CLI configuration options

Configuration flags available at the command line

Flag

Description

--admin-password

Specifies a bcrypt hashed password for the admin user. This can only be used when first creating the admin user (such as during installation) and not to change the admin user's password after installation.

--admin-password-file

Specifies the path to the file containing the password for the admin user. This can only be used when first creating the admin user (such as during installation) and not to change the admin user's password after installation.

--base-url

Specifies the path that Portainer is running under if you are running Portainer within a subpath behind a reverse proxy (for example use --base-url /portainer if you are running Portainer at https://yourdomain/portainer). Defaults to /. Note: when using this option you will still need to ensure your reverse proxy configuration will strip the specified subpath.

--bind

-p

Specifies the address and port from which to serve Portainer (default: :9000).

--bind-https

Specifies the address and port from which to serve Portainer via HTTPS (default: :9443).

--data

-d

Specifes the directory where Portainer data will be stored (default: /data on Linux, C:\data on Windows).

--edge-compute

Automatically enables Edge Compute features.

--hide-label

-l

Hides containers with a specific label in the UI.

--http-disabled

Serve Portainer only on HTTPS. Overrides --http-enabled. Ensure your HTTPS configuration is fully working and any agents are configured for HTTPS before enabling this.

--http-enabled

Serve Portainer on HTTP. If used in combination with --http-disabled, this is ignored.

--host

-H

Specifies the Docker daemon endpoint.

--license-key

Specifies the license key to use. Only applicable to Portainer Business Edition.

--log-level

Set the log level of the Portainer application, for example --log-level DEBUG. This is useful when troubleshooting.

--log-mode

Set the formatting for the Portainer log output, for example --log-mode NOCOLOR. Options are: PRETTY (default), NOCOLOR (disables color codes), JSON (JSON-formatted logs).

--logo

Specifies the URL to the image to be displayed as a logo in the UI. If not specified, the Portainer logo is used instead.

--mtlscacert

Specifies the path to the certificate authority (CA) certificate used for mTLS communication. (BE only)

--mtlscert

Specifies the path to the certificate used for mTLS communication. (BE only)

--mtlskey

Specifies the path to the certificate key used for mTLS communication. (BE only)

--snapshot-interval

Specifies the time interval between two environment snapshot jobs expressed as a string. For example 30s, 5m, 1h… Supported by the time.ParseDuration method (default: 5m).

--sslcacert

Specifies the path to the certificate authority (CA) certificate used to validate the Edge Agent certificate. (BE only, deprecated, use mTLS instead)

--sslcert

Specifies the path to the SSL certificate used to secure the Portainer instance (default: /certs/portainer.crt on Linux, C:\certs\portainer.crt on Windows).

--sslkey

Specifies the path to the SSL key used to secure the Portainer instance (default: /certs/portainer.key on Linux, C:\certs\portainer.key on Windows).

--syslog-*

The --syslog-* options are used to configure auth and activity log streaming to an external Syslog-compatible provider. See the SIEM documentation for more on this experimental feature.

--templates

-t

Specifies the URL to the templates (apps) definitions.

--tlscacert

Specifies the path to the CA used for Docker daemon connections (default: /certs/ca.pem on Linux, C:\certs\ca.pem on Windows).

--tlscert

Specifies the path to the TLS certificate file used for Docker daemon connections (default: /certs/cert.pem, C:\certs\cert.pem on Windows).

--tlskey

Specifies the path to the TLS key used for Docker daemon connections (default: /certs/key.pem, C:\certs\key.pem on Windows).

--tlsverify

TLS support (default: false).

--tlsskipverify

Disable TLS server verification.

--tunnel-addr

Specifies the tunnel address to listen on for use with the Edge Agent. Defaults to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces).

--tunnel-port

Specifies an alternate tunnel port to use with the Edge Agent. Use --tunnel-port 8001 with -p 8001:8001 to make the Edge Agent communicate on port 8001.

