Self-hosting

rexctl installs Fluxer on one machine and keeps it running. To run Fluxer on a Kubernetes cluster, use the Helm chart.

What you need

A 64-bit Linux, macOS or Windows machine with at least 2 CPU cores, 4 GB of memory and 20 GB of free disk space. That's enough for about 1,000 people online at the same time. rexctl sizes Fluxer to the machine's memory and CPUs every time it starts, and a bigger machine needs no extra settings.
On macOS and Windows, Docker Desktop. On Linux, rexctl installs Docker for you if it's missing.
A domain or subdomain for your instance, such as chat.example.com.
An A record for that domain pointing to the machine's public IP address. rexctl checks it before it asks for a certificate.

Open TCP ports 80, 443 and 7881 and UDP ports 443 and 7882 in any firewall outside the machine, such as your hosting provider's firewall. On a home network, forward the same ports from your router to the machine. rexctl can open them in the machine's own firewall for you.

Install

On Linux or macOS:

curl -fsSL https://fluxer.dev/install.sh | sh

On Windows, run this in PowerShell:

irm https://fluxer.dev/install.ps1 | iex

On Linux or macOS, start the install with this command to put your own reverse proxy, such as Caddy or nginx, in front of Fluxer.

curl -fsSL https://fluxer.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- install --behind-proxy --bind 127.0.0.1:8080

Fluxer then listens on 127.0.0.1:8080 for your proxy. The plain install command also asks whether you want this when another program already uses port 80 or 443 on the machine.

The script downloads rexctl and starts it. Answer its questions, and when it's done, rexctl prints your instance's address.

rexctl asks where you want to create your admin account. "Here in the terminal" creates it during the install. "In my browser" prints a setup token at the end, and your instance asks for that token the first time you open it. If you lose the token, run rexctl setup token to show it again.

Once you've created the admin account, people can open your instance's address in a browser or enter it in the desktop and mobile apps.

Without a public IP address

Behind CGNAT, or anywhere you can't forward ports, serve Fluxer through a tunnel such as Cloudflare Tunnel. Start the install with the --behind-proxy command and point the tunnel at http://127.0.0.1:8080. In this mode rexctl only checks that your domain resolves to some address.

Calls don't go through a tunnel, and they need a TURN server on a machine with a public address, as Voice behind a tunnel explains.

To run Fluxer only on your own network, use a name that isn't on the public internet, such as chat.home.arpa or fluxer.internal. rexctl skips the DNS check for names like these and for IP addresses. Make the name resolve to the machine on every device, through your router's DNS or each device's hosts file. Only devices on your network can open the instance.

Fluxer gets certificates for names ending in .home.arpa, .internal, .local or .localhost from its own local certificate authority. Browsers and apps don't trust it until you install its root certificate on each device. This command copies the root certificate out of the instance.

docker cp "$(docker ps --format '{{.Names}}' | grep -m1 edge)":/data/caddy/pki/authorities/local/root.crt fluxer-root.crt

For any other private name, run rexctl config set FLUXER_EDGE_TLS internal to use the same local certificate authority.

Where Fluxer keeps its files

Fluxer uses three places on the machine:

The instance folder has your settings, the files rexctl makes for Docker and your backups. It's /opt/fluxer when you install as root and ~/fluxer otherwise.
Docker's data root has the images and all of Fluxer's data, such as the database, uploads and search index. It's /var/lib/docker on most Linux machines.
The backup folder is backups in the instance folder unless you choose another one with rexctl backup location <folder>.

The install needs 20 GB free on the disk with the instance folder and on the disk with Docker's data root. If either one is short, rexctl says which path it is.

To put Fluxer on a second drive, set data-root in /etc/docker/daemon.json to a folder on that drive and restart Docker before you install. Docker then keeps the images and data on that drive. Start the install with --dir and a folder on the same drive.

curl -fsSL https://fluxer.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- install --dir /mnt/data/fluxer

After you install

Once your instance is running, these pages help you look after it.

Run your instance to upgrade, back up and manage people.
Put Fluxer behind your own proxy if another web server on the machine already uses ports 80 and 443.
The rexctl reference lists every command and flag.

If you get stuck, ask in Fluxer Developers or open an issue on GitHub.