Halo
Stack
Website and blogging platform with a rich editor, themes, plugins, comments and pages, run from a web console. This one runs on Postgres. Source: https://github.com/halo-dev/halo
Source details
Configuration
TypeComposelinuxHALO_DB_PASSWORD=''HALO_PORT=8091HALO_TZ=UTCunless-stoppedTemplate by NotAFlightRisk·Source
Report issueNotes
openssl rand -hex 32 makes a good one), since the stack won't start without it. Then open http://<your-host>:8091 (or whichever port you picked) from the address you'll actually use, since the setup page saves it as the site's External URL. That page also creates the admin, and whoever reaches it first gets to, so do it straight away. The console is at /console. The sample post, About page, menu and category it starts with are in Chinese whatever language you pick, so rename or delete them there. Posts and settings live in Postgres, in the postgres-data volume, and uploads, themes and plugins in halo-data. Docs (in Chinese): docs.halo.runServices
halo
Configuration
Imagehalohub/halo:2${HALO_PORT:-8091}:8090/root/.halo2 : halo-dataTZ=${HALO_TZ:-UTC}SPRING_R2DBC_URL=r2dbc:pool:postgresql://postgres/haloSPRING_R2DBC_USERNAME=haloSPRING_R2DBC_PASSWORD=${HALO_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}SPRING_SQL_INIT_PLATFORM=postgresqlunless-stoppedImage details
postgres
Configuration
Imagepostgres:17-alpine/var/lib/postgresql/data : postgres-dataPOSTGRES_DB=haloPOSTGRES_USER=haloPOSTGRES_PASSWORD=${HALO_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}unless-stoppedImage details
Standalone Install
Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Halo
Install on Portainer
Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys
- Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
- Log into your Portainer web UI
- Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
- Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
- Select Halo, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy
Template Import URL
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me
Original stackfile
The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:
services:
halo:
image: halohub/halo:2
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "${HALO_PORT:-8091}:8090"
environment:
TZ: ${HALO_TZ:-UTC}
SPRING_R2DBC_URL: r2dbc:pool:postgresql://postgres/halo
SPRING_R2DBC_USERNAME: halo
SPRING_R2DBC_PASSWORD: ${HALO_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
SPRING_SQL_INIT_PLATFORM: postgresql
volumes:
- halo-data:/root/.halo2
depends_on:
postgres:
condition: service_healthy
postgres:
image: postgres:17-alpine
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
POSTGRES_DB: halo
POSTGRES_USER: halo
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${HALO_DB_PASSWORD:?Set a database password}
volumes:
- postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U halo -d halo"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 5s
retries: 5
volumes:
halo-data:
postgres-data:
Or deploy it directly from the source:
git clone https://github.com/NotAFlightRisk/portainer-templates-extras
cd portainer-templates-extras
docker compose -f apps/halo/compose.yml up -dMore install options in our documentation, or see halo-dev/halo for app-specific guidance.
Container Documentation
halo Documentation
强大易用的开源建站工具。
postgres Documentation
The PostgreSQL object-relational database system provides reliability and data integrity.
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:
137means killed, usually out of memory.126or127means the command inside the image is broken.
Image won't pull
Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull halohub/halo:2
- "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
- "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with
docker loginto raise it. - "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with
docker system prune
"exec format error"
This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.
- Check yours with
uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.
Container keeps restarting
The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.
- Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
- Get the exit code with
docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}' - Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to
noso the failure stays visible.
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.
- Bug within the app: Open an issue on halo-dev/halo
- Template not working: Open an issue on NotAFlightRisk/portainer-templates-extras
- This website not working: Open an issue on lissy93/portainer-templates
A Compose stack
Halo is a Compose stack, a set of containers (2 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.
The services
This stack is built from 2 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:
halorunshalohub/halo:2, starts after postgrespostgresrunspostgres:17-alpine
Volumes
A volume is where Halo 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:
/root/.halo2kept in thehalo-datavolume Docker manages/var/lib/postgresql/datakept in thepostgres-datavolume Docker manages
Environment variables
Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Halo takes 8 of them, and 2 need a value before it'll start properly:
TZ, defaults toUTCSPRING_R2DBC_URL, defaults tor2dbc:pool:postgresql://postgres/haloSPRING_R2DBC_USERNAME, defaults tohaloSPRING_R2DBC_PASSWORD, needs a valueSPRING_SQL_INIT_PLATFORM, defaults topostgresqlPOSTGRES_DB, defaults tohaloPOSTGRES_USER, defaults tohaloPOSTGRES_PASSWORD, needs a value
Restart policy
The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts Halo after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. 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).
Networking
Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like halo) while only the ports above are open to you.
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.
Open source license
Halo is open source, released under the GPL-3.0 license. In plain terms the code is out in the open, so you're free to run it and change it to fit what you need.
Portainer app templates
Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Halo up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Halo is a click rather than a wall of config.