Hermes Docker Deployment

A Docker-based deployment for the Hermes backend and frontend applications.

Quickstart

Follow these steps to set up and run Hermes using Docker:

1. Clone Hermes repos

Create a folder for Hermes-related repos:

mkdir hermes && cd hermes

Clone Hermes repos:

git clone https://github.com/toadmaninteractive/hermes-backend
git clone https://github.com/toadmaninteractive/hermes-frontend
git clone https://github.com/toadmaninteractive/hermes-docker

2. Build Hermes backend image

Open hermes-backend dir and run:

docker build -t hermes-backend:latest .

3. Build Hermes frontend image

Open hermes-frontend dir and run:

docker build -t hermes-frontend:latest --build-arg BUILD_ENV=production .

4. Create dedicated Docker network

docker network create hermes

5. Configure Hermes

Open hermes-docker dir and create a configuration file from an example:

cp config.yaml.example config.yaml

Edit the config.yaml file:

• Fill in your LDAP settings (LDAP server address and bind user CN / password)
• Set admin_group to the correct group name containing users who will be Hermes administrators

6. Run Docker Compose

docker compose up -d

7. Prepare database

Connect to the Hermes backend interactive console:

docker compose exec hermes-backend /app/bin/server remote --sname remote --cookie hcookie --remsh hermes_local

In the console, type the following commands:

Repo.Seeds.run(:prod)
Hermes.sync_ldap()

Exit the console by pressing Ctrl+G, then Q, and finally Enter.

Accessing Hermes in a browser

After completing the Quickstart guide, Hermes will be running in Docker containers. To access the web interface through a browser, you'll need to set up a reverse proxy.

We provide two recommended approaches:

Option 1: Local Proxy Setup

Configure a local proxy server such as nginx to route traffic to the Hermes containers.

Option 2: Traefik Proxy (Recommended for Production)

We provide a pre-configured Traefik setup for production deployments. Traefik automatically handles SSL termination, load balancing, and routing.

Prerequisites for Traefik

• Registered domain name pointing to your server
• SSL certificates (certificate chain and private key)

Traefik Configuration Steps

1. Prepare SSL certificates

• Save your certificate chain as cert_key_chain.crt
• Save your private key as private.key
• Place both files in the traefik/certs directory

2. Configure your domain

• Edit traefik/conf/dynamic/hermes.yml
• Replace hermes.yourcompany.com with your actual domain name

3. Start Traefik

Run this command from the docker directory:

docker compose up -d

4. Stop Traefik

Run this command from the docker directory:

docker compose down

Verification

After starting Traefik, access Hermes at https://your-domain.com (replace with your actual domain). The proxy automatically handles SSL encryption and redirects HTTP traffic to HTTPS.

Additional notes

• Ensure your firewall allows traffic on ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS)
• DNS records should point to your server's public IP address
• Certificate files must be in PEM format
• Traefik automatically monitors container changes and updates routing accordingly