Observium Docker (Debian 13)

Weekly workflow automation keeps Docker Hub up to date with both :latest and stable version tags like :25.4.0.

Unofficial Docker image for Observium Community Edition with a simple local stack:

• observium container: Nginx + PHP 8.5-FPM
• db container: MariaDB 11
• persistent data via local bind mounts

Quick Links

• Docker Hub: tuantuantuantuantuan/observium
• Image tag used by default in compose.yaml: tuantuantuantuantuan/observium:latest
• Stable version tags are also available: tuantuantuantuantuan/observium:{version}

Quick Start

1. Start with Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/tdtgit/observium.git
cd observium
docker compose up -d

Open:

• http://localhost:8080

Default login:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin

2. Data Persistence

This project uses bind mounts (host folders):

• ./data/db -> MariaDB data
• ./data/rrd -> Observium RRD data
• ./data/logs -> Observium logs

Common Operations

Update to the latest image

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Stop services

docker compose down

Reset all local data

docker compose down
rm -rf ./data/db ./data/rrd ./data/logs
mkdir -p ./data/db ./data/rrd ./data/logs

Configuration

Prefer editing env vars in compose.yaml (and optional .env values consumed by Compose), instead of injecting env vars directly into commands.

Example in compose.yaml (services.observium.environment):

services:
  observium:
    environment:
      OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_USER: ${OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_USER:-netops}
      OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_PASSWORD: ${OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_PASSWORD:-strong-password}
      OBSERVIUM_ENABLE_RAMDISK: ${OBSERVIUM_ENABLE_RAMDISK:-true}
      OBSERVIUM_SHM_SIZE: ${OBSERVIUM_SHM_SIZE:-8g}
      OBSERVIUM_RAMDISK_SYNC_INTERVAL: ${OBSERVIUM_RAMDISK_SYNC_INTERVAL:-300}

Apply changes:

docker compose up -d

Customize Cron and Nginx

If you want to keep using the public image but provide your own scheduler or web config, add a compose.override.yaml file.

Example compose.override.yaml:

services:
  observium:
    volumes:
      - ./custom/observium.cron:/etc/cron.d/observium:ro
      - ./custom/observium.nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/observium.conf:ro

Then restart:

docker compose up -d

Notes:

• Cron file format should follow /etc/cron.d style (include user field, usually www-data).
• Keep your nginx config listening on port 80 inside the container.

Important Environment Variables

Observium app

Variable	Default	Notes
OBSERVIUM_DB_HOST	db	Database host
OBSERVIUM_DB_NAME	observium	Database name
OBSERVIUM_DB_USER	observium	Database user
OBSERVIUM_DB_PASSWORD	observium	Database password
OBSERVIUM_CREATE_ADMIN	true (compose)	Create initial admin user
OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_USER	admin	Initial admin username
OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_PASSWORD	admin	Initial admin password
OBSERVIUM_ADMIN_LEVEL	10	Admin privilege level
OBSERVIUM_INIT_DB_SCHEMA	true (compose)	Initialize/update DB schema on startup
OBSERVIUM_ENABLE_CRON	true	Enable poller/discovery cron

Performance tuning

Variable	Default	Notes
OBSERVIUM_ENABLE_FASTCACHE	true	Enable Observium fast cache
OBSERVIUM_CACHE_DRIVER	apcu	Cache backend
OBSERVIUM_PHP_MEMORY_LIMIT	512M	PHP memory limit
OBSERVIUM_APCU_SHM_SIZE	128M	APCu shared memory size

RAM-disk RRD mode (optional)

Variable	Default	Notes
OBSERVIUM_ENABLE_RAMDISK	false	Enable RRD writes to RAM disk
OBSERVIUM_RAMDISK_PATH	/dev/shm/observium-rrd	In-container RAM-disk path
OBSERVIUM_RAMDISK_SYNC_INTERVAL	300	Seconds between RAM -> persistent sync
OBSERVIUM_SHM_SIZE	256m (compose)	Container shared memory size

MariaDB binary log toggle (compose)

Variable	Default	Notes
MARIADB_BINLOG_OPTION	--skip-log-bin	Set to --log-bin to enable binary log

Verify Runtime Status

Container health

docker compose ps

Check PHP memory/cache from UI

In Observium web UI footer you should see similar to:

• FastCache: Yes
• OPcache: Yes
• Memory: 512MB

Verify RAM-disk RRD path

docker compose exec -T observium grep "rrd_dir" /opt/observium/config.php

Expected when enabled:

• $config['rrd_dir'] = '/dev/shm/observium-rrd';

Build Locally (optional)

The provided compose file is for using the published image.

Build local image:

docker build -t observium:debian13 .

Run compose with local image:

OBSERVIUM_IMAGE=observium:debian13 docker compose up -d