Self-hosted overleaf automated with ansible and docker

This is a simple ansible-playbook that will install an overleaf instance on the server/servers of your liking using docker-compose. The docker-compose.yml is almost the same as the example one provided in the overleaf repo. Overleaf has good docs on installing your personal instance, you may want to check it out here. All the interesting files of this repo are under the install folder, and this readme assumes you are located there.

Requirements

• A VPS or any computer for installing Overleaf.
• SSH connection to the target server.
• If you are not using the root user to connect, passwordless root access for the user.
• Ansible installed on your local machine.
• Docker and docker-compose previously installed in your server.

Playbook vars

• Defined in group_vars/latex.yml. This are some parameters required for the installation that you must set.

• PATH VARS:

  • compose_dir: Path on the remote server where you keep or want to keep compose files for docker services.
  • overleaf_dir: Path where the docker-compose.yml for the overleaf service will be stored.

• DOCKER COMPOSE VARS:

  • latexport: Port where overleaf will be listening for connections.
  • web_name: Any name for your overleaf instance.
  • disable_email_confirmation: Keep this to True. Users will not get an email for registering.
  • sharelatex_url: URL where the your instance will be located. Useful if you have a reverse proxy set up.
  • nav_title: String of your liking for the navbar.
  • header_image: Image of your liking that will appear in the navbar (you can leave this blank).
  • sharelatex_left_footer: Personalized text appearing on the left side of the footer.
  • sharelatex_right_footer: Personalized text appearing on the right side of the footer.

Usage

• First, clone this repository:

  git clone https://github.com/abemposta/ansible-overleaf
  

• Edit the vars according to your needs (located at group_vars/latex.yml
• Define your servers in the inventory file production in the group latex. Remember, you need to have docker and docker-compose installed on the server/servers, as well as passwordless root access.
• Launch the playbook:

  ansible-playbook -i production latex.yml
  

• When the stack is installed, create an admin user at /launchpad (ie http://localhost:8090/launchpad).