VPS for BookStack: a self-hosted team wiki

Team documentation tends to die in one of two ways: scattered across chat threads nobody can search, or buried in a wiki so clunky that nobody updates it. BookStack is the rare self-hosted wiki that people actually use. Content lives on shelves, in books, in chapters and pages — a structure everyone understands without training. And it barely needs any server.

Why BookStack

• Obvious structure. Books and chapters instead of a flat pile of pages.
• Editing that doesn't scare anyone. A WYSIWYG editor by default, Markdown for those who prefer it.
• Proper permissions. Roles per shelf, book or page — keep HR docs away from contractors.
• Company login. LDAP, SAML2 and OpenID Connect are built in.
• Your data. Everything sits in a MariaDB database and a folder on your server.

It's not the right tool for everything. Developer docs that should change together with code belong in the repository, not in a wiki.

What it needs

BookStack is light. For most teams, Micro-IP — 1 vCPU, 2 GB, $10/month — is more than enough. The dedicated IP is what lets colleagues reach it over HTTPS on your domain. Disk grows with uploaded screenshots and PDFs, not with page count.

Install with Docker Compose

We'll use the widely used LinuxServer.io images. First generate an application key:

docker run -it --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest appkey

Copy the base64:... value it prints. Then create docker-compose.yml:

services:
  bookstack:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - APP_URL=https://wiki.example.com
      - APP_KEY=base64:paste-your-key-here
      - DB_HOST=db
      - DB_PORT=3306
      - DB_DATABASE=bookstack
      - DB_USERNAME=bookstack
      - DB_PASSWORD=change-me
    volumes:
      - ./bookstack:/config
    ports:
      - 127.0.0.1:6875:80
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: unless-stopped
  db:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/mariadb:latest
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=change-me-too
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=bookstack
      - MYSQL_USER=bookstack
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=change-me
    volumes:
      - ./db:/config
    restart: unless-stopped

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f bookstack

APP_URL must match the address people will use, including https://. Get it wrong and images and links break in odd ways. More on Compose in our stack deployment guide.

HTTPS and first login

Point a subdomain at the server (how), put nginx in front of 127.0.0.1:6875, and add a certificate with certbot — the reverse proxy guide walks through it.

Then log in with the default account: admin@admin.com / password. Change the email and password right away, before you share the link. Everyone else gets their own account or signs in through your identity provider.

Backups

Two things to protect: the database and the uploads inside ./bookstack. A nightly job like this covers the database:

docker compose exec -T db mysqldump -u bookstack -pchange-me bookstack > /var/backups/bookstack.sql

Then back up /var/backups and the compose folder off-site — our restic guide does exactly that. Managed Backups add daily whole-server restore points on top.

Upkeep

Updating is docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. BookStack runs its database migrations on start. Read the release notes before major versions; they're short and clear.

If your team also wants a place for tickets and code, a self-hosted Git server sits nicely next to it on the same kind of plan.