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bitnami/phpbb

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By VMware

Updated 6 months ago

🛑 DEPRECATED Bitnami Docker Image for phpBB

Image
Content Management System
Web Servers
30

1M+

Bitnami package for phpBB

🛑 Deprecation Notice

The phpBB container is now deprecated. This image will no longer be released in our catalog, but already-released container images will persist in the registries.

After some months, this repository will be removed in favor of bitnami/phpbb-archived where all existing images can be found.

What is phpBB?

phpBB is a popular bulletin board that features robust messaging capabilities such as flat message structure, subforums, topic split/merge/lock, user groups, full-text search, and attachments.

Overview of phpBB Trademarks: This software listing is packaged by Bitnami. The respective trademarks mentioned in the offering are owned by the respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

TL;DR

docker run --name phpbb bitnami/phpbb:latest

Warning: This quick setup is only intended for development environments. You are encouraged to change the insecure default credentials and check out the available configuration options in the Environment Variables section for a more secure deployment.

Why use Bitnami Images?

  • Bitnami closely tracks upstream source changes and promptly publishes new versions of this image using our automated systems.
  • With Bitnami images the latest bug fixes and features are available as soon as possible.
  • Bitnami containers, virtual machines and cloud images use the same components and configuration approach - making it easy to switch between formats based on your project needs.
  • All our images are based on minideb -a minimalist Debian based container image that gives you a small base container image and the familiarity of a leading Linux distribution- or scratch -an explicitly empty image-.
  • All Bitnami images available in Docker Hub are signed with Notation. Check this post to know how to verify the integrity of the images.
  • Bitnami container images are released on a regular basis with the latest distribution packages available.

Looking to use phpBB in production? Try VMware Tanzu Application Catalog, the commercial edition of the Bitnami catalog.

How to deploy phpBB in Kubernetes?

Deploying Bitnami applications as Helm Charts is the easiest way to get started with our applications on Kubernetes. Read more about the installation in the Bitnami phpBB Chart GitHub repository.

Bitnami containers can be used with Kubeapps for deployment and management of Helm Charts in clusters.

Why use a non-root container?

Non-root container images add an extra layer of security and are generally recommended for production environments. However, because they run as a non-root user, privileged tasks are typically off-limits. Learn more about non-root containers in our docs.

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

Learn more about the Bitnami tagging policy and the difference between rolling tags and immutable tags in our documentation page.

You can see the equivalence between the different tags by taking a look at the tags-info.yaml file present in the branch folder, i.e bitnami/ASSET/BRANCH/DISTRO/tags-info.yaml.

Subscribe to project updates by watching the bitnami/containers GitHub repo.

Prerequisites

To run this application you need Docker Engine 1.10.0. Docker Compose is recomended with a version 1.6.0 or later.

Get this image

The recommended way to get the Bitnami phpBB Docker Image is to pull the prebuilt image from the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/phpbb:latest

To use a specific version, you can pull a versioned tag. You can view the list of available versions in the Docker Hub Registry.

docker pull bitnami/phpbb:[TAG]

If you wish, you can also build the image yourself by cloning the repository, changing to the directory containing the Dockerfile and executing the docker build command. Remember to replace the APP, VERSION and OPERATING-SYSTEM path placeholders in the example command below with the correct values.

git clone https://github.com/bitnami/containers.git
cd bitnami/APP/VERSION/OPERATING-SYSTEM
docker build -t bitnami/APP:latest .

How to use this image

phpBB requires access to a MySQL or MariaDB database to store information. We'll use the Bitnami Docker Image for MariaDB for the database requirements.

Using the Docker Command Line

Step 1: Create a network

docker network create phpbb-network

Step 2: Create a volume for MariaDB persistence and create a MariaDB container

$ docker volume create --name mariadb_data
docker run -d --name mariadb \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env MARIADB_USER=bn_phpbb \
  --env MARIADB_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_phpbb \
  --network phpbb-network \
  --volume mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb \
  bitnami/mariadb:latest

Step 3: Create volumes for phpBB persistence and launch the container

$ docker volume create --name phpbb_data
docker run -d --name phpbb \
  -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env PHPBB_DATABASE_USER=bn_phpbb \
  --env PHPBB_DATABASE_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env PHPBB_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_phpbb \
  --network phpbb-network \
  --volume phpbb_data:/bitnami/phpbb \
  bitnami/phpbb:latest

Access your application at http://your-ip/

Run the application using Docker Compose
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitnami/containers/main/bitnami/phpbb/docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up -d

Please be aware this file has not undergone internal testing. Consequently, we advise its use exclusively for development or testing purposes. For production-ready deployments, we highly recommend utilizing its associated Bitnami Helm chart.

If you detect any issue in the docker-compose.yaml file, feel free to report it or contribute with a fix by following our Contributing Guidelines.

Persisting your application

If you remove the container all your data will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a directory at the /bitnami/phpbb path. If the mounted directory is empty, it will be initialized on the first run. Additionally you should mount a volume for persistence of the MariaDB data.

