/python3 /home/allsky/indi-allsky/misc/usertool.py adduser

docker exec -it 012345678901 /home/allsky/venv/bin/python3 /home/allsky/indi-allsky/misc/usertool.py setadmin

Generate API key

docker exec -it 012345678901 /home/allsky/venv/bin/python3 /home/allsky/indi-allsky/misc/usertool.py genapikey

Home Assistant Auto-Discovery

docker exec -it 012345678901 /home/allsky/venv/bin/python3 /home/allsky/indi-allsky/misc/home_assistant_auto_discovery.py

Setup D-Bus connection to read time

# Create matching user account for allsky
sudo useradd -u 10001 -s /bin/false -M -l allsky-container

# Create dbus policy file
sudo tee /etc/dbus-1/system.d/allsky-timedate-policy.conf << 'EOF'
<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>
  <policy user="allsky-container">
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.timedate1"/>
    <allow receive_sender="org.freedesktop.timedate1"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.timedate1"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.timedate1"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.timedate1"/>
  </policy>
</busconfig>
EOF

# Reload dbus configuration
sudo systemctl reload dbus

Docker compose change

Add to [docker-compose.yaml]

services:
  gunicorn.indi.allsky:
    volumes:
      - /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket:/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket:ro

Frequently Asked Questions

Why compile INDI from source and not use the PPA?

The Ubuntu INDI PPA is a convenient place to install INDI, however, there have been many instances of package dependency errors or broken functionality. There is no way to install older packages from the PPA, therefore the only way to have enough control to ensure the system works is to compile from source.

Compiling from source also gives you the opportunity to install older versions or install from HEAD if something needs to be tested. The git tag for the source code may be changed in your .env

Why use Debian instead of Ubuntu?

This is somewhat a personal choice, but I feel Debian is a better choice for the foundation of Open Source Projects. If Debian has problems for any reason in the future, I will gladly switch to a different base image for the containers.

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