How can I install Redash on Docker that runs as non-root?

[prickett]

I'm trying to install Redash, but, given I'm running Docker as non-root, the installation fails. Is there an installation script available for what I'm trying to do?

[TanbirRamim]

There is no non-root variant of the script: setup.sh exits early unless it runs as root, because it installs Docker, writes to /opt/redash and binds port 80. But the script is thin, so you can do the same steps by hand with rootless Docker:

mkdir -p ~/redash && cd ~/redash
curl -fsSO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/getredash/setup/master/data/compose.yaml
sed -i "s|__TAG__|25.8.0|" compose.yaml      # or whatever the latest release tag is, without the v
sed -i "s|\"80:80\"|\"8080:80\"|" compose.yaml   # rootless Docker cannot bind ports below 1024 by default

cat > env <<EOF
PYTHONUNBUFFERED=0
REDASH_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
REDASH_REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/0
REDASH_COOKIE_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
REDASH_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -hex 16)
REDASH_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:<that password>@postgres/postgres
REDASH_ENFORCE_CSRF=true
REDASH_GUNICORN_TIMEOUT=60
EOF

docker compose run --rm server create_db
docker compose up -d

Redash is then on http://localhost:8080. If you really need port 80, set net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=80 via sysctl instead of running Docker as root. The env file above mirrors what the script generates (it uses pwgen for the secrets).

[TanbirRamim]

@prickett a few things to check with an external Postgres:

1. Special characters in the password. REDASH_DATABASE_URL is a URL, so @ : / ? # and % in the password must be percent-encoded, otherwise the parser splits it in the wrong place. That is the most common cause of a URL parse error. python3 -c "import urllib.parse; print(urllib.parse.quote(\"your-password\", safe=\"\"))" prints the encoded form.
2. The address. 102.168.40.77 looks like it was meant to be 192.168.40.77. Also make sure Postgres listens on that interface (listen_addresses in postgresql.conf) and that pg_hba.conf allows the Docker network, since the connection comes from inside the container.
3. Drop the bundled postgres service. With an external database you do not need the postgres: service in compose.yaml or its volume. Remove it and the depends_on: postgres entries. Mounting your existing data directory into a second Postgres container while your main server also runs on it can corrupt it.
4. Use its own database. Create one (CREATE DATABASE redash;) and end the URL with /redash instead of /postgres. create_db then puts its tables there.

POSTGRES_PASSWORD is only read by the bundled postgres container, so once that service is gone you can leave it out.

[prickett]

Thanks greatly for the thorough answers. I appreciate your time to do so!

[TanbirRamim]

Happy to help! If it ends up working, marking this as the answer would help the next person setting up Redash without root.

[prickett]

Could you explain #4 above? I'm not sure where I find/or how I run CREATE DATABASE. Is this a file I need to change or a command I need to run? I'm confused.

[TanbirRamim]

@prickett it is a SQL command you run once against your existing Postgres server, not a file. Use whichever is closest to your setup:

Postgres runs in Docker (replace my-postgres with your container name from docker ps):

docker exec -it my-postgres psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE redash;"

Postgres installed on the host:

sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE DATABASE redash;"

From any machine with psql:

psql "postgresql://postgres:YOUR_PASSWORD@192.168.40.77:5432/postgres" -c "CREATE DATABASE redash;"

(pgAdmin or DBeaver work too: right-click Databases, Create, name it redash.)

Then point Redash at it by changing only the last part of the URL in your env file:

REDASH_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:YOUR_PASSWORD@192.168.40.77:5432/redash

and run docker compose run --rm server create_db once to create the tables.