SuiteCRM Container

SuiteCRM 7.15.2 on PHP 8.4 + Apache httpd (Docker image) — plus MariaDB 11.4, added on top by compose.yml.

Docker image (Dockerfile): PHP 8.4-FPM (Alpine) + Apache httpd (reverse-proxied to PHP-FPM via proxy_fcgi), all PHP extensions required by SuiteCRM, and the SuiteCRM 7.15.2 archive baked in (extracted into /var/www/html on first container start by docker-entrypoint.sh). It does not include a database — MariaDB is not part of this image.

compose.yml: orchestrates the full stack — the app service (built from this image) plus a separate db service (mariadb:11.4), the network between them, the persistent volumes (db_data, app_data), port mapping (8080:80), and the environment variables that configure the app container (DB credentials, silent install options, etc. — see below).

Quick Start

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8080 and follow the installer.

Preconfigured database credentials in compose.yml:

• Host: db
• Database: suitecrm
• User: suitecrm
• Password: suitecrm_password

Silent Install

By default the container extracts SuiteCRM and lets you complete setup through the web installer at http://localhost:8080/install.php.

You can skip the web installer entirely by enabling the silent install mode, which uses SuiteCRM's built-in silent installer (config_si.php) to configure the database and admin account automatically on first boot.

Set SUITECRM_SILENT_INSTALL=true (in compose.yml or via docker run -e) together with the following variables.

All SUITECRM_INSTALL_* variables are only read once, the first time the container starts against an empty app_data volume (i.e. no config.php yet) with SUITECRM_SILENT_INSTALL=true. They are ignored on every subsequent start, including restarts of an already-installed instance — changing them afterwards has no effect unless you wipe the app_data volume.

Variable	Default	Description
SUITECRM_SILENT_INSTALL	false	Set to true to enable silent install (this is the only variable read on every start, since it's the switch itself)
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DB_HOST	db	Database host
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DB_PORT	3306	Database port
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DB_NAME	suitecrm	Database name (must already exist)
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DB_USER	suitecrm	Database user (must already exist with access to the DB)
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DB_PASSWORD	(empty)	Database password
SUITECRM_INSTALL_SITE_URL	http://localhost:8080	Public URL of the instance
SUITECRM_INSTALL_SYSTEM_NAME	SuiteCRM	Display name shown in the UI
SUITECRM_INSTALL_ADMIN_PASSWORD	admin	Password for the admin user (username is always admin)
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DEMO_DATA	no	Set to yes to populate demo data

Locale & currency

Also silent-install-only (see note above).

Variable	Default	Description
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE	en_us	Default language pack code (e.g. it_it, de_de) assigned to new users/the system default
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DEFAULT_CHARSET	UTF-8	Default charset
SUITECRM_INSTALL_CURRENCY_NAME	US Dollar	Default currency name
SUITECRM_INSTALL_CURRENCY_SYMBOL	$	Default currency symbol
SUITECRM_INSTALL_CURRENCY_ISO4217	USD	Default currency ISO 4217 code
SUITECRM_INSTALL_CURRENCY_SIGNIFICANT_DIGITS	2	Decimal digits for the default currency
SUITECRM_INSTALL_NUMBER_GROUPING_SEPARATOR	,	Thousands separator
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DECIMAL_SEPARATOR	.	Decimal separator
SUITECRM_INSTALL_DISABLE_PERSISTENT_CONNECTIONS	false	Disable persistent DB connections

Note: SUITECRM_INSTALL_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE only sets the system/user default language in config.php; the login page shown to an anonymous visitor is still driven by the browser's locale / the language dropdown, not by this setting.

An example compose.it.yml override with all Italian locale values is provided — see Italian locale example below.

Not supported: Full-Text Search / Elasticsearch

SuiteCRM 7.15.x's installer always writes a disabled search.ElasticSearch block into config.php with hardcoded defaults (install/suite_install/Search.php), and the legacy setup_fts_* keys once accepted by config_si.php are dead code in this version (getFTSEngineType() in include/utils.php has no remaining callers). Setting them via config_si.php has no effect. Elasticsearch must be configured after installation, either through Admin > Search > Elasticsearch in the UI, or by editing config.php's search.ElasticSearch array directly.

Notes:

• The database and DB user must already exist (e.g. provisioned by the db service's MYSQL_DATABASE/MYSQL_USER env vars) — the installer will not try to create them.
• Silent install only runs once, when config.php does not exist yet (e.g. on a fresh app_data volume). It has no effect on an already-installed instance.
• Change SUITECRM_INSTALL_ADMIN_PASSWORD for anything beyond local testing — the default value is intentionally weak.

Italian locale example

compose.it.yml is a Compose override that sets all the Italian locale/currency values (it_it, Euro, ./, separators) on top of the base compose.yml, and enables silent install. Run it with:

docker compose -f compose.yml -f compose.it.yml up -d

Build without Compose

docker build -t suitecrm:7.15.2 .
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name suitecrm suitecrm:7.15.2

Volumes

Database and SuiteCRM data are persisted (db_data, app_data). If app_data is empty on startup, SuiteCRM is automatically copied from the container.