Install on a Linux server

On Linux, install scripts set Lumiverb up as a set of services, with its own PostgreSQL and nginx in front. There are two ways: on the internet with a domain name and a certificate, or on your home network without one.

What it needs#

• Ubuntu 22.04 or later, and a user who can use sudo.
• 4 GB of memory or more. With less and no swap, the install says so: finding faces, search and transcripts can need more than that at once.
• Room for what Lumiverb makes: about 15 GB per 100,000 photos, and up to 1 GB per hour of video. They can go on another disk (--data-dir, below).
• Your photos and videos in folders this machine can read: on its own disks, or mounted from a NAS.

The folders it may read#

Lumiverb reads a library only in folders you list when you install it, each with --root-map. For a folder that's at the same place for you and for Lumiverb, both sides are the same path:

--root-map /srv/photos=/srv/photos

List each top folder your libraries will be in, with one --root-map for each. A library outside them is never read (the log says it's refused). To add one later, run the install command again with the new --root-map (it keeps everything else).

On the internet, with a domain#

With a domain name already pointing at the server (an A record to its address), one command installs everything: PostgreSQL 18, nginx with a certificate from Let's Encrypt, the web app and the processing.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bubbafat/lumiverb/main/scripts/deploy-vps.sh | sudo bash -s -- --domain photos.example.org --email you@example.org --worker --root-map /srv/photos=/srv/photos

Put your own domain and email in place of the examples. --worker makes this machine do the processing: leave it in. Add --data-dir /mnt/big/lumiverb to keep what Lumiverb makes on another disk.

It checks that the domain points here before it asks for a certificate, and says which record to add if it doesn't. The firewall lets in SSH, HTTP and HTTPS only.

On your home network#

Without a domain, Lumiverb answers on the server's address over HTTP. Get the scripts:

git clone https://github.com/bubbafat/lumiverb.git

Install the API and the processing, with the address people will open (here the server is 192.168.1.50):

sudo bash lumiverb/scripts/deploy-api.sh --app-host http://192.168.1.50 --worker --root-map /srv/photos=/srv/photos

Then the web app, answering on any name or address:

sudo bash lumiverb/scripts/deploy-web.sh --domain _ --api-upstream http://127.0.0.1:8000

Together they turn on the firewall, letting in SSH, HTTP and HTTPS only. If the server runs other services that people reach, add --no-firewall to both and keep your own firewall.

Either way, add --dry-run to see the settings it will use without changing anything. Running a script again is safe: it keeps the settings it was given before.

Create your account#

The install has nobody who can sign in yet. Create the first account on the server; it asks for your email and a password (12 characters or more):

sudo /opt/lumiverb/.venv/bin/lumiverb-server setup --env /etc/lumiverb/env

You can do it in the web app instead, but its setup page works only from the server itself: from another computer, reach it through an SSH tunnel. Do this before you put any tunnel or proxy in front of Lumiverb.

Then open Lumiverb in a browser, sign in, and follow First steps. When you add a library, its folder is the path on the server, inside a folder you listed with --root-map.

Where things are#

Lumiverb runs as these services: lumiverb-api, lumiverb-scheduler (the processing), lumiverb-plugins, and nginx. The API listens on this machine only, behind nginx. To restart the API:

sudo systemctl restart lumiverb-api

To update to a new version, see Updating.

Email for password resets#

Without email, a forgotten password is reset on the server with lumiverb-server reset-password. To have Lumiverb send reset links by email, fill in the SMTP_ lines in /etc/lumiverb/env and restart the API.