Install Buuck on a VPS

Buuck runs on your own server. This page tells you how to install Buuck on a VPS with the Buuck CLI.

Do the steps in the given sequence. The installation needs about 15 minutes after your DNS records are ready.

Start and Pro editions

Buuck has two self-hosted editions. Your purchase email tells you which edition you bought. Use only the registry credentials from that email. The credentials work for one edition only.

	Buuck Start	Buuck Pro
Registry project	buuck	buuck-pro
Server image	registry.buuck.io/buuck/server	registry.buuck.io/buuck-pro/server
Dashboard image	registry.buuck.io/buuck/dashboard	registry.buuck.io/buuck-pro/dashboard
Booking image	Same image, published to both projects (booking)	Same image, published to both projects (booking)
Migrate image	registry.buuck.io/buuck/db-migrate	registry.buuck.io/buuck-pro/db-migrate
Branding	Subtle “Powered by Buuck” on booking emails	No Buuck branding. White-label emails and UI
Branding controls	Fixed Buuck mark	Custom branding (logo and look)

Pro Managed is the Pro product with hosting and support from us. You do not install Pro Managed with this page.

Caution

A Start registry user cannot pull Pro images. A Pro registry user cannot pull Start images. If Docker shows unauthorized or denied, check that your edition and your credentials match.

What you install

Buuck has three applications and five support services. Docker Compose starts all of them together.

Service	Function	Port
booking	The public page. Your customers make their bookings here.	3002
dashboard	The private page. Your staff manage the bookings here.	3001
server	The API. The two applications get their data from the API.	3000
db-migrate	One-time setup. It creates the database users and the database tables.	—
postgres	The database. The database keeps all of your data.	5432
cache	The cache. The cache makes the API faster.	6379
caddy	The reverse proxy. It also gets the TLS certificates.	80, 443
dozzle	The log viewer. You can read the messages of the other services here.	8080

Only the reverse proxy is open to the internet. The other services are on a private Docker network.

The server, dashboard, and db-migrate images differ by edition. The Start build and the Pro build are separate images. The Pro migrate image creates extra tables that Start does not. The CLI pulls the images for the edition that matches your registry credentials.

Before you start

You need these items:

• A VPS with 2 CPU cores, 4 GB of RAM and 20 GB of free disk space.
• A 64-bit x86 processor. The Buuck images do not run on an ARM processor.
• A Linux operating system. We test Buuck on Ubuntu 24.04.
• Root access to the VPS, or a user account with sudo rights.
• A domain name. You must be able to add records to its DNS zone.
• Your edition (Start or Pro). The purchase email names the edition.
• The registry user name and your license key. We send them to you in an email.
• The version number of your Buuck release. The same email gives you this number.
• An SMTP account. Buuck sends the booking emails with this account.

Caution

Keep your license key secret. Any person who has your license key can get the Buuck images for your edition.

Your license is only for the person or the company that bought Buuck. If a company bought Buuck, only that company can use Buuck. Do not give your license key to a different person or a different company.

If you do not obey these rules, we cancel your license and your license key. You then lose your access to the Buuck images and to all later versions.

This page uses example.com for the domain name. Replace example.com with your own domain name.

Step 1: Add the DNS records

Buuck uses four subdomains. Add one DNS A record for each subdomain. Each record points to the IP address of your VPS.

Record	Example	Service
api	api.example.com	the server
admin	admin.example.com	the dashboard
book	book.example.com	the booking page
logs	logs.example.com	the log viewer

If your DNS provider has a proxy function, switch the proxy off. The reverse proxy on your VPS must get the requests directly.

Check one record before you continue:

dig +short api.example.com

The command shows the IP address of your VPS. If the command shows no address, wait 10 minutes. Then do the check again.

Caution

All four DNS records must point to your VPS before you start Step 2. If you run the install first, the TLS certificates fail.

Step 2: Install Buuck

Connect to your VPS:

ssh root@YOUR-SERVER-IP

Download the Buuck CLI, and run the install command. You can use the command builder below.

curl -fsSL https://get.buuck.io/cli -o /usr/local/bin/buuck
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/buuck
sudo buuck install

Command builder

Fill in your values to build a one-liner Buuck CLI command.

