Install and Deploy Manually

This article will walk you through the procedure to manually install and deploy Bitwarden to your own server. Installation using the Bitwarden installation script is recommended for most users, for instructions see Install and Deploy.

A manual installation may be appropriate if you are intimately familiar with Docker technologies and desire more control over your Bitwarden installation.

Installation Procedure

Complete the following steps to install Bitwarden manually:

1. Download a stubbed version of Bitwarden’s dependencies (docker-stub.zip) from the releases pages on GitHub. For example:

   curl -L https://github.com/bitwarden/server/releases/download/v<version_number>/docker-stub.zip \
    -o docker-stub.zip
   

2. Create a new directory named bwdata and extract the docker-stub.zip archive to it:

   unzip docker-stub.zip -d bwdata
   

   The created directory matches what the ./docker/docker-compose.yml file’s mapped volumes expect, however you are free to change the location of these mappings on the host machine if desired.

3. Edit the following environment variables in ./env/global.override.env:

   • installation__id: Your installation id retrieved from https://bitwarden.com/host.
   • installation__key: Your installation key retrieved from https://bitwarden.com/host.
   • baseServiceUri__*: The domain for your Bitwarden instance. Enter this value in all baseServiceURi fields.

4. Generate a .pfx certificate file for the identity container and place it in the mapped volume directory at ./identity/identity.pfx. For example, run the following commands:

   openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -nodes -keyout identity.key \
         -out identity.crt -subj "/CN=Bitwarden IdentityServer" -days 10950
   

   openssl pkcs12 -export -out ./identity/identity.pfx -inkey identity.key \
         -in identity.crt -passout pass:IDENTITY_CERT_PASSWORD
   

5. Edit the globalSettings__identityServer__certificatePassword value in ./env/global.override.env with your configured password.

6. Copy the created files to the ./bwdata/ssl directory.

   The ./bwdata/ssl directory is mapped to the NGINX container at /etc/ssl. The ./nginx/default.conf can be adjusted to utilize these certificates as desired.

   Note

   Accessing the Web Vault and APIs requires HTTPS. You should provide a trusted SSL certificate to the NGINX container or front the installation with a proxy that provides a HTTPS endpoint to Bitwarden client applications.

   Example scenario for creating a self-signed certificate as an alternative:

   mkdir ./ssl/bitwarden.example.com
   openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -nodes -days 365 \
     -keyout ./ssl/bitwarden.example.com/private.key \
     -out ./ssl/bitwarden.example.com/certificate.crt \
     -reqexts SAN -extensions SAN \
     -config <(cat /usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf <(printf '[SAN]\nsubjectAltName=DNS:bitwarden.example.com\nbasicConstraints=CA:true')) \
     -subj "/C=US/ST=New York/L=New York/O=Company Name/OU=Bitwarden/CN=bitwarden.example.com"
   

7. Edit the following in ./nginx/default.conf:

   • server_name with your configured domain name.
   • In the Content-Security-Policy header, replace bitwarden.example.com with your configured domain name.
   • Add HTTPS redirects

8. Generate your own random password strings for the following values in ./env/global.override.env:

   • sqlServer__connectionString=...Password=RANDOM_DATABASE_PASSWORD
   • internalIdentityKey=RANDOM_IDENTITY_KEY

   • duo__akey=RANDOM_DUO_AKEY

     And apply the same RANDOM_DATABASE_PASSWORD to value in ./env/mssql.override.env.

9. Replace the domain placeholder in ./web/app-id.json with your domain name.

10. Configure your Environment Variables in ./env/global.override.env.

    At a minimum, we recommend configuring you SMTP Mail Server and Admin Portal Access. For more information, see Configure Environment Variables.

11. Map the desired user and group id for the Bitwarden containers to run under at ./env/uid.env. For example:

    LOCAL_UID=1000
    LOCAL_GID=1000
    

    Otherwise, you can leave the ./env/uid.env file empty and the containers will run as nobody:nobody.

12. Start your Bitwarden instance and access it at your configured hostname:

    docker-compose -f ./docker/docker-compose.yml up -d
    

For reference, you can find the official Bitwarden images hosted on Docker Hub at https://hub.docker.com/u/bitwarden/.