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Installation

Installation of Sync-in with Docker Compose.

Sync-in is distributed as an official Docker image, available on Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/syncin/server

This image is specifically designed to be deployed and run in a Docker Compose environment.

📋 Prerequisites​

⚙️ Minimum hardware requirements​

  • RAM: 1 GB
  • CPU: 1 core/vCPU
  • Disk space: 2 GB

🐳 Docker Compose​

This configuration relies on Docker Compose files using the x-include extension. You will need:

  • Docker Engine version 24 or higher
  • Docker Compose version 2.20 or higher

✅ You can check the installed versions with:

docker --version
docker compose version

🔗 If Docker is not installed, follow the official Docker installation guide.

📦 Configuration files​

To retrieve the Sync-in Docker Compose files (sync-in-docker) from https://github.com/Sync-in/server/releases, use one of the following methods:

  • curl and unzip: 
    curl -L -o sync-in-docker.zip \
    https://github.com/Sync-in/server/releases/latest/download/sync-in-docker.zip && \
    unzip sync-in-docker.zip
  • or with curl and tar: 
    curl -L -o sync-in-docker.tar.gz \
    https://github.com/Sync-in/server/releases/latest/download/sync-in-docker.tar.gz && \
    tar zxvf sync-in-docker.tar.gz

You should get the following structure in the sync-in-docker directory:

├── config
│   ├── collabora
│   │   └── docker-compose.collabora.yaml
│   ├── nginx
│   │   ├── collabora.conf
│   │   ├── docker-compose.nginx.yaml
│   │   ├── nginx.conf
│   │   └── onlyoffice.conf
│   ├── onlyoffice
│   │   └── docker-compose.onlyoffice.yaml
│   └── sync-in-desktop-releases
│       ├── docker-compose.sync-in-desktop-releases.yaml
│       └── update.sh
├── docker-compose.yaml
└── environment.yaml

You can check the structure and content from the GitHub repository.

🚀 Quick start​

1. Default secrets​

Navigate to the Docker Compose directory:

cd sync-in-docker

Before starting the server, make sure to replace the default secrets for security reasons.

Edit the environment.yaml file:

auth:
  encryptionKey: "changeEncryptionKeyWithStrongKey"
  token:
    access:
      secret: "changeAccessWithStrongSecret"
    refresh:
      secret: "changeRefreshWithStrongSecret"
mysql:
  # Use the root password defined in docker-compose.yaml
  url: mysql://root:MySQLRootPassword@mariadb:3306/sync_in

Then, edit the docker-compose.yaml file to ensure the MySQL password matches:

services:
  mariadb:
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "MySQLRootPassword"
Security

Use long, randomly generated strings for your secrets to ensure maximum security.

info

Don't forget to add quotes if your passwords contain special characters.

tip

You can use environment variables to configure the previously defined secrets. See the Environment variables section for more details

2. Data Storage​

By default, the docker-compose.yaml file is configured to use a Docker volume named data to store all application data. This setup is sufficient for testing, but for production or long-term use, it is recommended to mount a directory from the host.

To do so, replace the Docker volume with a host path, as shown below:

services:
  sync_in:
    volumes:
      # Default configuration (Docker volume)
      # - data:/app/data

      # Recommended configuration (host directory)
      - /home/sync-in/data:/app/data

3. Start the Sync-in server​

To set your own administrator credentials on first launch, use:

INIT_ADMIN=true INIT_ADMIN_LOGIN='user' INIT_ADMIN_PASSWORD='password' docker compose up -d

Replace user and password with your desired credentials.

If you don't set these variables and simply run:

INIT_ADMIN=true docker compose up -d

The server will use the default administrator credentials:

  • Login: sync-in
  • Password: sync-in
warning

Important: For security reasons, it is strongly recommended to change these credentials upon your first login.

info

To check the status of containers: docker compose ps

4. Access the Web interface​

Once the server is started, open your browser at the following address:

http://localhost:8080

Log in using the administrator credentials defined in step 3.