Installing on an existing server
Miabi does not need a fresh host. If your server already runs containers behind a reverse proxy — nginx, Traefik, Caddy, or nginx-proxy — you can install Miabi beside them and move the apps over without rebuilding them.
The only thing the two cannot share is ports 80 and 443. Miabi's gateway needs both, so the old proxy has to step aside. Your apps go offline from the moment you stop it until their routes are live on Miabi, so plan a short maintenance window.
1. Find what holds ports 80 and 443
docker ps --filter publish=80 --filter publish=443
sudo ss -ltnp '( sport = :80 or sport = :443 )'
The first command lists containers that publish the ports; the second also catches a proxy
installed on the host itself. You don't have to get this right up front: miabi setup checks both
ports before it creates anything, and stops with the name of whatever holds them.
2. Stop the old proxy
Stop it, but don't remove it — keeping it is your way back.
A proxy running in a container:
docker stop nginx-proxy
docker update --restart=no nginx-proxy # keep it from coming back on reboot
A proxy running on the host:
sudo systemctl disable --now nginx
If the proxy is part of a Compose project, stop that one service with
docker compose stop <service> instead of docker compose down, which would also stop your apps.
3. Run the installer
curl -fsSL https://get.miabi.io | sudo MIABI_DOMAIN=miabi.example.com \
MIABI_ADMIN_EMAIL=you@example.com bash
This is the same one-line install as on a fresh host. Miabi creates its own networks, volumes and containers, and leaves your existing containers untouched.
Miabi uses 10.62.0.0/16 and 10.63.0.0/16 for its own networks and carves workspace networks
from 10.64.0.0/12. If your existing Docker networks or VPN use those ranges, pick others with
MIABI_INTERNAL_SUBNET and MIABI_SUBNET — see Install options
and Networks & Subnets.
4. Import your containers
Log in, open the node and choose Import existing. Select the containers, volumes and networks to adopt, keep the default Adopt in place mode, and confirm. Your containers keep running, with no restart. Each Compose project becomes a stack.
Leave the old proxy out of the import: Miabi's gateway replaces it.
See Docker import for the details, including the secrets flagged in environment variables.
5. Create routes
For each imported app, declare its container port, then add a route for its domain — Exposing an application walks through it, and Migrating from Traefik, Caddy and nginx translates your old proxy configuration. Your DNS already points at this server, so the gateway can request certificates as soon as each route exists.
Do the apps that matter most first: each one is back online as soon as its route and certificate are live.
Once every app answers through Miabi, check the imported apps for host ports they still publish only for the old proxy. They are no longer needed, and dropping them keeps the apps off the public interface.
Rolling back
If something goes wrong before the migration is complete, stop Miabi's gateway and bring the old proxy back:
docker stop miabi-gateway
docker update --restart=unless-stopped nginx-proxy && docker start nginx-proxy
Your apps were adopted in place, so they are still the same containers the old proxy was routing to. When you are done with the old proxy for good, remove it.