Obsidian Publish: Self-Hosting Made Simple

Obsidian Publish is a powerful self-hosted platform for publishing Markdown-based knowledge repositories directly from your Obsidian vaults. It offers unmatched flexibility, complete control over your data, and the ability to customize and extend functionality to meet your specific needs. In this guide, we’ll cover the full lifecycle of deploying, configuring, managing, and leveraging Obsidian Publish—from setup and reverse proxy configuration to logging, backups, updates, and advanced feature usage.

Installing Obsidian Publish

📦 Docker/Docker Compose Setup

Using Docker is the most efficient way to deploy Obsidian Publish, ensuring a consistent and portable environment.

1. Create a docker-compose.yml file tailored for Obsidian Publish:

version: '3.8'

services:

obsidian-publish:

image: obsidian/publish:latest

container_name: obsidian_publish

ports:

- "8080:8080" # Map host port 8080 to container port 8080

volumes:

- ./obsidian_data:/data # Persist Obsidian Publish data locally

- ./obsidian_config:/config # Persist configuration files

environment:

- TZ=UTC # Adjust the timezone as needed

- AUTH_TOKEN=your_secure_auth_token # Set a secure authentication token

restart: unless-stopped

2. Deploy the container using Docker Compose:

docker-compose up -d

3. Verify that the container is running:

docker ps | grep obsidian_publish

🚀 Manual Installation

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

1. Install required dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git curl nginx

2. Clone the Obsidian Publish repository (or download binaries if available):

git clone https://github.com/obsidianmd/obsidian-publish.git

cd obsidian-publish

3. Start the application:

npm install # Install dependencies

npm start   # Start the server

4. Ensure the application is running by visiting http://<your-server-ip>:8080.

Configuring Nginx as a Reverse Proxy

🌐 Nginx Configuration

Nginx allows you to serve Obsidian Publish under a custom domain and handle incoming traffic efficiently.

1. Create an Nginx server block for Obsidian Publish:

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

2. Add the following configuration:

server {

server_name yourdomain.com; # Replace with your domain

location / {

proxy_pass http://localhost:8080; # Obsidian Publish backend

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 reload Nginx:

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

sudo nginx -t

sudo systemctl reload nginx

🔒 SSL/TLS Setup

Secure your site with Let's Encrypt and automate certificate renewals.

1. Install Certbot:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

2. Obtain and configure an SSL certificate:

sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

3. Automate renewals:

sudo systemctl enable certbot.timer

🛠️ Testing and Reloading Nginx

After configuring Nginx and SSL, verify your setup:

sudo nginx -t

sudo systemctl reload nginx

curl -IL https://yourdomain.com

Logging and Debugging Obsidian Publish

🗃️ Enabling Debug Logs

To enable debug-level logging, modify the environment configuration:

environment:

- LOG_LEVEL=debug # Adjust the log level in Docker Compose or env file

Restart the container to apply changes:

docker-compose restart

📄 Viewing Logs

Access logs to monitor or troubleshoot issues:

docker logs obsidian_publish

🛠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues

If you encounter errors:

1. Check the logs for specific messages.

2. Validate your docker-compose.yml and reverse proxy configurations.

3. Ensure your authentication token or environment variables are correct.

📤 Exporting Logs

Export logs to an external monitoring system like ELK Stack:

1. Install Filebeat to ship logs:

sudo apt install filebeat

2. Configure the filebeat input to monitor Obsidian logs in /var/log or Docker logs.

Backup and Restore

🗂️ File-Based Backups

Create a snapshot of Obsidian Publish’s data directory:

tar -czvf obsidian_backup_$(date +%F).tar.gz ./obsidian_data

🔄 Database Backups

If Obsidian Publish uses a database, back it up using:

docker exec obsidian_publish_db pg_dumpall -c -U postgres > db_backup.sql

📅 Automated Backup Scripts

Set up a cron job for periodic backups:

crontab -e

Add the following line:

0 0 * * * tar -czvf /backups/obsidian_backup_$(date +\%F).tar.gz /path/to/data

Updating and Upgrading Obsidian Publish

⬆️ Updating Docker Images

Update to the latest version of Obsidian Publish:

docker-compose pull

docker-compose up -d

🛠️ Manual Updates

For manual installations, pull the latest code:

cd obsidian-publish

git pull origin main

npm install

npm restart

🔍 Checking for Updates

Monitor the Obsidian Publish documentation or repository for announcements about new releases.

Leveraging Obsidian Publish’s Unique Features

🔧 Enabling APIs

Enable and test API functionality with the following steps:

1. Add the API key to the configuration file or environment variables:

environment:

- API_KEY=your_api_key

2. Test the API using curl:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key" http://localhost:8080/api/endpoint

🌟 Advanced Configurations

Customize Obsidian Publish with advanced configurations, such as:

1. Custom themes:

• Place your CSS files in the /config/themes directory.

2. Integrate with third-party tools like Git for version control:

git init /path/to/obsidian_data

git remote add origin https://github.com/your-repo.git

git push -u origin main

Wrapping Up

This guide has walked you through the complete process of deploying, configuring, and managing Obsidian Publish. By self-hosting, you gain unparalleled control over your data and the flexibility to customize it to fit your needs. Start implementing these steps today to unlock the full potential of Obsidian Publish for your personal or professional projects!