Appwrite Installation Guide

Appwrite is an open-source backend-as-a-service platform that provides developers with all the core APIs required to build modern applications. It includes authentication, databases, storage, functions, and real-time capabilities.

1. Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed
Minimum 4GB RAM (8GB recommended for production)
10GB free disk space minimum
Domain name with DNS configured (for production)
SSL certificate (Let's Encrypt recommended)

2. Supported Operating Systems

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)
Debian 11/12
Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS
Arch Linux (rolling release)
Alpine Linux 3.18+
openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+
macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)
FreeBSD 13+
Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

3. Installation

Docker Compose Installation (Recommended)

Download Appwrite:

# Create installation directory
mkdir -p /opt/appwrite
cd /opt/appwrite

# Download docker-compose.yml
curl -o docker-compose.yml https://appwrite.io/install/compose

# Download .env file
curl -o .env https://appwrite.io/install/env

Configure Environment:

# Edit environment variables
nano .env

# Key variables to configure:
# _APP_ENV=production
# _APP_DOMAIN=your-domain.com
# _APP_DOMAIN_TARGET=your-domain.com
# _APP_REDIS_PASS=your-redis-password
# _APP_DB_PASS=your-database-password
# _APP_OPENSSL_KEY_V1=your-32-char-key

Generate OpenSSL Key:

# Generate a secure key
openssl rand -hex 32

Start Appwrite:

# Start services
docker-compose up -d

# Check status
docker-compose ps

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

Manual Docker Installation

# Create network
docker network create appwrite

# Run MariaDB
docker run -d \
  --name appwrite-mariadb \
  --network appwrite \
  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpassword \
  -e MYSQL_DATABASE=appwrite \
  -e MYSQL_USER=appwrite \
  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=password \
  -v appwrite-mariadb:/var/lib/mysql \
  mariadb:10

# Run Redis
docker run -d \
  --name appwrite-redis \
  --network appwrite \
  -v appwrite-redis:/data \
  redis:alpine

# Run Appwrite
docker run -d \
  --name appwrite \
  --network appwrite \
  -p 80:80 \
  -p 443:443 \
  -e _APP_ENV=production \
  -e _APP_OPENSSL_KEY_V1=your-32-char-key \
  -e _APP_DOMAIN=localhost \
  -e _APP_DB_HOST=appwrite-mariadb \
  -e _APP_DB_PORT=3306 \
  -e _APP_DB_SCHEMA=appwrite \
  -e _APP_DB_USER=appwrite \
  -e _APP_DB_PASS=password \
  -e _APP_REDIS_HOST=appwrite-redis \
  -e _APP_REDIS_PORT=6379 \
  -v appwrite-uploads:/storage/uploads \
  -v appwrite-cache:/storage/cache \
  -v appwrite-config:/storage/config \
  -v appwrite-certificates:/storage/certificates \
  -v appwrite-functions:/storage/functions \
  appwrite/appwrite

4. Configuration

SSL/TLS Setup

Let's Encrypt (Automatic):

# Appwrite handles SSL automatically for configured domains
# Ensure ports 80 and 443 are accessible
# Domain must point to server IP

Custom SSL Certificate:

# Copy certificates
cp /path/to/cert.pem /opt/appwrite/certificates/main.crt
cp /path/to/key.pem /opt/appwrite/certificates/main.key

# Restart Appwrite
cd /opt/appwrite
docker-compose restart

Email Configuration

Edit .env file:

_APP_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
_APP_SMTP_PORT=587
_APP_SMTP_SECURE=tls
_APP_SMTP_USERNAME=your-email@gmail.com
_APP_SMTP_PASSWORD=your-app-password

Storage Configuration

Local Storage (Default):

# Storage is handled automatically
# Files stored in Docker volumes

S3 Compatible Storage:

_APP_STORAGE_DEVICE=s3
_APP_STORAGE_S3_ACCESS_KEY=your-access-key
_APP_STORAGE_S3_SECRET=your-secret-key
_APP_STORAGE_S3_REGION=us-east-1
_APP_STORAGE_S3_BUCKET=appwrite-storage

Functions Runtime

Enable additional runtimes in .env:

