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How to Deploy BookStack Wiki

Introduction

BookStack is a free wiki, this guide describes how to set it up using Linux and hosting it online.

Step-by-Step Guide

Deploy the Linux Server

  • Deploy a Ubuntu Server 24.10.
  • Record the IP, login and certificates in a safe location.
  • Take note of any network security groups configured by the hosting provider.

Configure DNS

Create an A record pointing your domain to the server's IP address.

Configure the Linux Server

Create a user account where BookStack will be accessed from.

sudo adduser bookstack
sudo usermod -aG sudo bookstack
su - bookstack

Perform updates.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo reboot

Configure automatic updates.

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
systemctl status unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades
sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

I made the following changes:

Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Kernel-Packages "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-Time "02:00";
sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades

I made the following changes:

APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";

Test the changes by running sudo unattended-upgrades --dry-run and if needed change your timezone using sudo timedatectl set-timezone followed by your location.

Install BookStack

Follow the steps on the official website https://www.bookstackapp.com/docs/admin/installation/#ubuntu-2404. You will be prompted to enter in your domain. Once completed, Apache will be hosting BookStack on port 80 or your local ip. You can test this internally using curl, or you can test externally by entering in your public IP. This is a good way to test connectivity.

You will want to verify if firewall rules on Ubuntu and your cloud provider to ensure port 80 (and 443) are open and accessible. Iptables can be checked with sudo iptables -L and the following commands can be used if required.

sudo iptables -I INPUT 6 -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -I INPUT 6 -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
sudo netfilter-persistent save

Configure Apache

Modify the below files changing the port from 80 to 8080. This will allow us to use a different reverse proxy, in this case Caddy.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/ports.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/bookstack.conf

Restart Apache with sudo systemctl restart apache2

Install Caddy

Follow the steps on the official website to install Caddy, https://caddyserver.com/docs/install. As Caddy is configured to use SSL by default, and will install a Let's Encrypt certificate, we need to tell BookStack to accept connections on HTTPS instead of HTTP. 

sudo nano /var/www/bookstack/.env

Change the hostname of the website so that it shows https://.

Test Caddy to confirm everything is working, change yourwebsite.com to your website.

sudo caddy reverse-proxy --from yourwebsite.com --to 127.0.0.1:8080

You should be able to go to yourwebsite.com and get directed to your BookStack website. The next step is to create a Caddy configuration file so that you don't need to run the command every time. 

sudo nano /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Add the following:

yourwebsite.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
    encode gzip
    log {
        output file /var/log/caddy/bookstack.log
    }
}
sudo systemctl restart caddy

Configuring

At this point you can now configure BookStack how you wish. I recommend reading every article within the official documentation and performing any changes required, https://www.bookstackapp.com/docs/.

Troubleshooting and Maintenance

Subscribe to BookStack security updates emailing list. You may wish to use the cloud providers network security group to close port 22.


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