HealthLog/docs/self-hosting/truenas.md

HealthLog on TrueNAS SCALE

HealthLog runs on TrueNAS SCALE as a Docker app: one app container from ghcr.io/mbombeck/healthlog and one PostgreSQL 16 database. The app container is stateless; everything you care about lives in the database dataset and in one value you must keep yourself: the encryption key.

What the app needs

Setting	Value
Image	ghcr.io/mbombeck/healthlog, tag X.Y.Z (amd64 and arm64)
Port	3000 (HTTP)
User	runs as uid 1001; no extra capabilities, no-new-privileges is fine
Health check	GET /api/health, 200 when ready
Start period	at least 60 s, with more retries than the image's 3 × 30 s: migrations run at every boot
Database	PostgreSQL 16 (17 and later are not a drop-in), no extensions
Volumes	none for the app; the database gets its own dataset

Environment

Variable	Required	Notes
DATABASE_URL	yes	postgresql://<user>:<password>@<host>:5432/<db>
ENCRYPTION_KEY	yes	64 hex characters: openssl rand -hex 32. Keep a copy outside the NAS (see below).
API_TOKEN_HMAC_KEY	yes	64 hex characters, generated the same way. Changing it signs everyone out.
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL	yes	the address people open, for example http://truenas.local:30180
APP_URL	yes	the same address
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE	no	false for a LAN install served over plain http://; leave unset behind an HTTPS proxy
HEALTHLOG_PLATFORM	no	truenas: the admin's key backup step opens on the TrueNAS instructions
GEOLITE2_DIR	no	a mounted directory of GeoLite2 .mmdb files, so sign-in locations are resolved on the NAS

HEALTHLOG_PROCESS_TYPE stays unset (all): one container serves the web app and runs the background jobs.

Plain HTTP on the LAN

Most NAS installs are reached over http://. Set SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE=false for that. If it is left at its default, the browser drops the sign-in cookie and the login page says so before you type a password: "This server only sets its sign-in cookie over https://".

Back up your encryption key

HealthLog encrypts tokens, notes, documents and in-database backups with ENCRYPTION_KEY. The key is not stored in the database. If the app is deleted and reinstalled with a new key over the old database dataset, the data is still there but cannot be read.

1. Copy ENCRYPTION_KEY from the app's settings (Apps, HealthLog, Edit, Environment) into your password manager.

2. Sign in as the admin and open Admin, Encryption. The step shows the key id and a fingerprint, the first 12 hex characters of SHA-256 over the key. Compare it with your copy:

   echo -n "<your key>" | xxd -r -p | sha256sum | cut -c1-12
   

   or paste the copy into "Check my copy" (it is compared and dropped, never stored or logged).

3. Confirm the backup. Until you do, admins see a reminder on the dashboard. After a key rotation the step comes back for the new key.

When the key does not match the database

At every start HealthLog checks that its key opens the data already in the database. If it does not, it refuses to serve instead of failing on every encrypted value: pages show "HealthLog cannot open its data", API requests answer 503 with meta.errorCode encryption.key_mismatch, /api/health answers 503 with reason: "encryption_key_mismatch", and no background jobs run. TrueNAS shows the app as unhealthy rather than crashed, so the reason stays visible.

Fix it one of three ways, then restart the app:

1. Put the original ENCRYPTION_KEY back.
2. Point DATABASE_URL at the database that belongs to this key.
3. Start fresh with an empty database. The old data and its backups need the old key.

Before it records a key as the right one, the check reads the oldest encrypted values in the database and records the key only if they open (or if the database holds no encrypted value under that key id yet). When the data proves neither, the app keeps serving, records nothing, writes a warning starting with [boot] Encryption key check inconclusive to the log, and checks again at the next start.

Resetting the check

If you are certain the configured key is the one the data was written with, and the app still refuses because the check recorded a different key earlier, remove that record and restart. Open a shell on the database container (Apps, HealthLog, the database container's Shell) and run, with the key id the log names (v1 unless you use ENCRYPTION_KEYS):

psql -U healthlog healthlog \
  -c "DELETE FROM encryption_key_canaries WHERE key_id = 'v1';"

Then restart the app. It probes the stored data again and records the key only if that data opens with it. If the key is in fact wrong, the app then fails on every encrypted value instead of refusing clearly, so only do this when you are sure. After a key rotation you never need this for the old key id: the rotation script removes its record once no values remain under it.

On a first start there is no record to remove. If the check refuses there and you are certain the key is right, add ENCRYPTION_KEY_CHECK = warn under Apps, HealthLog, Edit, Environment as a last resort. The check still runs and logs, /api/health reports warning: "encryption_key_mismatch" without failing, the app serves, and no key is recorded until the check passes. This switches off a safety check: with a wrong key every encrypted value fails and new data is written under that key. Remove the setting once the key is confirmed.

Updates

Pick the new tag, take a snapshot of the database dataset first, and update. Migrations run on start; the first start of a new install applies all of them, which is why the start period above is generous.