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Vultr profile image Sanskriti Harmukh
Sanskriti Harmukh for Vultr

Posted on with Aashish Chaurasiya • Originally published at docs.vultr.com

Deploying Kestra Open-Source Workflow Orchestration Platform on Ubuntu 24.04

#automation #docker #devops #selfhosted

Kestra is an open-source workflow orchestration platform that runs YAML-defined pipelines on schedules, triggers, or events, with a web UI for managing executions, logs, and metadata. This guide deploys Kestra using Docker Compose with a PostgreSQL backend and Traefik handling automatic HTTPS. By the end, you'll have Kestra running a sample workflow with a SUCCESS execution at your domain.

Set Up the Directory Structure

1. Create the project directories:

$ mkdir -p ~/kestra/data/{postgres,kestra,traefik}
$ cd ~/kestra
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postgres/ holds the database, kestra/ holds execution artifacts, traefik/ holds Let's Encrypt certificates.

2. Create the environment file:

$ nano .env
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POSTGRES_DB=kestra
POSTGRES_USER=kestra
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=STRONG-PASSWORD
DOMAIN=kestra.example.com
LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=admin@example.com
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Deploy with Docker Compose

1. Create the Compose manifest:

$ nano docker-compose.yml
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services:
  traefik:
    image: traefik:v3.6
    restart: unless-stopped
    command:
      - "--providers.docker=true"
      - "--providers.docker.exposedbydefault=false"
      - "--entrypoints.web.address=:80"
      - "--entrypoints.websecure.address=:443"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.to=websecure"
      - "--entrypoints.web.http.redirections.entrypoint.scheme=https"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.tlschallenge=true"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.email=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}"
      - "--certificatesresolvers.letsencrypt.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json"
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - ./data/traefik:/letsencrypt

  postgres:
    image: postgres:15
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - ./data/postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER}"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

  kestra:
    image: kestra/kestra:v1.3.6
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: server standalone
    environment:
      KESTRA_CONFIGURATION: |
        datasources:
          postgres:
            url: jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
            driverClassName: org.postgresql.Driver
            username: ${POSTGRES_USER}
            password: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
        kestra:
          repository:
            type: postgres
          storage:
            type: local
            local:
              basePath: /app/storage
          queue:
            type: postgres
    volumes:
      - ./data/kestra:/app/storage
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_healthy
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.kestra.rule=Host(`${DOMAIN}`)"
      - "traefik.http.routers.kestra.entrypoints=websecure"
      - "traefik.http.routers.kestra.tls.certresolver=letsencrypt"
      - "traefik.http.services.kestra.loadbalancer.server.port=8080"
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2. Start the services:

$ docker compose up -d
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3. Verify the services are running:

$ docker compose ps
$ docker compose logs
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Create the Admin Account

  1. Open https://kestra.example.com.
  2. On the Create an admin user page, fill in email and a password with ≥8 characters, ≥1 uppercase, ≥1 number.
  3. Click Create admin user, then Start Kestra UI.

Create and Run a Sample Workflow

1. Click **Flows → Create in the sidebar, then paste:**

id: hello_world
namespace: demo

tasks:
  - id: log_message
    type: io.kestra.core.tasks.log.Log
    message: "Hello from Kestra!"
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2. Click **Save, then Execute in the top right.**

3. Open **Executions and select the run** — the status should read SUCCESS.

Next Steps

Kestra is running and served securely over HTTPS. From here you can:

  • Add schedules, webhook triggers, and event-based triggers to your flows
  • Install plugins for AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, dbt, and Python tasks
  • Wire RBAC for multi-team usage and store secrets via the secret manager

For the full guide with additional tips, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.

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