Focalboard

An open source, self-hosted alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana.

Accessing Focalboard

  • Open your browser and visit: http://<SERVER_IP>
  • Sign up and create your account on the first visit (this becomes the admin user).

Important Files & Directories

  • Install directory: /opt/focalboard
  • Compose file: /opt/focalboard/docker-compose.yml
  • Nginx config: /etc/nginx/sites-available/focalboard
  • Data volume: /var/lib/docker/volumes/focalboard_fbdata/_data
  • PostgreSQL volume (if using PostgreSQL): /var/lib/docker/volumes/focalboard_pgdata/_data
  • App config (if using PostgreSQL): /opt/focalboard/config.json
  • Env file (if using PostgreSQL): /opt/focalboard/.env

Docker Management

Go to the install directory:

cd /opt/focalboard

Start containers:

docker compose up -d

View logs:

docker compose logs -f

Stop containers:

docker compose down

Restart container:

docker restart focalboard

Access container shell:

docker exec -it focalboard sh

Enabling SSL with a Domain

1. Point your domain to the server IP.

2. Edit Nginx config and replace server_name <IP>; with your domain (<your-domain>):

vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/focalboard

3. Install Certbot:

apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx

4. Run the following command to generate a valid Let’s Encrypt certificate:

certbot --nginx --non-interactive --agree-tos --email [email protected] -d yourdomain.com

5. Restart Nginx to apply the changes:

systemctl restart nginx

6. Open your browser and visit: https://yourdomain.com

Application Details