Funkwhale is available as a containerized application. This enables you to run each service in containers rather than install them on your server. You can run Funkwhale using [Docker](https://docker.com) and Docker-Compose.
```{note}
This guide assumes you are using a [Debian](https://debian.org)-based system.
```
```{contents}
:local:
```
## Before you begin
- Set a `FUNKWHALE_VERSION` variable to the version you want to install. You will use this version for all commands in this guide.
```{parsed-literal}
export FUNKWHALE_VERSION={sub-ref}`version`
```
- Install [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/) and [Docker Compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/).
2. Update `FUNKWHALE_VERSION` in the `.env` file to the `$FUNKWHALE_VERSION` variable you set earlier.
```{code} bash
sed -i "s/FUNKWHALE_VERSION=latest/FUNKWHALE_VERSION=$FUNKWHALE_VERSION/" .env
```
3. Reduce the permissions on your `.env` file to `600`. This means that only your user can read and write this file.
```{code} bash
chmod 600 /srv/funkwhale/.env
```
4. Generate a secret key for Django. This keeps your Funkwhale data secure. Do not share this key with anybody.
```{code} bash
openssl rand -base64 45
```
5. Open the `.env` file in a text editor. For this example, we will use `nano`.
```{code} bash
nano /srv/funkwhale/.env
```
6. Update the following settings:
- Paste the secret key in the `DJANGO_SECRET_KEY` field.
- Populate the `FUNKWHALE_HOSTNAME` field with the URL of your server.
7. Hit {kbd}`ctrl + x` then {kbd}`y` to save the file and close `nano`.
You're done! Your environment file is now ready to go. You can check out a full list of configuration options in our Environment file guide.
## 3. Set up Funkwhale
Once you've filled in your environment file, you can set up Funkwhale. Follow these steps to create your database and create a superuser.
1. Pull the containers to download all the required services.
```{code} bash
cd /srv/funkwhale
docker-compose pull
```
2. Bring up the database container so you can run the database migrations.
```{code} bash
docker-compose up -d postgres
```
3. Run the database migrations.
```{code} bash
docker-compose run --rm api python manage.py migrate
```
````{note}
You may see the following warning when applying migrations:
```{code}
"Your models have changes that are not yet reflected in a migration, and so won't be applied."
```
You can safely ignore this warning.
````
4. Create your superuser.
```{code} bash
docker-compose run --rm api python manage.py createsuperuser
```
5. Launch all the containers to bring up your pod.
```{code} bash
docker-compose up -d
```
That's it! Your Funkwhale pod is now up and running.
## 4. Set up your reverse proxy
Funkwhale uses a reverse proxy to serve content to users. We use [Nginx](https://nginx.com) to serve this proxy. Follow this guide to install an Nginx configuration using details from your `.env` file.
To enable your users to connect to your pod securely, you need to set up {abbr}`TLS (Transport Layer Security)`. To do this, we recommend using the <acme.sh> script.
