Install Outline and Keycloak Using Docker Compose

This article is for those looking for a detailed and straightforward guide on installing Outline and Keycloak using Docker Compose.

Outline is a free standalone wiki engine and a collaborative knowledge base for teams.

💾 You can find the repository used in this guide on GitHub.

NOTE

In this guide, Outline will use user accounts created in Keycloak for access to the Outline management panel, and MinIO for storing documents uploaded through Outline.

NOTE

We’ll use Traefik as our reverse proxy. It’ll handle obtaining cryptographic certificates from Let’s Encrypt for your domain names and route requests to the corresponding services based on those domains.

CAUTION

Remember that without a secure connection, the services will not work.

CAUTION

To obtain cryptographic certificates, you will need A-type records in the external DNS zone, which point to the IP address of your server where Traefik is installed. If you have created these records recently, you should wait before starting the installation of the services. Full replication of these records between DNS servers can take from a few minutes to 48 hours or even longer in rare cases.

IMPORTANT

MinIO has a known limitation: you can’t use your domain or subdomain as the bucket name. For instance, if your wiki address is outline.<your-domain>.<tld>, choose a different name for your bucket.

CAUTION

Ensure that your AWS_S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET_URL that is set in the .env file is a publicly accessible URL that corresponds to your domain. This is crucial because the Outline server will redirect traffic directly to MinIO.

IMPORTANT

Docker Engine and Docker Compose must be installed on the server.

For a step-by-step guide on installing Docker Engine on Ubuntu Server, see Install Docker Engine and Docker Compose on Ubuntu Server

IMPORTANT

OpenSSH must be installed on the server, and port 22 must be open in order to be able to connect to the server using the SSH protocol.

To install OpenSSH on the server you can use the command:

1
sudo apt install openssh-server

NOTE

To connect to the server from a Windows system, you can use tools like PuTTY or MobaXterm.

NOTE

This guide walks you through connecting to a server with the iTerm2 terminal emulator on macOS.

CAUTION

You will need to open the following TCP ports for access to the services:

• TCP port 80 - to obtain a free cryptographic certificate through the Let’s Encrypt certification center.
• TCP port 443 - to access the Outline web interface.

We connect to the server on which Outline is planned to be installed.

Now it is necessary to create networks for your services.

We create a network for Traefik using the command:

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docker network create traefik-network

We create a network for Keycloak using the command:

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docker network create keycloak-network

We create a network for Outline using the command:

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docker network create outline-network

Next, you need to clone the repository that contains the configuration files, which include all the necessary conditions for Outline to work.

You can clone the repository using the command:

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git clone https://github.com/heyvaldemar/outline-keycloak-traefik-letsencrypt-docker-compose.git

Navigate to the directory with the repository using the command:

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cd outline-keycloak-traefik-letsencrypt-docker-compose

Next, you need to change the variables in the .env file according to your requirements.

IMPORTANT

MinIO has a known limitation: you can’t use your domain or subdomain as the bucket name. For instance, if your wiki address is outline.<your-domain>.<tld>, choose a different name for your bucket.

CAUTION

Ensure that your AWS_S3_UPLOAD_BUCKET_URL that is set in the .env file is a publicly accessible URL that corresponds to your domain. This is crucial because the Outline server will redirect traffic directly to MinIO.

IMPORTANT

The .env file should be in the same directory as 01-traefik-outline-letsencrypt-docker-compose.yml, 02-keycloak-outline-docker-compose.yml, and 03-outline-minio-redis-docker-compose.yml.

CAUTION

The value for the OUTLINE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET variable can be obtained after installing Keycloak using 02-keycloak-outline-docker-compose.yml.

CAUTION

Additionally, you need to specify your values for OUTLINE_SECRET_KEY and OUTLINE_UTILS_SECRET.

