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Migrate Secret Encryption Key

· 2 min read
Meierschlumpf
Meierschlumpf

In the release v1.0.0-beta.10 we introduced a newly required env variable SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY. This key is used to encrypt sensitive data in the database. Before this release, the key was generated automatically and stored in the anonymous volume /secrets. Because of the deletion of anonymous volumes between updates, by some installation methods, we decided to move this key to an environment variable.

How to migrate​

When you want to keep your integration secrets working after the update, you need to migrate your existing key to the new environment variable. To do this, you can use the following steps:

  1. Print your current secret key with the following command:

    docker exec -it homarr cat /secrets/encryptionKey

  2. Copy the output of the command and set it as the new environment variable

  3. Change your docker-compose.yml to include the new environment variable:

    docker-compose.yml
    services:
      homarr:
        container_name: homarr
        image: ghcr.io/homarr-labs/homarr:beta
        restart: unless-stopped
        volumes:
          - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock # Optional, only if you want docker integration
          - ./homarr/appdata:/appdata
        environment:
          - SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY=your_64_character_hex_string # <--- can be generated with `openssl rand -hex 32`
        ports:
          - '7575:7575'

  4. Update the container:

    docker compose pull

  5. Restart the container:

    docker compose up -d