Tutorial: How to install Homer on Alpine Linux

Homer is an open-source dashboard that allows you to collect and visualize data from various sources. In this tutorial, we will go through the steps required to install Homer on Alpine Linux.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• Access to a terminal or shell session on Alpine Linux.
• Root access or administrative privileges on the system.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

First, we need to install the dependencies required by Homer. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:

apk add --no-cache git php7 php7-curl php7-json php7-session php7-openssl nginx supervisor mariadb mariadb-client mariadb-server-utils

This command will install Git (to clone the Homer repository), PHP 7 (with some required extensions), Nginx (as a web server), Supervisor (to manage processes), and the MariaDB database (for storing data).

Step 2: Clone Homer Repository

To clone the Homer repository, run the following command:

git clone https://github.com/bastienwirtz/homer.git

Once the repository is cloned, navigate to the homer directory using the following command:

cd homer

Step 3: Configure Nginx and PHP

Homer requires Nginx and PHP to function properly. We need to create a configuration file for Nginx and PHP.

To create a configuration file for Nginx, create a new file at /etc/nginx/conf.d/homer.conf with the following content:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name your_domain.com;
  root /path/to/homer/public;
  index index.php;
 
  location / {
    rewrite ^(.*) /index.php?$1 last;
  }
 
  location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /path/to/homer$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
  }
}

Replace your_domain.com with your domain name, and /path/to/homer with the path to your homer directory.

To create a configuration file for PHP, open the file /etc/php7/php-fpm.d/www.conf and uncomment the following lines:

listen.owner = nobody
listen.group = nobody
listen.mode = 0660

Step 4: Install Homer

To install Homer, run the following command:

php index.php install

This command will prompt you to enter the database credentials for MariaDB.

Once the installation is complete, you can access Homer by visiting your domain name in your web browser.

Step 5: Configure Supervisor

Supervisor is used to manage Homer's background workers. We need to create a configuration file for Supervisor.

Create a new file at /etc/supervisor/conf.d/homer.conf with the following content:

[program:homer-websocket]
command=php /path/to/homer/daemon/homer-websocket.php
user=nobody
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisord/homer-websocket-stdout.log
stderr_logfile=/var/log/supervisord/homer-websocket-stderr.log
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=10
stopwaitsecs=300

[program:homer-worker]
command=php /path/to/homer/daemon/homer-worker.php
user=nobody
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisord/homer-worker-stdout.log
stderr_logfile=/var/log/supervisord/homer-worker-stderr.log
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=20
stopwaitsecs=300

[program:homer-task]
command=php /path/to/homer/daemon/homer-task.php
user=nobody
stdout_logfile=/var/log/supervisord/homer-task-stdout.log
stderr_logfile=/var/log/supervisord/homer-task-stderr.log
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=30
stopwaitsecs=300

Replace /path/to/homer with the path to your homer directory.

Once the configuration file is created, restart Supervisor using the following command:

supervisorctl reread
supervisorctl update
supervisorctl start all

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Homer on Alpine Linux. You can now start customizing your Homer dashboard and adding data sources.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!