Deploy Bitwarden on Northflank

Bitwarden is an open-source tool that helps you generate, save, and manage your logins safely and securely. You can also share secure information easily with others in your organization. Vaultwarden is an alternativve implementation of Bitwarden server API written in Rust and compatible with upstream Bitwarden clients. This is perfect for self-hosted deployments with limited resources, while the official setup requires separate containers for different services like database. The minimum hardware resources for this project is very low.

Note: This is guide is based on an unofficial image for Bitwarden known as Vaultwarden by Daniel García.

This guide can help you setup your own Vaultwarden server on Northflank.

1. Create a new service inside your project.

   1. Select service type as Deployment.

   2. Select deployment source as External and image path as vaultwarden/server:latest.

   3. Expose the port 80 to access the web vault.

      • Port 80 will automatically be detected from the image manifest and will be exposed with the HTTP protocol.

   4. Create a new persistent volume inside the advanced options and set the mount path as /data/.

      

2. Once the service is ready, you can use the link on the top right corner to access the vault.

   

3. Initially you need to create a new account. Once you have done that you can start managing your passwords from the vault.

The official Vaultwarden wiki has many configurations to secure and add features to your installation.

To add environment variables to your server, head to the Environment tab inside your service dashboard. These are some of the environment variables that you can add to your existing server:

1. Disable new signups

   SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false

2. Disable invitations by admins

   INVITATIONS_ALLOWED=false

3. Enable admin page

   • Generate a token either using openssl rand -base64 48 on your terminal or the Key icon in the Northflank UI, highlighted in red in the screenshot above. If using the “Generate secret values” key icon, a 32 character length token will suffice.

   ADMIN_TOKEN=some_random_token_as_per_above_explanation

4. Enable SMTP

   SMTP_HOST=<smtp.domain.tld> 
   SMTP_FROM=<vaultwarden@domain.tld> 
   SMTP_PORT=587 
   SMTP_SSL=true 
   SMTP_USERNAME=<username> 
   SMTP_PASSWORD=<password>

5. Verify emails

   SIGNUPS_VERIFY=true
   SIGNUPS_VERIFY_RESEND_TIME=3600
   SIGNUPS_VERIFY_RESEND_LIMIT=6