firefly-iii Installation Guide Installation Guide

firefly-iii is a free and open-source personal finance manager. Firefly III helps track expenses and manage personal finances

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 1GB for data

Network: HTTP/HTTPS access

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 80 (default firefly-iii port)

None

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install firefly-iii
sudo dnf install -y firefly-iii

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now firefly-iii

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install firefly-iii
sudo apt install -y firefly-iii

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now firefly-iii

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 80

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Install firefly-iii
sudo pacman -S firefly-iii

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now firefly-iii

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Install firefly-iii
apk add --no-cache firefly-iii

# Enable and start service
rc-update add firefly-iii default
rc-service firefly-iii start

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Install firefly-iii
sudo zypper install -y firefly-iii

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now firefly-iii

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install firefly-iii

# Start service
brew services start firefly-iii

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install firefly-iii

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'firefly-iii_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service firefly-iii start

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install firefly-iii

# Or using Scoop
scoop install firefly-iii

# Verify installation
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/firefly-iii

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
firefly-iii --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable firefly-iii

# Start service
sudo systemctl start firefly-iii

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop firefly-iii

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart firefly-iii

# Check status
sudo systemctl status firefly-iii

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u firefly-iii -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add firefly-iii default

# Start service
rc-service firefly-iii start

# Stop service
rc-service firefly-iii stop

# Restart service
rc-service firefly-iii restart

# Check status
rc-service firefly-iii status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'firefly-iii_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service firefly-iii start

# Stop service
service firefly-iii stop

# Restart service
service firefly-iii restart

# Check status
service firefly-iii status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start firefly-iii
brew services stop firefly-iii
brew services restart firefly-iii

# Check status
brew services list | grep firefly-iii

powershell

# Start service
net start firefly-iii

# Stop service
net stop firefly-iii

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service firefly-iii
Stop-Service firefly-iii
Restart-Service firefly-iii

# Check status
Get-Service firefly-iii

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream firefly-iii_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:80;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name firefly-iii.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name firefly-iii.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/firefly-iii.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/firefly-iii.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://firefly-iii_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName firefly-iii.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://firefly-iii.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName firefly-iii.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/firefly-iii.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/firefly-iii.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:80/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:80/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend firefly-iii_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/firefly-iii.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend firefly-iii_backend

backend firefly-iii_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server firefly-iii1 127.0.0.1:80 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R firefly-iii:firefly-iii /etc/firefly-iii
sudo chmod 750 /etc/firefly-iii

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status firefly-iii

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u firefly-iii -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep firefly-iii)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/firefly-iii"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/firefly-iii-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/firefly-iii /var/lib/firefly-iii

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/firefly-iii-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop firefly-iii

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/firefly-iii/firefly-iii-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start firefly-iii

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u firefly-iii -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/firefly-iii/firefly-iii.log

# Check configuration
firefly-iii --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/firefly-iii

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 80

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 80

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep firefly-iii)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep firefly-iii)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 80

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  firefly-iii:
    image: firefly-iii:latest
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/firefly-iii
      - ./data:/var/lib/firefly-iii
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update firefly-iii

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade firefly-iii

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu firefly-iii

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade firefly-iii

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update firefly-iii

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade firefly-iii

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/firefly-iii-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/firefly-iii

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart firefly-iii

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/firefly-iii

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/firefly-iii -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/firefly-iii

Official Documentation: https://docs.firefly-iii.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii

Community Forum: https://forum.firefly-iii.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.firefly-iii.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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