Quick Start

The fastest way to get running is Docker Compose. It starts the database and the Realm server together.

1. Install Docker

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

2. Download the Compose file

mkdir realm-server && cd realm-server

curl -O https://realmvoice.app/downloads/docker-compose.server.yml

3. Set required environment variables

At minimum you need:

export REALM_IDENTITY_NAME="My Realm Server"
export REALM_WEBRTC_ANNOUNCED_IP="YOUR_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP"

Replace YOUR_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP with the public IP of your VPS. This is required for voice to work. Without it, WebRTC ICE candidates will advertise the wrong address.

You can use a hostname instead of an IP and the server will resolve it automatically: REALM_WEBRTC_ANNOUNCED_IP="my-server.example.com"

4. Start the server

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

This pulls the Realm server image and its dependencies, creates a Docker network, and starts the containers. The server runs on port 5000.

5. Check it's running

# Container status
docker compose -f docker-compose.server.yml ps

# Stream logs
docker compose -f docker-compose.server.yml logs -f realm-server

A healthy startup looks like:

[Realm] Starting Realm Dedicated Server v0.x.x
[Realm] Registered -- server ID: srv_abc123
[Realm] Listening on 0.0.0.0:5000

6. Open your firewall

Make sure these ports are open inbound:

Port	Protocol
5000	TCP
40000-49999	UDP

See Firewall & Networking for provider-specific instructions.

7. Add HTTPS with Caddy

If you have a domain pointed at your server, add Caddy as a reverse proxy. It handles TLS certificates from Let's Encrypt automatically, so you don't have to think about cert renewal.

Create a Caddyfile in the same directory:

my-server.example.com {
    reverse_proxy realm-server:5000
}

Then add Caddy to your docker-compose.server.yml:

services:
  caddy:
    image: caddy:2
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile:ro
      - caddy-data:/data
    depends_on:
      - realm-server

volumes:
  caddy-data:

Update your environment variables to tell the server clients now connect on port 443:

REALM_IDENTITY_PUBLIC_HOST="my-server.example.com"
REALM_IDENTITY_PUBLIC_PORT=443
REALM_WEBRTC_ANNOUNCED_IP="my-server.example.com"

You can also restrict port 5000 so it's no longer publicly exposed:

# realm-server service: bind to localhost only
ports:
  - "127.0.0.1:5000:5000"

Then restart:

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

Caddy will obtain a certificate on first start. Port 80 needs to be open for the ACME challenge, and your DNS must already point at the server.

Caddy only proxies HTTP/WebSocket traffic. The UDP voice ports (40000-49999) bypass Caddy entirely and go directly to the voice server, so voice still works normally.

Running without Docker Compose

If you already have a database running elsewhere:

docker run -d \
  --name realm-server \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -p 40000-49999:40000-49999/udp \
  -e REALM_IDENTITY_NAME="My Server" \
  -e REALM_STORAGE_MONGO_URL="mongodb://your-mongo-host:27017/realm" \
  -e REALM_WEBRTC_ANNOUNCED_IP="YOUR_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP" \
  -v server-data:/data \
  ghcr.io/realm-app/realm-server:latest

What's next

Configuration -- server name, voice settings, attachment storage
Firewall & Networking -- provider-specific firewall rules
Updating -- how to pull new versions without losing data

Quick Start

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