Getting Started

Welcome to Terrarium. Before you install, it helps to understand a few key concepts so you can set up your server exactly how you want it.

This section covers everything you need to know to get up and running:

• Installation: The step-by-step process for getting Terrarium onto your VPS.
• Creating Your First Instance: How to spin up your first container and publish an app to the web.
• Templating Containers with trm launch: How to turn repeatable app setup into one launch command with Ansible, Docker Compose, variables, and proxy labels.
• Storage and Sizing: How to choose the right hardware and structure your storage for the best performance and snapshot capabilities.
• Domains and Authentication: Setting up custom domains and choosing how you want to handle Single Sign-On (SSO) for your private apps.
• Management GUIs: A quick tour of the built-in visual dashboards you get right out of the box.
• Shared Data Between Containers: How to let your isolated environments safely share files.
• External Shared Storage: Connecting Terrarium to external storage solutions like Hetzner Storage Boxes.

🗺️ Recommended Path

To get off to the best start, we recommend following these steps:

1. Plan your storage: Decide if your provider allows you to attach a separate block volume (highly recommended for performance and backups).
2. Pick a domain: Decide whether you want to use your own custom domain or rely on Terrarium's automatically generated traefik.me domains.
3. Choose your login method: Decide if you want to use Terrarium's built-in local identity provider (ZITADEL) or bring your own (like Google, GitHub, or Auth0).
4. Install: Run the automated setup script.

Creating your VPS right now? Check out our Provider Guides for specific setup instructions for DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, and others.