Question: Docker Installation Challenges

[voyager529]

How can we help?

Please share briefly:

• What you're trying to do: I'm trying to install ChurchCRM into an environment that is otherwise manged through docker-compose. Since ChurchCRM doesn't have a dedicated set of docker containers, I've been attempting to install it using a combination of nginx, mariadb, and a custom PHP dockerfile with all the needed PHP extensions. I've made good progress (and I'm looking to share my procedures once I'm successful), but I'm running into an issue just a few feet from the finish line.

Specifically, I'm getting a login loop after finishing the initial setup wizard, 'too many redirects'.

From Claude:
This is the key finding! Look at what's happening:

✅ Cookie IS being set — CRM-xxxxx=yyy — so session saving is working now
✅ Only one redirect with curl+cookies — not an infinite loop
❌ It's redirecting /session/begin → /session/begin — redirecting to itself!

• What you've tried: Steps or settings you've attempted
  This occurs after attempting to go to http://churchcrm.example.com, once the setup wizard has been completed.

• Expected behavior: What you expected to happen
  Getting a login prompt =)

Add environment details only if relevant (version, hosting type, etc.).

My Docker Compose:

services:

  churchcrm-mariadb:
    image: mariadb:11
    container_name: churchcrm-mariadb
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 12345
      MYSQL_DATABASE: churchcrm
      MYSQL_USER: churchcrm
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: 12345
    volumes:
      - churchcrm-mariadb:/var/lib/mysql

  churchcrm-php:
    image: php84-custom1
    container_name: churchcrm-php
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - churchcrm-php:/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d
      - churchcrm-www:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - churchcrm-mariadb
 
  churchcrm-nginx:
    image: nginx:stable-alpine
    container_name: churchcrm-nginx
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - churchcrm-www:/var/www/html
      - churchcrm-nginx:/etc/nginx/
    depends_on:
      - churchcrm-php

# =========================
  # PHPMYADMIN
  # =========================

  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:latest
    container_name: churchcrm-phpmyadmin
    ports:
      - "7381:80"
    environment:
      - PMA_HOST=churchcrm-mariadb
      - PMA_PORT=3306
      - TZ=America/New_York
    restart: ${RESTART_POLICY}
     
volumes:
  churchcrm-php:
  churchcrm-nginx:
  churchcrm-www:
  churchcrm-mariadb:

My Dockerfile for my php container:

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    libzip-dev \
    libicu-dev \
    libpng-dev \
    libjpeg-dev \
    libfreetype6-dev \
    libxml2-dev \
    libonig-dev \
    unzip \
    git \
    curl \
    && docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-freetype --with-jpeg \
    && docker-php-ext-install \
        pdo_mysql \
        mysqli \
        intl \
        gd \
        zip \
        mbstring \
        xml \
        opcache \
        gettext \
    && apt-get clean

My php override file:

session.save_path = /tmp
upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 25M
memory_limit = 256M

My nginx config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name crm.example.org;
    root /var/www/html;
    index index.php index.html;
    client_max_body_size 100M;

    location ^~ /setup {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /setup/index.php$is_args$args;

        location ~ \.php$ {
            include fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_pass churchcrm-php:9000;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_index index.php;
        }
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass churchcrm-php:9000;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

...I think that's everything =)

[github-actions]

Thanks for the question!

To help us answer quickly, please include:

• What you're trying to do: Your goal or workflow
• What you've tried: Steps or settings you've attempted
• Expected behavior: What you expected to happen

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👉 Admin → System Maintenance → System Logs (or click the debug icon)

Attach logs or screenshots if helpful. Please redact any private information.

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👉 Bug Reporting & Diagnostics Guide

---

Note: ChurchCRM is maintained by volunteers. While we try to respond to every question quickly, there may be a delay in our response depending on availability. Thanks for asking! 🙂

[voyager529]

So, to give an update on this...after doing a pretty good amount of work with trying to enumerate every subfolder in nginx, the realization came that this stack really does depend on Apache, and nginx isn't a drop-in replacement in this context, so I'm trying another build with Apache instead; I'll provide my build and compose files once I've got it running.

As an added bonus, I'm looking forward to integrating this with Authentik via LDAP, so once i've got that done, I'm looking forward to providing procedures for that as well =)

[voyager529]

Okay, I solved my problem, AND have a set of procedures for anyone who wants to do this in Docker!

For starters, my procedures involve using DietPi and Portainer. Feel free to adapt them to whatever system you're using; the core is there. I'm also assuming that DietPi is already installed, with docker, docker-compose, and portainer as a part of the install.