The values for OUTLINE_SECRET_KEY and OUTLINE_UTILS_SECRET can be generated using the command:

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openssl rand -hex 32

Now we will start Traefik using the command:

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docker compose -f 01-traefik-outline-letsencrypt-docker-compose.yml -p traefik up -d

Next, we will start Keycloak using the command:

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docker compose -f 02-keycloak-outline-docker-compose.yml -p keycloak up -d

From the workstation, navigate to the link https://keycloak.outline.heyvaldemar.net, where keycloak.outline.heyvaldemar.net is the name of my subdomain for accessing the Keycloak management panel. Accordingly, you need to specify your domain name, which points to the IP address of your server with the installed Traefik service, which will redirect the request to Keycloak.

Click on the “Administration Console” button.

Enter the username and password that you previously set in the .env file, and click the “Sign In” button.

Now you need to create a new Realm and configure it correctly so that users can log into Outline using Keycloak.

Click the “Create Realm” button in the upper left corner.

In the “Realm name” field, enter “outline” (in lowercase) and click the “Create” button.

Next, select “Clients” in the “Manage” section and click the “Create client” button.

In the “Client type” field, select “OpenID Connect”.

In the “Client ID” field, enter “outline” (in lowercase) and click the “Next” button.

Next, you need to enable “Client authentication” and select “Standard flow” in the “Authentication flow” section.

All other values should be disabled.

Click the “Next” button.

In the “Root URL” field, enter https://outline.heyvaldemar.net/

In the “Home URL” field, enter https://outline.heyvaldemar.net/

In the “Valid redirect URIs” field, enter https://outline.heyvaldemar.net/

NOTE

outline.heyvaldemar.net is the domain name of my service. Accordingly, you need to specify your domain name, which points to the IP address of your server with the installed Traefik service, which will redirect the request to Outline.

Click the “Save” button.

Navigate to the “Credentials” tab and copy the contents of the “Client secret” field.

Paste the copied contents of the “Client secret” field into the OUTLINE_OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET variable in the .env file.

Now let’s create a user who will be able to log into Outline using Keycloak.

Select “Users” in the “Manage” section and click the “Add user” button.

In the next step, you need to specify: username, email address, first name, last name, and password.

NOTE

If you provide an email address, the user will be able to log into Outline using not only the username but also the email.

Click the “Create” button.

Next, you need to set a password for the new user.

Go to the “Credentials” tab and click the “Set password” button.

Enter a strong password and click the “Save” button.

Certainly! Below is the translation of the provided text:

Click the “Save password” button to confirm the assignment of a new password for the user.

The new password has been successfully set.

Now you can launch Outline with accompanying services and log into Outline using the previously created user.

Let’s launch Outline with the following command:

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docker compose -f 03-outline-minio-redis-docker-compose.yml -p outline up -d

To access the Outline management panel, go to https://outline.heyvaldemar.net from your workstation, where outline.heyvaldemar.net is the domain name of my service. Accordingly, you need to specify your domain name that points to the IP address of your server with the installed Traefik service, which will redirect the request to Outline.

NOTE

You need to specify the domain name of the service, previously defined in the .env file.

Click the “Continue with Keycloak” button.

Enter the username or email address and password previously set in Keycloak.

Welcome to the Outline control panel.

To access the MinIO control panel, go to https://console.minio.outline.heyvaldemar.net from your workstation, where console.minio.outline.heyvaldemar.net is the domain name of my service. Accordingly, you need to specify your domain name that points to the IP address of your server with the installed Traefik service, which will redirect the request to MinIO.

NOTE

You need to specify the domain name of the service, previously defined in the .env file.

Enter the username and password previously set in the .env file, and click the “Login” button.

To access the Traefik control panel, go to https://traefik.outline.heyvaldemar.net from your workstation, where traefik.outline.heyvaldemar.net is the domain name of my service. Accordingly, you need to specify your domain name that points to the IP address of your server with the installed Traefik.

NOTE

You need to specify the domain name of the service, previously defined in the .env file.

Enter the username and password previously set in the .env file, and click the “OK” button.

Welcome to the Traefik control panel.