The above examples define the Docker volumes named mariadb_data and phpbb_data. The phpBB application state will persist as long as volumes are not removed.

To avoid inadvertent removal of volumes, you can mount host directories as data volumes. Alternatively you can make use of volume plugins to host the volume data.

Mount host directories as data volumes with Docker Compose

This requires a minor change to the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:

   mariadb:
     ...
     volumes:
-      - 'mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb'
+      - /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb
   ...
   phpbb:
     ...
     volumes:
-      - 'phpbb_data:/bitnami/phpbb'
+      - /path/to/phpbb-persistence:/bitnami/phpbb
   ...
-volumes:
-  mariadb_data:
-    driver: local
-  phpbb_data:
-    driver: local

NOTE: As this is a non-root container, the mounted files and directories must have the proper permissions for the UID 1001.

Mount host directories as data volumes using the Docker command line

Step 1: Create a network (if it does not exist)

docker network create phpbb-network

Step 2. Create a MariaDB container with host volume

docker run -d --name mariadb \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env MARIADB_USER=bn_phpbb \
  --env MARIADB_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_phpbb \
  --network phpbb-network \
  --volume /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb \
  bitnami/mariadb:latest

Step 3. Create the phpBB container with host volumes

docker run -d --name phpbb \
  -p 8080:8080 -p 8443:8443 \
  --env ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  --env PHPBB_DATABASE_USER=bn_phpbb \
  --env PHPBB_DATABASE_PASSWORD=bitnami \
  --env PHPBB_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_phpbb \
  --network phpbb-network \
  --volume /path/to/phpbb-persistence:/bitnami/phpbb \
  bitnami/phpbb:latest

Configuration

Environment variables

Customizable environment variables

NameDescriptionDefault Value
PHPBB_DATA_TO_PERSISTFiles to persist relative to the phpBB installation directory. To provide multiple values, separate them with a whitespace.store language files images config.php ext styles
PHPBB_FORUM_LANGUAGEphpBB forum language.en
PHPBB_FORUM_NAMEphpBB forum name.My forum
PHPBB_COOKIE_SECUREUse secure cookies.false
PHPBB_FORUM_DESCRIPTIONphpBB forum description.A little text to describe your forum
PHPBB_FORUM_SERVER_PROTOCOLphpBB forum server protocol.http://
PHPBB_FORUM_SERVER_PORTphpBB forum server port.80
PHPBB_DISABLE_SESSION_VALIDATIONDisable session validation.false
PHPBB_HOSTphpBB forum hostname.localhost
PHPBB_SKIP_BOOTSTRAPWhether to perform initial bootstrapping for the application.nil
PHPBB_USERNAMEphpBB user name.user
PHPBB_PASSWORDphpBB user password.bitnami
PHPBB_EMAILphpBB user e-mail address.user@example.com
PHPBB_SMTP_HOSTphpBB SMTP server host.nil
PHPBB_SMTP_PORT_NUMBERphpBB SMTP server port number.nil
PHPBB_SMTP_USERphpBB SMTP server user.nil
PHPBB_SMTP_PASSWORDphpBB SMTP server user password.nil
PHPBB_SMTP_PROTOCOLphpBB SMTP server protocol to use.plain
PHPBB_DATABASE_HOSTDatabase server host.$PHPBB_DEFAULT_DATABASE_HOST
PHPBB_DATABASE_PORT_NUMBERDatabase server port.3306
PHPBB_DATABASE_NAMEDatabase name.bitnami_phpbb
PHPBB_DATABASE_USERDatabase user name.bn_phpbb
PHPBB_DATABASE_PASSWORDDatabase user password.nil

Read-only environment variables

NameDescriptionValue
PHPBB_BASE_DIRphpBB installation directory.${BITNAMI_ROOT_DIR}/phpbb
PHPBB_BIN_DIRphpBB binary directory.${PHPBB_BASE_DIR}/bin
PHPBB_CACHE_DIRphpBB cache directory.${PHPBB_BASE_DIR}/cache
PHPBB_STORE_DIRphpBB store directory.${PHPBB_BASE_DIR}/store
PHPBB_WIZARD_DIRphpBB installation wizard scripts.${PHPBB_BASE_DIR}/install
PHPBB_CONF_FILEConfiguration file for phpBB.${PHPBB_BASE_DIR}/config.php
PHPBB_INSTALL_JSON_FILEConfiguration file for phpBB.${PHPBB_WIZARD_DIR}/install_config.json
PHPBB_INSTALL_PHP_FILEConfiguration script for phpBB.${PHPBB_STORE_DIR}/install_config.php
PHPBB_VOLUME_DIRphpBB directory for mounted configuration files.${BITNAMI_VOLUME_DIR}/phpbb
PHPBB_MOUNTED_CONF_FILEMounted configuration file for phpBB. It will be copied to the phpBB installation directory during the initialization process.${PHPBB_VOLUME_DIR}/config.inc.php
PHPBB_DEFAULT_DATABASE_HOSTDefault database server host.mariadb
PHP_DEFAULT_MEMORY_LIMITDefault PHP memory limit.256M

