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The Rallly CLI (rallly.sh) is the single entry point for day-to-day operations on a self-hosted instance. It ships with the self-hosted stack and should be run from the stack directory (e.g. /opt/rallly for installer-based setups).

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Commands

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Applying configuration changes

After editing .env, apply changes with:

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Updating

This pulls the latest Docker images and recreates containers. Your data and configuration are preserved. By default the stack tracks the lukevella/rallly:4 tag, so update will bring you the latest compatible 4.x release. To pin to a specific version or follow a different major, set RALLLY_IMAGE in .env (see Configuration).
Do not edit docker-compose.yml or other stack files. ./rallly.sh update expects these files unchanged and will overwrite local edits. Only .env is safe to modify.

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Backup and restore

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Backup

Database backups are written to ./backups/ as timestamped .sql.gz files. Copy these off the server regularly — they are your main recovery artifact.
The backup captures the PostgreSQL database. Uploaded files (avatars, etc.) are stored in the garage-data Docker volume; back that up separately if you rely on uploads.

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Restore

Stop the app first so it releases its database connections, drop and recreate an empty rallly database, stream in the dump, then restart:

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Logs

Stream all services:
Or a single service (web, db, garage, traefik):

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Troubleshooting

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SSL certificate is not being issued

Let’s Encrypt can take up to a minute on first start. Check:
  • The domain’s DNS A record resolves to the server’s public IP.
  • Ports 80 and 443 are open in the server’s firewall.
  • ./rallly.sh logs traefik for ACME errors.

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Port 80 or 443 already in use

Another service (nginx, apache, another Docker stack) is bound to the port. Stop it or reconfigure it to leave 80/443 free — Traefik needs both.

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Containers keep restarting

Check the failing service’s logs:
Common causes:
  • Missing or invalid .env values (e.g. empty SECRET_PASSWORD, unreachable SMTP).
  • Database is still initialising on first boot — usually resolves within a few retries.

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Database connection errors on first boot

PostgreSQL takes a few seconds to initialise. The app retries automatically. If errors persist, inspect ./rallly.sh logs db.