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Excalidraw Excalidraw

Stack

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Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Ports
3111:80
Volumes
/opt/node_app/app : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw//opt/node_app/package.json : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/package.json/opt/node_app/yarn.lock : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/yarn.lock/opt/node_app/app/node_modules : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/notused
Env vars
NODE_ENV=development
Restart
on-failure
Build
[object Object]
Source
Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select Excalidraw, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  excalidraw:
    build:
      context: .
      args:
        - NODE_ENV=development
    container_name: excalidraw
    ports:
      - "3111:80"
    restart: on-failure
    stdin_open: true
    healthcheck:
      disable: true
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=development
    volumes:
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/:/opt/node_app/app:delegated
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/package.json:/opt/node_app/package.json
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/yarn.lock:/opt/node_app/yarn.lock
      - /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/notused:/opt/node_app/app/node_modules

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/excalidraw.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Serve Excalidraw on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying excalidraw.example.com to http://excalidraw:80

Add this to your Caddyfile

excalidraw.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://excalidraw:80
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:3111 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :3111
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 3111:80 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: http://your-server-ip:3111. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, excalidraw can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 3111

Permission denied on volumes

If the logs show "permission denied", the app can't write to its data folder on the host.

  • Fix the ownership: sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/ (and the same for the other mapped folders)

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

Excalidraw is a Compose stack, a set of containers defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 3111:80 means it's reachable on port 3111 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. Once it's running, open http://your-server-ip:3111 in a browser. It opens:

  • 3111:80, likely the web interface

Volumes

A volume is where Excalidraw keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /opt/node_app/app from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/ on the host
  • /opt/node_app/package.json from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/package.json on the host
  • /opt/node_app/yarn.lock from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/yarn.lock on the host
  • /opt/node_app/app/node_modules from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/excalidraw/notused on the host

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Excalidraw takes 1 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:

  • NODE_ENV, defaults to development

Restart policy

The restart policy here is on-failure, so Excalidraw only gets restarted when it exits with an error, not when it finishes cleanly or you stop it yourself. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Health check

A health check is how Docker tells whether Excalidraw is really working, not just switched on. It uses the check built into the image and flags the container as unhealthy if that keeps failing.

Networking

Nothing custom is set, so Excalidraw sits on Docker's default bridge network: its own private space that reaches the outside world only through the ports it publishes.

Container name

Once it's deployed, Portainer names the container excalidraw. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs excalidraw.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Excalidraw up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Excalidraw is a click rather than a wall of config.