1. In Portainer, go to Images>Build Image. Name the image 'churchcrm-apache1'. In the web editor, paste this:

    FROM php:8.4-apache
    RUN a2enmod rewrite
    RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
        libldap2-dev libicu-dev libzip-dev libpng-dev libonig-dev libxml2-dev \
        && docker-php-ext-install \
    mysqli pdo_mysql gd intl mbstring zip gettext exif bcmath ldap xml opcache

2. go to Stacks>Add Stack. Name it 'churchcrm', and paste this:

version: "3.9"

services:

  # =========================
  # MARIADB
  # =========================

  churchcrm-mariadb:
    image: mariadb:latest
    container_name: churchcrm-mariadb
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: 12345 #CHANGE THIS!!
      MYSQL_DATABASE: churchcrm
      MYSQL_USER: churchcrm
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: 12345 #CHANGE THIS!!!
    volumes:
      - churchcrm-mariadb:/var/lib/mysql
    networks:
      - church-internal
 
 
  # =========================
  # APACHE/PHP
  # =========================
  churchcrm-apache:
    image: churchcrm-apache1
    container_name: churchcrm-apache
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
       - "80:80" #ASSUMES 80 IS AVAILABLE; CHANGE IF NEEDED
    volumes:
       - churchcrm-www:/var/www/html
       - churchcrm-php:/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/
       - churchcrm-apache:/etc/apache2
    depends_on:
       - churchcrm-mariadb
    networks:
       - church-internal
 
  # =========================
  # PHPMYADMIN - OPTIONAL BUT HELPFUL
  # =========================

  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:latest
    container_name: churchcrm-phpmyadmin
    ports:
      - "81:80" #ASSUMES 81 IS AVAILABLE
    environment:
      - PMA_HOST=churchcrm-mariadb
      - PMA_PORT=3306
      - TZ=America/New_York
    restart: ${RESTART_POLICY}
    networks:
      - church-internal

networks:
  church-internal:
volumes:
  churchcrm-apache:
  churchcrm-php:
  churchcrm-www:
  churchcrm-mariadb:

3. Deploy the stack, fixing any errors (likely spacing). Once deployed, stop the stack.

4. Open an SSH session to the DietPi server and get ChurchCRM files where they need to be (again, assuming DietPi and a verbatim copy of the docker-compose file from step 2):

curl -L https://github.com/ChurchCRM/CRM/releases/latest/download/ChurchCRM.zip -o /tmp/churchcrm.zip && unzip /tmp/churchcrm.zip -d /tmp/churchcrm_extract && cp -r /tmp/churchcrm_extract/*/* /mnt/dietpi_userdata/docker-data/volumes/churchcrm_churchcrm-www/_data && rm -rf /tmp/churchcrm.zip /tmp/churchcrm_extract && chown 33:33 -R /mnt/dietpi_userdata/docker-data/volumes/churchcrm_churchcrm-www/_data

Also note that the file name might be different; to check, run this command, and use its output to replace the URL in the previous step:

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/ChurchCRM/CRM/releases/latest | grep browser_download_url

Finally, keep this command around, because its pieces will be super helpful updating ChurchCRM down the road.

5. add some PHP overrides by creating an override file:

nano -c /mnt/dietpi_userdata/docker-data/volumes/churchcrm_churchcrm-php/_data//churchcrm.ini

And then paste the following:

session.save_path = /tmp
upload_max_filesize = 20M
post_max_size = 25M
memory_limit = 256M
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_NOTICE
display_errors = Off
log_errors = On

Ctrl + X to save and close.

6. A quick Apache config tweak:

sed -i 's/AllowOverride None/AllowOverride All/g' /mnt/dietpi_userdata/docker-data/volumes/churchcrm-apache_churchcrm-apache/_data/apache2.conf

7. And last, but never least, add a hosts file entry in your system to make your intended FQDN point to the DietPi IP (e.g. in Windows, open c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in an administrative notepad and add '192.168.1.10 churchcrm.example.org'). Then, on the DietPi server:

nano -c /mnt/dietpi_userdata/docker-data/volumes/churchcrm_churchcrm-www/_data/Include/Config.php

and change line 35 to be your FQDN.

8. Open the FQDN and go through the initial setup config screens!!

...the ultimate takeaway here is that getting ChurchCRM to work with Nginx as a webserver is a WHOLE headache; use Apache and reverse-proxy it. It'll save you the hours of work it took me to finally realize that ChurchCRM is WAY easier to deploy this way.

I hope this helps someone save the roughly-nine-hours I spent trying to do it the wrong way!!