Install with one Docker command

By the end of this guide Bekci will be running on your server and you'll be able to open the panel at http://SERVER-IP:8080. Total time: about 3 minutes.

1. Install Docker#

First check whether Docker is already on your server:

docker --version

If you see a version number (e.g. Docker version 29.x), skip this step. If you see command not found, install Docker with the official install script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh

This script is maintained by Docker itself (get.docker.com); on common distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and CentOS/RHEL it installs Docker Engine together with the Compose plugin. If you prefer your distribution's package repository, follow Docker's install docs.

2. Start Bekci#

Copy the whole command below and run it on your server:

docker run -d --name bekci --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v bekci-data:/data \
  kadirsungurlu/bekci:latest

What each part does:

3. Open the panel and create the admin account#

1. Open http://SERVER-IP:8080 in your browser. Your hosting provider's dashboard shows the server's IP address; the first address printed by hostname -I on the server is usually the same.
2. On the Welcome screen enter a username (3–32 characters: letters, digits, periods, hyphens, underscores) and a password of at least 8 characters, and type the password again in Password (again).
3. Click Create account.

4. Check the firewall#

If the panel doesn't open, port 8080 is most likely closed.

• Your hosting provider's firewall (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, AWS “security group”, etc.): allow incoming connections on 8080/TCP.
• ufw: Docker adds firewall rules for the ports it publishes, so a port published with -p 8080:8080 is reachable from outside regardless of your ufw rules. If you want the opposite, i.e. the panel reachable only from the server itself, change -p 8080:8080 to -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080.

5. Set BASE_URL#

Bekci needs to know the address the panel is reached at, for links in notifications and for server agent install commands. You provide it with the BASE_URL environment variable. Environment variables are set when the container is created, so you need to recreate the container; your data lives in the volume and is kept:

docker stop bekci && docker rm bekci
docker run -d --name bekci --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v bekci-data:/data \
  -e BASE_URL=http://SERVER-IP:8080 \
  -e TZ=Europe/Istanbul \
  kadirsungurlu/bekci:latest

TZ is the time zone (used for daily summaries and the time of the nightly backup), e.g. Europe/Berlin or UTC. All options: Environment variables.

Where is your data?#

All data (the database and the automatic backups) lives in the bekci-data Docker volume, which is the /data folder inside the container:

docker exec bekci ls -la /data

Deleting the container (docker rm bekci) does not delete the data. Deleting the volume permanently deletes all data; only do that when removing Bekci for good. For backups see Updates, backups and rollback.

Everyday commands#

docker stop bekci          # stop
docker start bekci         # start
docker restart bekci       # restart
docker logs -f bekci       # follow the logs (Ctrl+C to quit)
docker logs --tail 50 bekci

The last line of a healthy startup looks like this (“Bekci başladı” means “Bekci started”):

level=INFO msg="Bekci başladı" sürüm=… adres=:8080 veri=/data saat_dilimi=Europe/Istanbul

Updating#

Pull the new image and recreate the container with the same command:

docker pull kadirsungurlu/bekci:latest
docker stop bekci && docker rm bekci

Then run the docker run command from step 5 again. To make updates a single command, we recommend Docker Compose. Don't forget to back up first: Updates, backups and rollback.

Common problems#

“port is already allocated” or “address already in use”#

Another program is using port 8080. If it's another container, docker ps --filter publish=8080 shows which one. On servers running Coolify, Coolify's proxy uses port 8080 too. Pick another port, e.g. -p 8081:8080, and open the panel at http://SERVER-IP:8081. If you use Coolify, the Coolify guide is a better fit.

The browser says the connection timed out#

Port 8080 may be closed in your provider's firewall; see step 4.

The container keeps restarting#

The line starting with hata: (“error:”) at the end of docker logs bekci tells you why. See Troubleshooting for fixes.

Removing Bekci#

docker stop bekci && docker rm bekci
docker volume rm bekci-data    # CAREFUL: permanently deletes all data