Install FossFLOW Inside Docker Container on Linux

FossFLOW is an open-source web-based application for creating 3D-style isometric diagrams, especially useful for visualizing system architectures, infrastructure layouts, workflows, and other technical diagrams. It's designed to be easy to use and privacy-focused.

This tutorial explains how to install FossFLOW inside a Docker container on Linux. Commands have been tested on Ubuntu.

Prepare environment

Make sure you have installed Docker in your system. If you are using Ubuntu, installation instructions can be found in the post.

Install FossFLOW

• Host network

Run the following command to create a container for FossFLOW that uses host network:

docker run -d --name=fossflow --restart=always --network=host \
    -v /opt/fossflow/diagrams:/data/diagrams \
    stnsmith/fossflow

• User-defined bridge network

User-defined bridge network can be used for listening on different port. By default, FossFLOW service is listening on port 80. It can be changed with -p option.

docker network create app-net

docker run -d --name=fossflow --restart=always --network=app-net \
    -v /opt/fossflow/diagrams:/data/diagrams \
    -p 8080:80 \
    stnsmith/fossflow

Testing FossFLOW

You can access the web application by navigating to http://<IP_ADDRESS>, where <IP_ADDRESS> should be replaced with the actual IP address of the system.

Uninstall FossFLOW

To completely remove FossFLOW, remove its container:

docker rm --force fossflow

Remove FossFLOW image:

docker rmi stnsmith/fossflow

You can also remove FossFLOW diagrams:

sudo rm -rf /opt/fossflow

If a user-defined bridge network was created, you can delete it as follows:

docker network rm app-net