Coolify
Deploy Portabase on Coolify in one click and automate backups of the PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB and Redis databases your Coolify instance manages.
Coolify is an open-source, self-hosted PaaS - a Heroku/Netlify/Vercel alternative you run on your own servers. Portabase is published in its service catalogue, so the Dashboard and its PostgreSQL database deploy together in a few clicks, with no docker-compose.yml to write.
Useful links: Coolify website · Coolify documentation · Coolify on GitHub
You need a working Coolify instance with at least one server connected, and a domain pointing at it if you want HTTPS. See the requirements for the rest.
Installation
Create the resource
In your Coolify dashboard, open the project and environment you want to deploy into, then click + New and pick the Service tab.
Pick Portabase from the catalogue
Search for Portabase in the list of one-click services and select it.
Coolify creates the Portabase container together with its PostgreSQL database, and
pre-fills the generated values (database credentials, PROJECT_SECRET).
Set the domain
Open the service settings and set the Domain (FQDN) of the Portabase container,
for example https://portabase.example.com. Coolify handles the reverse proxy and
the TLS certificate, so you do not need our own
reverse proxy guide here.
Make sure the PROJECT_URL environment variable matches that exact public URL,
scheme included. Agents use it to reach the Dashboard.
Review the secret
PROJECT_SECRET encrypts everything the agents exchange with the Dashboard, and
the credentials stored in it. Keep it backed up, and never change it once agents
are connected - previously encrypted data would no longer be readable.
If it wasn't generated for you, set it to a strong random value:
openssl rand -hex 32The full list of what you can tune is on the environment variables page.
Deploy
Click Deploy and wait for the container to become healthy, then open your domain and follow getting started.
Backing up Coolify-managed databases
Coolify runs each database as a Docker container on its own Docker network. For the Portabase Agent to reach them, connect the agent container to that network as well:
# List the networks Coolify created, then attach the agent to the right one
docker network ls
docker network connect <coolify-network> portabase-agentThen declare the database in the Dashboard using the container name as the host, and its normal
port. Databases running on the host rather than in a container are reachable through the
extra_hosts mapping already present in the agent compose file.
Per-engine settings - required grants, dump options, restore behaviour - are documented in the databases section.
Troubleshooting
- The agent shows as offline. Check that
PROJECT_URLis the public HTTPS URL of the Dashboard, not an internal container name, then review the agent configuration. - The agent cannot reach a database. It is almost always a Docker network issue - see the section above.
- You changed
PROJECT_SECRET. Existing encrypted data cannot be recovered. Restore the previous value.
More answers in the FAQ.
Related pages
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