Pulse/docs/INSTALL.md

📦 Installation Guide

Pulse offers flexible installation options from Docker to enterprise-ready Kubernetes charts.

🚀 Quick Start (Recommended)

Proxmox VE (LXC installer)

If you run Proxmox VE, the easiest and most “Pulse-native” deployment is the official installer which creates and configures a lightweight LXC container.

Run this on your Proxmox host:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/rcourtman/Pulse/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash

Docker

Ideal for containerized environments or testing.

docker run -d \
  --name pulse \
  -p 7655:7655 \
  -v pulse_data:/data \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  rcourtman/pulse:latest

Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  pulse:
    image: rcourtman/pulse:latest
    container_name: pulse
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "7655:7655"
    volumes:
      - pulse_data:/data
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock # Optional: Monitor local Docker
    environment:
      - PULSE_AUTH_USER=admin
      - PULSE_AUTH_PASS=secret123

volumes:
  pulse_data:

---

🛠️ Installation Methods

1. Kubernetes (Helm)

Deploy to your cluster using our Helm chart.

helm upgrade --install pulse oci://ghcr.io/rcourtman/pulse-chart \
  --namespace pulse \
  --create-namespace

See KUBERNETES.md for ingress and persistence configuration.

2. Bare Metal / Systemd

For Linux servers (VM or bare metal), use the official installer:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/rcourtman/Pulse/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sudo bash

Manual systemd install (advanced)

# Download the correct tarball from GitHub Releases and extract it
# https://github.com/rcourtman/Pulse/releases

sudo install -m 0755 pulse /usr/local/bin/pulse

# Create systemd service
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/pulse.service > /dev/null << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Pulse Monitoring
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/pulse
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
Environment=PULSE_DATA_DIR=/etc/pulse

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

# Start service
sudo mkdir -p /etc/pulse
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now pulse

---

🔐 First-Time Setup

Pulse is secure by default. On first launch, you must retrieve a Bootstrap Token to create your admin account.

Step 1: Get the Token

Platform	Command
Docker	docker exec pulse cat /data/.bootstrap_token or docker exec pulse /app/pulse bootstrap-token
Kubernetes	kubectl exec -it <pod> -- cat /data/.bootstrap_token or kubectl exec -it <pod> -- /app/pulse bootstrap-token
Systemd	sudo cat /etc/pulse/.bootstrap_token or sudo pulse bootstrap-token

Step 2: Create Admin Account

1. Open http://<your-ip>:7655
2. Paste the Bootstrap Token.
3. Create your Admin Username and Password.

Note

: If you configure authentication via environment variables (PULSE_AUTH_USER/PULSE_AUTH_PASS and/or API_TOKENS), the bootstrap token is automatically removed and this step is skipped.

---

🔄 Updates

Automatic Updates (Systemd only)

Pulse can self-update to the latest stable version.

Enable via UI: Settings → System → Updates

Manual Update

Platform	Command
Docker	docker pull rcourtman/pulse:latest && docker restart pulse
Kubernetes	helm repo update && helm upgrade pulse pulse/pulse -n pulse
Systemd	Re-download binary and restart service

Rollback

If an update causes issues on systemd installations, backups are created automatically during the update process.

Manual rollback: Check for backup directories at /etc/pulse/backup-<timestamp>/ created during updates. Restore the previous binary manually if needed.

---

🗑️ Uninstall

Docker:

docker rm -f pulse && docker volume rm pulse_data

Kubernetes:

helm uninstall pulse -n pulse

Systemd:

sudo systemctl disable --now pulse
sudo rm -rf /etc/pulse /etc/systemd/system/pulse.service /usr/local/bin/pulse
sudo systemctl daemon-reload