When you start the phpBB image, you can adjust the configuration of the instance by passing one or more environment variables either on the docker-compose file or on the docker run command line. If you want to add a new environment variable:

  • For docker-compose add the variable name and value under the application section in the docker-compose.yml file present in this repository:
phpbb:
  ...
  environment:
    - PHPBB_PASSWORD=my_password
  ...
  • For manual execution add a --env option with each variable and value:

    docker run -d --name phpbb -p 80:8080 -p 443:8443 \
      --env PHPBB_PASSWORD=my_password \
      --network phpbb-tier \
      --volume /path/to/phpbb-persistence:/bitnami \
      bitnami/phpbb:latest
    
Example

This would be an example of SMTP configuration using a Gmail account:

  phpbb:
    ...
    environment:
      - PHPBB_DATABASE_USER=bn_phpbb
      - PHPBB_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_phpbb
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
      - PHPBB_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
      - PHPBB_SMTP_PORT=587
      - PHPBB_SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com
      - PHPBB_SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password
  ...
  • For manual execution:

    docker run -d --name phpbb -p 80:8080 -p 443:8443 \
      --env PHPBB_DATABASE_USER=bn_phpbb \
      --env PHPBB_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_phpbb \
      --env PHPBB_SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com \
      --env PHPBB_SMTP_PORT=587 \
      --env PHPBB_SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com \
      --env PHPBB_SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password \
      --network phpbb-tier \
      --volume /path/to/phpbb-persistence:/bitnami \
      bitnami/phpbb:latest
    

Logging

The Bitnami phpBB Docker image sends the container logs to stdout. To view the logs:

docker logs phpbb

Or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs phpbb

You can configure the containers logging driver using the --log-driver option if you wish to consume the container logs differently. In the default configuration docker uses the json-file driver.

Maintenance

Backing up your container

To backup your data, configuration and logs, follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Stop the currently running container

docker stop phpbb

Or using Docker Compose:

docker-compose stop phpbb

Step 2: Run the backup command

We need to mount two volumes in a container we will use to create the backup: a directory on your host to store the backup in, and the volumes from the container we just stopped so we can access the data.

docker run --rm -v /path/to/phpbb-backups:/backups --volumes-from phpbb busybox \
  cp -a /bitnami/phpbb /backups/latest
Restoring a backup

Restoring a backup is as simple as mounting the backup as volumes in the containers.

For the MariaDB database container:

 $ docker run -d --name mariadb \
   ...
-  --volume /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami/mariadb \
+  --volume /path/to/mariadb-backups/latest:/bitnami/mariadb \
   bitnami/mariadb:latest

For the phpBB container:

 $ docker run -d --name phpbb \
   ...
-  --volume /path/to/phpbb-persistence:/bitnami/phpbb \
+  --volume /path/to/phpbb-backups/latest:/bitnami/phpbb \
   bitnami/phpbb:latest
Upgrade this image

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of MariaDB and phpBB, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container. We will cover here the upgrade of the phpBB container. For the MariaDB upgrade see: https://github.com/bitnami/containers/tree/main/bitnami/mariadb#upgrade-this-image

Step 1: Get the updated image

docker pull bitnami/phpbb:latest

Step 2: Stop the running container

Stop the currently running container using the command

docker-compose stop phpbb

Step 3: Take a snapshot of the application state

Follow the steps in Backing up your container to take a snapshot of the current application state.

Step 4: Remove the currently running container

Remove the currently running container by executing the following command:

docker-compose rm -v phpbb

Step 5: Run the new image

Update the image tag in docker-compose.yml and re-create your container with the new image:

docker-compose up -d

Customize this image

The Bitnami phpBB Docker image is designed to be extended so it can be used as the base image for your custom web applications.

Extend this image

Before extending this image, please note there are certain configuration settings you can modify using the original image:

If your desired customizations cannot be covered using the methods mentioned above, extend the image. To do so, create your own image using a Dockerfile with the format below:

FROM bitnami/phpbb
## Put your customizations below
...

Here is an example of extending the image with the following modifications:

  • Install the vim editor
  • Modify the Apache configuration file
  • Modify the ports used by Apache
FROM bitnami/phpbb

## Change user to perform privileged actions
USER 0
## Install 'vim'
RUN install_packages vim
## Revert to the original non-root user
USER 1001

## Enable mod_ratelimit module
RUN sed -i -r 's/#LoadModule ratelimit_module/LoadModule ratelimit_module/' /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/httpd.conf

## Modify the ports used by Apache by default
# It is also possible to change these environment variables at runtime
ENV APACHE_HTTP_PORT_NUMBER=8181
ENV APACHE_HTTPS_PORT_NUMBER=8143
EXPOSE 8181 8143

Note: the README for this image is longer than the DockerHub length limit of 25000, so has been trimmed. The full README can be found at https://github.com/bitnami/containers/blob/main/bitnami/phpbb/README.md

Docker Pull Command

docker pull bitnami/phpbb
Bitnami