Install Update

Registry user

From your purchase email (robot$…)

License key

Edition

StartPro

Version

API domain

Dashboard domain

Booking domain

Logs domain

ACME email

For Let's Encrypt certificate notices

Email provider

SMTPSendGridPostmarkResend

Email from

SMTP host

SMTP port

SMTP user (optional)

SMTP password

SMTP secure

Implicit TLS (usually off on port 587)

Noninteractive

Adds --yes

Configure ufw

Opens ports 22, 80, 443

Skip DNS check

Write files only

Do not start Docker

Version

Services db-migrate, server, dashboard, booking

Compose services to recreate

Registry user (optional)

License key (optional)

Noninteractive

Adds --yes

Skip pull

Recreate from local images

Force recreate

Copy

sudo buuck install --yes

Caution

Run the CLI as root, or use sudo. The CLI writes files under /opt/buuck and starts Docker.

The CLI asks for these values from your purchase email and from your own setup:

1. Registry user name (it starts with robot$)
2. License key
3. Edition (start or pro)
4. Buuck version (for example v0.0.1)
5. API domain (for example api.example.com)
6. Dashboard domain (for example admin.example.com)
7. Booking domain (for example book.example.com)
8. Logs domain (for example logs.example.com)
9. Email address for TLS certificate notices
10. Email provider (usually smtp)
11. From address for booking emails
12. SMTP host, port, user, password and secure setting

Use the registry user name and the license key from the same purchase email. Those credentials already match your edition (Start → project buuck, Pro → project buuck-pro).

Then the CLI shows a summary. Type y to continue.

The CLI then does this work for you:

1. Installs Docker Engine and Docker Compose if they are missing.
2. Can open ports 22, 80 and 443 with ufw if you say yes.
3. Checks your DNS records.
4. Creates /opt/buuck with compose.yaml, Caddyfile, .env and dozzle-users.yml.
5. Generates the database passwords, the cache password, the auth secret, the setup token and the log viewer password.
6. Logs in to the Buuck registry.
7. Pulls the images for your edition and starts Buuck.
8. Waits until the API answers over HTTPS.
9. Prints the setup link for the first account.

The first start needs about 2 to 3 minutes. The reverse proxy also gets the TLS certificates in this time.

For flags and environment variables, read the Buuck CLI guide.

Caution

Do not open port 5432 or port 6379. The database and the cache must stay private.

Step 3: Check the installation

Look at the status of the services:

cd /opt/buuck
docker compose ps

The db-migrate service shows the status exited (0). This status is correct. The service runs one time only. All of the other services show the status running or healthy.

Send a request to the API:

curl -i https://api.example.com

The API answers with 200 OK and the text OK.

Then open these three addresses in a browser:

• https://admin.example.com shows the login page of the dashboard.
• https://book.example.com shows the booking page.
• https://logs.example.com shows the log viewer. Sign in as admin. The password is DOZZLE_PASSWORD in /opt/buuck/.env.

The browser must show a valid certificate for each address. If a page does not open, read the Problems section.

On Start, booking emails end with a small “Powered by Buuck” line. On Pro, that line is not present.

Caution

The log viewer is private. It can read the messages of every Buuck container. Do not share the URL or the password. The viewer uses the Docker socket, so treat it like an admin tool.

Step 4: Make the first account

At the end, the CLI prints a setup link. The link looks like this:

https://admin.example.com/setup?token=YOUR-SETUP-TOKEN

1. Open the setup link in a browser.
2. Give your name, your email address and a password.
3. Give the name of your business and a short name for the address.
4. Select Complete setup.

The dashboard opens. Your account is the owner of the instance. You can now add your venues, your resources and your offerings.

Your customers make their bookings at https://book.example.com/YOUR-SHORT-NAME.

New accounts need an invitation. Open Instance settings on the dashboard to invite your staff. Each invitation goes to one email address and works one time.

Caution

Finish the setup before you share the dashboard address. The setup page works only one time. If you lose the setup link, the token is SETUP_TOKEN in /opt/buuck/.env.

Stop and restart Buuck

Stop all of the services:

cd /opt/buuck
docker compose stop

Restart all of the services:

cd /opt/buuck
docker compose start

Common problems

You can find a list of common problems and their solutions on the Common problems page.