Heimdall: A Complete Checklist for Self-Hosting Success

Heimdall is a self-hosted application dashboard that serves as a centralized gateway for accessing your most-used services, tools, and applications. It’s lightweight, highly customizable, and ideal for developers or system administrators who want complete control over their data. This guide will walk you through deploying Heimdall, configuring it with a reverse proxy, managing logs, setting up backups, and more.

Installing Heimdall

📦 Docker/Docker Compose Setup

Docker is the easiest and most flexible way to deploy Heimdall. Here's how to create and run a docker-compose.yml file:

1. Create a directory for Heimdall:

mkdir -p ~/heimdall && cd ~/heimdall

2. Create a docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3.7'

services:

heimdall:

image: lscr.io/linuxserver/heimdall:latest

container_name: heimdall

environment:

- PUID=1000

- PGID=1000

- TZ=America/New_York

ports:

- 8080:80

volumes:

- ./config:/config

restart: unless-stopped

3. Start the container:

docker-compose up -d

4. Verify that Heimdall is running by visiting http://<your-server-ip>:8080 in your browser.

🚀 Manual Installation

For a manual installation on a Linux server, follow these steps:

1. Install dependencies (e.g., PHP, Composer, and a web server):

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y nginx php-cli php-fpm composer unzip curl

2. Download Heimdall and set up permissions:

cd /var/www

sudo curl -LO https://github.com/linuxserver/Heimdall/archive/refs/heads/master.zip

sudo unzip master.zip && sudo mv Heimdall-master heimdall

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data heimdall

3. Configure PHP and Nginx to serve Heimdall. Update /etc/nginx/sites-available/heimdall (covered in the next section).

4. Restart services:

sudo systemctl restart php7.4-fpm nginx

Configuring Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

🌐 Nginx Configuration

To access Heimdall via a domain, set up Nginx as a reverse proxy:

1. Create a new Nginx configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/heimdall

2. Add the following server block:

server {

listen 80;

server_name heimdall.example.com;

location / {

proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;

proxy_set_header Host $host;

proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;

proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

}

}

3. Enable the configuration and restart Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/heimdall /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

sudo nginx -t

sudo systemctl reload nginx

🔒 SSL/TLS Setup

Secure your Heimdall instance with a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate:

1. Install Certbot:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

2. Generate and apply an SSL certificate:

sudo certbot --nginx -d heimdall.example.com

3. Automate certificate renewal by verifying the Cron job:

sudo systemctl list-timers | grep certbot

Logging and Debugging Heimdall

🗃️ Enabling Debug Logs

If you need detailed logs, enable debug mode in Heimdall:

1. Edit the environment variable in your docker-compose.yml:

environment:

- DEBUG=true

2. Restart the container:

docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d

📄 Viewing Logs

Access Heimdall logs using Docker or directly from the file system:

• For Docker:

docker logs heimdall

• For manual installations:

tail -f /var/www/heimdall/storage/logs/laravel.log

🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues

• Port conflict: Ensure no other service is using the port defined in docker-compose.yml.

• Permission issues: Check that the www-data user owns the Heimdall directory:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/heimdall

Backup and Restore

🗂️ File-Based Backups

Back up Heimdall’s configuration files:

1. For Docker:

tar -czvf heimdall-config-backup.tar.gz ~/heimdall/config

2. For manual installations:

tar -czvf heimdall-backup.tar.gz /var/www/heimdall

🔄 Database Backups

If Heimdall uses a database, back it up with:

mysqldump -u <username> -p heimdall > heimdall-db.sql

📅 Automated Backup Scripts

Set up an automated backup using a cron job:

1. Create a backup script:

nano ~/backup_heimdall.sh

2. Add the following content:

#!/bin/bash

tar -czvf ~/heimdall-backup-$(date +%F).tar.gz ~/heimdall/config

3. Make it executable and schedule it:

chmod +x ~/backup_heimdall.sh

crontab -e

Updating and Upgrading Heimdall

⬆️ Updating Docker Images

Update Heimdall with Docker by pulling the latest image:

1. Pull the latest image:

docker-compose pull

2. Restart the container:

docker-compose down && docker-compose up -d

🛠️ Manual Updates

For manual installations, update Heimdall by downloading the latest version and replacing the files in /var/www/heimdall.

Leveraging Heimdall’s Unique Features

🔧 Enabling APIs

Heimdall supports APIs for retrieving dashboard data. To use the API:

1. Enable API access in the settings page of the web interface.

2. Use a tool like curl to query the API:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-token>" http://heimdall.example.com/api/items

🌟 Advanced Configurations

Customize Heimdall by adding application icons, creating tags, or integrating third-party tools. For example, you can attach health checks to apps by enabling the “Application Specific Options” in the UI.

Wrapping Up

This guide covered installing, configuring, and managing Heimdall, along with leveraging its core features. By following the code-driven examples, you can create a personalized dashboard tailored to your needs. Heimdall’s flexibility and simplicity make it an essential tool for anyone in the self-hosting community. Start deploying today and streamline your app management!