_APP_FUNCTIONS_RUNTIMES=node-18.0,python-3.10,php-8.1,ruby-3.1

Security Configuration

Firewall Rules

# Allow HTTP/HTTPS
sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

# Allow Appwrite console (if different port)
sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp

Security Headers

Appwrite includes security headers by default:

Content Security Policy
X-Frame-Options
X-Content-Type-Options
Strict-Transport-Security

API Keys and Secrets

Generate secure keys:

# Generate encryption key
openssl rand -hex 32

# Generate session secret
openssl rand -hex 32

Rotate keys regularly:

# Update in .env
_APP_OPENSSL_KEY_V1=new-key-here

# Restart services
docker-compose restart

Database Management

Backup

# Backup database
docker exec appwrite-mariadb mysqldump -u root -p appwrite > backup.sql

# Backup volumes
docker run --rm -v appwrite-mariadb:/data -v $(pwd):/backup ubuntu tar czf /backup/mariadb-backup.tar.gz /data

Restore

# Restore database
docker exec -i appwrite-mariadb mysql -u root -p appwrite < backup.sql

# Restore volumes
docker run --rm -v appwrite-mariadb:/data -v $(pwd):/backup ubuntu tar xzf /backup/mariadb-backup.tar.gz -C /

Performance Optimization

Redis Configuration

# Edit Redis configuration
docker exec -it appwrite-redis redis-cli

# Set max memory
CONFIG SET maxmemory 2gb
CONFIG SET maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru

Database Optimization

# Optimize tables
docker exec appwrite-mariadb mysqlcheck -u root -p --optimize appwrite

# Configure MariaDB
docker exec -it appwrite-mariadb mysql -u root -p
SET GLOBAL innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1G;
SET GLOBAL innodb_log_file_size = 256M;

Scaling

Horizontal Scaling:

# Use Docker Swarm or Kubernetes
# Configure load balancer
# Share storage between instances

Vertical Scaling:

# Increase container resources
docker-compose down
# Edit docker-compose.yml to add resource limits
docker-compose up -d

Monitoring

Health Checks

# Check service health
curl http://localhost/v1/health

# Check specific services
curl http://localhost/v1/health/db
curl http://localhost/v1/health/cache
curl http://localhost/v1/health/time

Logging

# View all logs
docker-compose logs -f

# View specific service logs
docker-compose logs -f appwrite
docker-compose logs -f appwrite-worker-database

# Export logs
docker-compose logs > appwrite-logs.txt

Metrics

Enable Prometheus metrics:

_APP_PROMETHEUS_ENABLE=enabled

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Port conflicts:

# Check port usage
sudo netstat -tlnp | grep -E ':(80|443|8080)'

# Change ports in docker-compose.yml

Permission issues:

# Fix volume permissions
sudo chown -R 999:999 /var/lib/docker/volumes/appwrite_*

Memory issues:

# Check memory usage
docker stats

# Increase memory limits in docker-compose.yml

Debug Mode

Enable debug mode in .env:

_APP_ENV=development
_APP_DEBUG=true

Maintenance

Updates

# Backup first
./backup.sh

# Pull latest images
docker-compose pull

# Restart services
docker-compose down
docker-compose up -d

Cleanup

# Remove unused images
docker image prune -a

# Clean build cache
docker builder prune

# Remove old logs
docker-compose logs --tail=0 > /dev/null

SDK Integration

JavaScript/Node.js

const sdk = require('node-appwrite');

const client = new sdk.Client()
    .setEndpoint('https://your-domain.com/v1')
    .setProject('your-project-id')
    .setKey('your-api-key');

const database = new sdk.Databases(client);
const storage = new sdk.Storage(client);

Python

from appwrite.client import Client
from appwrite.services.databases import Databases

client = Client()
client.set_endpoint('https://your-domain.com/v1')
client.set_project('your-project-id')
client.set_key('your-api-key')

databases = Databases(client)

Flutter

import 'package:appwrite/appwrite.dart';

final client = Client()
    .setEndpoint('https://your-domain.com/v1')
    .setProject('your-project-id');

final account = Account(client);
final databases = Databases(client);

Additional Resources

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

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License

howtomgr/appwrite

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