Changes to docker-compose.yml are ignored

My instance of bitwardenRS seemed to be working quite fine since 10/2020. I have been looking into using fail2ban as a security layer so I started following the guide on the bitwarden_rs wiki to do that. A prerequisite is that I configure logging so I went in to my docker-compose.yml . This is my docker-compose.yml before starting to configure logging (I use nginx as a reverse proxy):

docker-compose.yml
version: ‘3’

services:
bitwarden:
image: bitwardenrs/server
restart: always
ports:
- 845:80
volumes:
- ./bw-data:/data/
environment:
WEBSOCKET_ENABLED: ‘true’ # Required to use websockets
SIGNUPS_ALLOWED: ‘false’ # set to false to disable signups

Following the wiki, I included LOG_FILE: /data/bitwarden.log then stopped and restarted the contatiner. When I checked the bw-data folder there was no log. Thinking that I needed to generate something to go in the log I loaded up my vault login in my browser and tried a couple of incorrect logins then tried adding a new account. I was very surprised to see the “Create Account” page load as I was sure I had disabled that after creating my account. I went back to my yml and confirmed that I had SIGNUPS_ALLOWED: ‘false’. I have tried different ways to add the logfile path and none were successful.

Getting nowhere with the logfile I tried enabling the admin page to delete the test account I had created when I realised SIGNUPS_ALLOWED: ‘false’ wasn’t being respected. That didn’t work. I also tried disabling password hint and that has not worked either. Below is my current docker-compose.yml:

docker-compose.yml
version: ‘3’

services:
bitwarden:
image: bitwardenrs/server
restart: always
ports:
- 845:80
volumes:
- ./bw-data:/data/
environment:
WEBSOCKET_ENABLED: ‘true’ # Required to use websockets
SIGNUPS_ALLOWED: ‘false’ # set to false to disable signups
LOG_FILE: /home/$USER/bitwarden/bw-data/bitwarden.log # Added to test logging
LOG_LEVEL: ‘warn’ # Combine with extended logging below to reduce log messages
EXTENDED_LOGGING: ‘true’
SHOW_PASSWORD_HINT: ‘false’
ADMIN_TOKEN: ‘long random token here’

I really don’t know what is happening here. My instance seems to be working OK. With credit to this guide, How to self-host Bitwarden Password Manager and others I got bitwardenRS installed, proxied with nginx and working https from letsencrypt. I can login to the vault, the browser extensions and android integrations are connected and sync ok. It just seems that none of the changes I make to the docker-compose.yml are being implemented. If I use incorrect syntax eg EXTENDED_LOGGING=true instead of EXTENDED_LOGGING: ‘true’ in the yml I get an error when starting the container so it at least seems to be checking the file but not acting on some variables. Help, please.

This should explain what’s happening here:

1 Like

Thank you! After reviewing the Configuration-overview I realised that I was not taking down and bringing up the container in the right way so it seems I was using an old container that also wasn’t updating in addition to not respecting the yml. All sorted now, thanks again. I do not know how to mark this as solved or edit the title to indicate same.