How to install Umami on Linux

 This is one of the best free alternatives to Google Analytics and it offers an easy-to-use interface that can view and analyze incoming web traffic similar to Google Analytics. Today's article will show you how to install Umami on Ubuntu Linux.

Download Docker and Docker Compose for Umami

The first step in hosting your own analytics with Umami is to download both Docker and Docker Compose for Linux computers. To do that, get the signing key from the Docker project website:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

Note : This section focuses on installing Docker for Ubuntu. If you are using another distribution, see general instructions for installing Docker on Linux.

Create a new repository file in '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' using your favorite text editor:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

Paste the following line of code into the new repository file:

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu noble stable

Make sure that the system is completely updated and working correctly:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Install Docker, Docker Compose and additional dependencies for Umami:

sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin docker-buildx-plugin nginx git

Install Umami

Navigate to your user account's home directory, then grab the Umami Git repository from the developer's Github page:

cd ~ && git clone https://github.com/umami-software/umami.git

Go inside the Umami Git repository, then open the pre-built Docker Compose file with your favorite text editor:

cd ~/umami nano ./docker-compose.yml

Scroll down to the 'environment:' category, then replace the value of the APP_SECRET variable with a random string of characters.

Note : You can generate your own random string of letters and numbers by running: cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | fold -w 32 | head -n 1.

Save the Docker Compose file, then run the following command to build and install the Umami container:

sudo docker compose up -d

Confirm that your Umami instance is running by listing the available Docker Containers in the system:

docker ps

Protect Umami with SSL Reverse Proxy

At this point, you now have a self-hosted Umami analytics instance running on port 3000 in your Linux system. However, to access this service over the Internet, you first need to transfer this service through SSL Reverse Proxy.

Start by adding a new DNS 'A' record to the domain registrar pointing to the IPv4 address of the Umami server. In the example case, the 'A' record would be set to 'umami.myreallygreatserver.xyz.'

Check if the 'core' snap package is already present in the server:

sudo snap install core

Install the Certbot snap package from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):

sudo snap install certbot --classic

Create a new website configuration file for SSL Reverse Proxy:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/umami

Paste the following code block into the new site configuration file:

server { server_name SUBDOMAIN.YOUR-ROOT.DOMAIN; location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_redirect off; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade"; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header Host $host; } } 

Replace the value of the variable 'server_name' with your domain name.

Save the new site configuration file, then create a symbol link to '/etc/nginx/sites-enabled:' .

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/umami /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Check the Nginx configuration file for errors, then run systemctl to start the reverse proxy:

nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx.service

Register your Umami server with EFF:

sudo certbot register --agree-tos -m YOUR@EMAIL.ADDRESS

Run the following command to generate an SSL certificate for the website:

sudo certbot --nginx -d SUBDOMAIN.YOUR-ROOT.DOMAIN

Confirm that the Umami instance is working properly by opening a web browser and navigating to your subdomain.

Micah Soto

Update 16 July 2024