Operators

This section is for the people who install and run ulams: a multi-tenant Laravel API with an H5P service, a PDF renderer, an admin panel and a learner front, backed by PostgreSQL, a Redis-protocol server (Valkey) and S3-compatible object storage.

What is tested

The project develops and tests ulams with the development stack in api/docker-compose.yml (plain HTTP on *.localhost) and builds the production images in CI. The production setup in this section is derived from that stack and from the image entrypoints, but it is not tested end to end by the project. Setups marked Recommended are advice, not verified configurations.

Start here

RequirementsServer sizing (estimates), OS, Docker and DNS.

Self-hosting on one serverStep by step with the published GHCR images, Docker Compose and Caddy.

Install on a VPS with CloudflareThe reference production install: one VPS, Cloudflare tunnel, DNS, TLS and R2, with scripts, costs and backups.

Install on MyDevilThe API on shared hosting with cron workers, Cloudflare in front: what works and what does not.

EnvironmentHow configuration reaches each container, by category.

High availabilityWhat is stateless, what is not, and a reference topology.

Run it

Hosts and certificates

DNS and TLS, content origin

Tenants and users

First admin and first tenant, e-mail

Data

Object storage, backups and restore

Day 2

Upgrades, monitoring and logs, security, licensing

The pieces

Container	Image	Role	State
api	ghcr.io/ulams-dev/api	Laravel API (php-fpm on port 9000), Horizon, tenant queue workers, scheduler	Laravel storage/ (keys, logs, local disks), generated env files
h5p	ghcr.io/ulams-dev/h5p	H5P player, editor and content API (GPL-3.0-or-later)	Installed libraries in /data/libraries
pdf	ghcr.io/ulams-dev/pdf	PDF renderer for certificates	None
web	ghcr.io/ulams-dev/web	Learner front (Astro SSR, port 4321)	None (in-memory cache)
admin	ghcr.io/ulams-dev/admin	Admin and author panel (static build on unprivileged nginx, port 8080)	None
front	ghcr.io/ulams-dev/front	The older React learner front, optional	None
PostgreSQL	upstream	Platform database plus one database per tenant	Yes
Valkey	upstream	Queues, cache, locks, H5P caches	Queues (persist it)
Object storage	any S3-compatible service	Platform bucket plus one bucket per tenant	Yes
Caddy	upstream	TLS, routing by host, content origins, CSP headers	Certificates

The architecture is explained for developers in Architecture and Tenancy; image details are in Container images.