Self-Hosting Overview

A self-hosted instance is a small Docker Compose stack you run on your own infrastructure. It phones home to the GridNMS platform over a single outbound HTTPS connection for licensing, global notices, and software updates. No inbound connections to GridNMS are required.

Note

You receive your license key by email after signup approval. If you don’t have one yet, start at signup.gridnms.io and choose the Self-Hosted tier.

What’s in the stack

Service	Purpose	Ports
server	Web UI + API plus the cloud connector (licensing, updates). The server bakes the client SPA and serves it — there is no separate web container.	UI+API (default 3001), 514/udp syslog, 162/udp trap
postgres	TimescaleDB / PostgreSQL 16	internal
memgraph	Topology graph	internal
collector	The sensor: ICMP / SNMP / SSH polling, syslog, traps	internal
updater	Pulls cloud-published server image updates	internal
clickhouse + logserver	Optional log-management tier (--profile logs)	3002

The stack does not include the GridNMS-operated control plane (platform service, licensing issuer, signup, portal) — those stay in the cloud and you reach them only through the connector’s outbound check-in.

Prerequisites

• Linux (amd64/x86-64 or arm64/aarch64) with Docker Engine 24+ and the Compose plugin, or Windows 10/11 with Docker Desktop (WSL2 backend). The images are linux/amd64 + linux/arm64; on Windows they run inside Docker Desktop’s WSL2 VM. The installer auto-detects the architecture.
• 4 vCPU / 8 GB RAM / 40 GB disk is comfortable for a starter deployment.
• Outbound HTTPS (443) to platform.gridnms.io and images.gridnms.io.
• Your license key (from the approval email).

How licensing works

On first boot the connector registers with the platform using your license key, receives a short-lived signed license token, and verifies it locally against the bundled public key (license-public.pem). It re-checks in hourly. Your feature set, device limit, and license state are controlled centrally — editing the local database cannot grant a higher tier, because the signature won’t verify.

If the instance can’t reach the platform, it runs on the last good license through a short grace window, then degrades. A true offline tier is available — see Air-gapped deployments.

Next

• Configuration — the bundle contents and .env reference.
• Adding collectors — scale to more sites and segments.
• Updates — automatic server and collector updates.