LimeSurvey Docker

Dockerfile to build a LimeSurvey Image for the Docker container platform.

Quick reference

• Maintained by: https://github.com/martialblog/
• Where to get help: GitHub Issues

Supported tags and respective Dockerfile links

• 6-apache, 6.<BUILD-NUMBER>-apache, latest
• 6-fpm, 6.<BUILD-NUMBER>-fpm
• 6-fpm-alpine, 6.<BUILD-NUMBER>-fpm-alpine
• 5-apache, 5.<BUILD-NUMBER>-apache, latest
• 5-fpm, 5.<BUILD-NUMBER>-fpm
• 5-fpm-alpine, 5.<BUILD-NUMBER>-fpm-alpine

Using the Apache Image

The apache image comes with an Apache Webserver and PHP installed.

This image is also available in a rootless variant with www-data as default user and Apache listening on 8080. Starting from 5.0, the rootless variant is the default for Apache images.

Apache Configuration

To change to Apache Webserver configuration, mount a Volume into the Container at:

• /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

See the example configuration provided.

The Apache port can be specified by setting the environment variable LISTEN_PORT (e.g. LISTEN_PORT=8080). Starting from 5.0, Apache defaults to listening on a non-privilged port (8080) in inside the container.

Using the fpm Image

To use the fpm image, you need an additional web server that can proxy http-request to the fpm-port of the container. See docker-compose.fpm.yml for example.

Using the fpm Image with HTTPS

If you would like to run the fpm setup with https, you can get a free certificate from Letsencrypt. As an example, the configuration in docker-compose.fpm-certbot.yml will take care of getting a certificate and installing it. Please note that you will have to adjust the domain name in the file examples/nginx-certbot.conf to match the domain used in the HOSTNAMES variable in the docker-compose configuration file. If you added both the a domain and the hostname www within the domain, nginx-certbot.conf needs to contain the domain without the hostname. E.g. if you set "HOSTNAMES=example.org www.example.org", the path in nginx-certbot.conf needs to contain example.org.

Using an external database

LimeSurvey requires an external database (MySQL, PostgreSQL) to run. See docker-compose.yml for example.

Persistent data

To preserve the uploaded files assign the upload folder into a volume. See docker-compose.yml for example.

Path: /var/www/html/upload/surveys

Hint: The mounted directory must be owned by the webserver user (e.g. www-data)

LimeSurvey configuration

The entrypoint will create a new config.php if none is provided and run the LimeSurvey command line interface for installation.

Hint: Changing the ADMIN_ configuration has no effect after the initial configuration. It's best to do this within the application.

To change to LimeSurvey configuration, you can mount a Volume into the Container at:

• /my-data/config.php:/var/www/html/application/config/config.php

Hint: If this configuration is present before the installation, the LimeSurvey Web Installer will not run automatically.

Data encryption

LimeSurvey version 4.0 and newer support data encryption, this image give you these options:

• Provide a security.php file directly (volume)
• Provide encryption keys for the security.php file (environment variables)
• Provide nothing and get a non-persistent security.php file

For further details on the settings see: https://manual.limesurvey.org/Data_encryption

Reverse Proxy configuration

If you are running LimeSurvey behind a Reverse Proxy you might need some additional configuration in the Proxy. For example:

• Apache: ProxyPreserveHost On
• Nginx: fastcgi_param HTTP_HOST my-survey.example.local;
• Traefik: Set the Host Header explicitly via a customRequestHeaders

Traefik example

Hint: if you want to deploy LimeSurvey on a sub-path (e.g. https://example.com/limesurvey) you have to set the BASE_URL and adjust the Containers Webservers. See the docker-compose Traefik example in the repository.

# BASE_URL = /limesurvey
"traefik.http.routers.limesurvey.rule=PathPrefix(`/limesurvey`)",
"traefik.http.routers.limesurvey.middlewares=strip-limesurvey@docker",
"traefik.http.middlewares.strip-limesurvey.stripprefix.prefixes=/limesurvey",

Environment Variables

Sensitive information can also be passed _FILE to the following environment variables to load the values from the given file path. Example DB_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/db_password.

DB_PASSWORD_FILE
ADMIN_PASSWORD_FILE
ENCRYPT_KEYPAIR_FILE
ENCRYPT_PUBLIC_KEY_FILE
ENCRYPT_SECRET_KEY_FILE
ENCRYPT_NONCE_FILE
ENCRYPT_SECRET_BOX_KEY_FILE

For further details on the settings see: https://manual.limesurvey.org/Optional_settings#Advanced_Path_Settings

Running LimeSurvey with docker-compose

The easiest way to get a fully featured and functional setup is using a docker-compose file. Several examples are provided in the repository.

Hint: You need to configure a database and Limesurvey password in the docker-compose files before starting. No defaults are provided to discourage production use with default passwords.

docker-compose up

# Frontend
http://localhost:8080/

# Backend
http://localhost:8080/index.php/admin

Running LimeSurvey with Helm

A Helm Chart for this Image can be used for deployments. Please refer to the Helm Repository for further details:

https://github.com/martialblog/helm-charts

Upgrade Guide

These guides are only referring to the Docker Image, for details on the application users should consult the official LimeSurvey documentation for details.

Upgrading the FPM Images

If you are using docker-compose to run the FPM Images, you need to stop the application and webserver Containers and delete the application volume:

$ docker volume ls
DRIVER    VOLUME NAME
local     docker-limesurvey_lime

$ docker volume rm docker-limesurvey_lime

Upgrading to 6.0 from 5.x

The LimeSurvey 6 Images will use PHP 8.1 as Base Images.

LimeSurvey 5 will become the new LTS. LimeSurvey 3 is deprecated and will no longer be supported.

Upgrading to 5.0 from 4.x

The default user in the Container will now be www-data (uid 33 in Debian, uid 82 in Alpine), any volumes mounted need the corresponding permissions:

# Debian
$ ls -ln upload/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 3 33 33 4096 Jun  3 13:51 surveys

# Alpine
$ ls -ln upload/
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 3 82 82 4096 Jun  3 13:51 surveys

If you are using the Apache2 Images, the default port will now be 8080. Depending on your setup the port configurations might need adjustment.

Known Issues

LimeSurvey behind a reverse proxy with a subdirectory

When running LimeSurvey behind a reverse proxy with a subdirectory (i.e. example.com/limesurvey), the admin area might not be displayed correctly due to a routing issue. The application will forward you to the BASE URL regardless.

This might be fixed by setting the HTTP Host Header in the reverse proxy explicitly.

See:

• https://github.com/martialblog/docker-limesurvey/issues/127

References

• https://www.limesurvey.org/
• https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/