Skip to main content

Planka Runbook

Last Verified: 2026-02-17 | Owner: John

Runbook: Planka

Service Type: Kanban Board / Project Management Container: planka (ghcr.io/plankanban/planka:2.0.0-rc.4) Ports: 3100 (external) → 1337 (internal) External URL: https://boards.basicconsulting.no Database: PostgreSQL 15 (planka-db) Compose File: ~/system/services/planka/docker-compose.yml

Service Info

Planka is the visual project management tool for BasicAS Group. Kanban-style boards for task tracking.

Stack:

  • planka - Main app (RC4)
  • planka-db - PostgreSQL 15 (alpine)

External Access:

  • Exposed via Cloudflare Tunnel: boards.basicconsulting.no
  • Trust proxy enabled for correct client IPs

Admin Access:

  • Web UI: http://localhost:3100 (local) or https://boards.basicconsulting.no
  • Username: john
  • Password: BasicAS2026!
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Database: postgresql://postgres@planka-db/planka (internal only, no auth)

Status Check

Container Health

docker ps | grep planka

Expected output:

planka        Up X hours (healthy)
planka-db     Up X hours (healthy)

HTTP Check

curl -I http://localhost:3100

Expected: 200 OK or 302 Found

External Access Check

curl -I https://boards.basicconsulting.no

Expected: 200 OK or 302 Found

Database Check

docker exec planka-db psql -U postgres -d planka -c "SELECT count(*) FROM \"user\";"

Restart Procedure

Quick Restart (Container Only)

docker restart planka

Full Stack Restart (Container + Database)

cd ~/system/services/planka
docker compose down
docker compose up -d

Wait 30 seconds for healthcheck to pass, then verify:

docker ps | grep planka
curl -I http://localhost:3100

Troubleshooting

Problem: Container won't start

Check logs:

docker logs planka --tail 100

Common causes:

  1. Database not ready - wait 30s and retry
  2. Port 3100 already bound - check lsof -i :3100
  3. Volume permission issues - check docker volumes

Fix:

cd ~/system/services/planka
docker compose down
docker compose up -d planka-db
sleep 30
docker compose up -d planka

Problem: Login issues (can't sign in with admin credentials)

Check environment variables:

docker exec planka env | grep DEFAULT_ADMIN

Expected:

[email protected]
DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD=BasicAS2026!
DEFAULT_ADMIN_NAME=John AI
DEFAULT_ADMIN_USERNAME=john

If admin was changed in UI, default credentials won't work. Reset via database:

docker exec planka-db psql -U postgres -d planka -c "SELECT email, username FROM \"user\" WHERE \"isAdmin\" = true;"

Problem: 502 Bad Gateway (external access)

Check container is running:

docker ps | grep planka

Check Cloudflare tunnel:

cloudflared tunnel info boards

Check BASE_URL:

docker exec planka env | grep BASE_URL

Expected: BASE_URL=https://boards.basicconsulting.no

Problem: Database connection issues

Check database health:

docker exec planka-db pg_isready -U postgres -d planka

Check connection string:

docker exec planka env | grep DATABASE_URL

Expected: DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres@planka-db/planka

API Access

Planka has a REST API. Example:

Get Boards (requires auth token)

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>" http://localhost:3100/api/boards

Get Token:

  1. Login via UI
  2. Inspect browser Network tab → find accessToken in response
  3. Or use user credentials to authenticate programmatically

Dependencies

  • Docker - Service runtime
  • Cloudflare Tunnel - External access (boards.basicconsulting.no)

No dependencies on other local services.

Backup

Database Dump

docker exec planka-db pg_dump -U postgres planka | gzip > ~/backups/planka-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).sql.gz

Docker Volumes (includes file uploads)

docker run --rm -v planka-data:/data -v ~/backups:/backup alpine tar -czf /backup/planka-data-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz -C /data .
docker run --rm -v planka-db-data:/data -v ~/backups:/backup alpine tar -czf /backup/planka-db-data-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz -C /data .

Restore from Backup

# Stop service
cd ~/system/services/planka
docker compose down

# Restore database
gunzip -c ~/backups/planka-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.sql.gz | docker exec -i planka-db psql -U postgres -d planka

# Restore volumes (if needed)
docker run --rm -v planka-data:/data -v ~/backups:/backup alpine tar -xzf /backup/planka-data-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz -C /data
docker run --rm -v planka-db-data:/data -v ~/backups:/backup alpine tar -xzf /backup/planka-db-data-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz -C /data

# Start service
docker compose up -d

Configuration

Key Environment Variables

  • BASE_URL - External URL (https://boards.basicconsulting.no)
  • DATABASE_URL - PostgreSQL connection string
  • SECRET_KEY - Encryption key for sessions/tokens
  • TOKEN_EXPIRES_IN - JWT token expiry (365 days)
  • DEFAULT_LANGUAGE - UI language (en-US)
  • DEFAULT_ADMIN_* - Initial admin user credentials
  • TRUST_PROXY - Enable for correct IPs behind Cloudflare

Full config: ~/system/services/planka/docker-compose.yml

Notes

  • Version: 2.0.0-rc.4 (release candidate, not stable)
  • Auth method: Password-based (no SSO/LDAP yet)
  • Database: Uses PostgreSQL with trust auth (no password) - secure as internal-only
  • Token expiry: 365 days (1 year) - very long, consider shorter for security
  • Admin password: Stored in docker-compose.yml (plaintext) - consider secrets management

Last updated: 2026-02-10 Maintained by: John (AI Director)

Back to top