--version

Display the version of Portainer.

Creating an admin account and password

The commands in this section will automatically create an administrator account called admin with the password you specify. This can only be used when first creating the admin user (such as during installation) and not to change the admin user's password after installation.

Method 1: Creating the account from the command line

You can specify a bcrypt-encrypted password from the command line for the admin account. If you have installed the apache2-utils package, create the password using the following command:

htpasswd -nb -B admin "your-password" | cut -d ":" -f 2

If your system does not have that command, use a container to run the command instead:

docker run --rm httpd:2.4-alpine htpasswd -nbB admin "your-password" | cut -d ":" -f 2

Once the password has been created, specify the admin password from the command line by starting Portainer with the --admin-password flag:

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 --admin-password='$2y$05$8oz75U8m5tI/xT4P0NbSHeE7WyRzOWKRBprfGotwDkhBOGP/u802u'

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 --admin-password='$2y$05$8oz75U8m5tI/xT4P0NbSHeE7WyRzOWKRBprfGotwDkhBOGP/u802u'

Method 2: Creating the account using a file

You can also store a plain text password inside a file and use the --admin-password-file flag. First, add the password to a file using the following example command as a guide:

echo -n mypassword > /tmp/portainer_password

Next, start the Portainer container:

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /tmp/portainer_password:/tmp/portainer_password portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 --admin-password-file /tmp/portainer_password

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v /tmp/portainer_password:/tmp/portainer_password portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 --admin-password-file /tmp/portainer_password

This also works well with Docker Swarm and Docker Secrets:

echo -n mypassword | docker secret create portainer-pass -

docker service create \
    --name portainer \
    --secret portainer-pass \
    --publish 9443:9443 \
    --publish 8000:8000 \
    --replicas=1 \
    --constraint 'node.role == manager' \
    --mount type=bind,src=/var/run/docker.sock,dst=/var/run/docker.sock \
    portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 \
    --admin-password-file '/run/secrets/portainer-pass' \
    -H unix:///var/run/docker.sock

docker service create \
    --name portainer \
    --secret portainer-pass \
    --publish 9443:9443 \
    --publish 8000:8000 \
    --replicas=1 \
    --constraint 'node.role == manager' \
    --mount type=bind,src=/var/run/docker.sock,dst=/var/run/docker.sock \
    portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 \
    --admin-password-file '/run/secrets/portainer-pass' \
    -H unix:///var/run/docker.sock

Hiding specific containers

Portainer lets you hide containers with a specific label by using the -l flag. Here's an example showing a container labeled owner=acme:

docker run -d --label owner=acme nginx

To hide this container, when starting Portainer add the -l owner=acme option on the CLI:

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 -l owner=acme

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 -l owner=acme

To hide multiple containers, repeat the -l flag:

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 -l owner=acme -l service=secret

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 -l owner=acme -l service=secret

Using your own logo

Images must be exactly 155px by 55px in size.

Replace our logo with your own using the --logo flag to specify the location of the image file:

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 --logo "https://www.docker.com/sites/all/themes/docker/assets/images/brand-full.svg"

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 --logo "https://www.docker.com/sites/all/themes/docker/assets/images/brand-full.svg"

You can also update the logo in the Portainer UI (Settings menu).

Defining your own app templates

We suggest hosting template files on GitHub so Portainer can access them without authentication.

Portainer allows you to rapidly deploy containers using app templates. By default, Portainer templates will be used but you can also define your own.

Templates are loaded once when Portainer is first started. If you already deployed a Portainer instance then decide to use your own templates, you’ll need to clear the default templates either in the user interface or through the HTTP API. Use the --templates flag to specify a URL where the template file can be accessed via HTTP.

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ee:2.23.0 --templates http://my-host.my-domain/templates.json

docker run -d -p 9443:9443 -p 8000:8000 -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock portainer/portainer-ce:2.23.0 --templates http://my-host.my-domain/templates.json

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