Synology with Portainer or Dockhand

Community guide for running CrossWatch on Synology with Portainer or Dockhand.

Maintainer: https://github.com/doctorjz

Community pages and scripts are not maintained, reviewed, or supported by CrossWatch.

Read them before you run them.

Fixes, updates, and support depend on the original author.

Overview

This setup runs CrossWatch on Synology with Container Manager, Portainer, or Dockhand.

It uses a persistent bind mount for /config.

It also aligns container file ownership with your Synology user.

Why this setup is needed

Synology bind mounts can fail when the container user cannot write to the shared folder.

Set the container user to your Synology UID:GID.

If you use PUID and PGID variables in your stack, keep them aligned with that same UID:GID.

Prerequisites

1. A Synology NAS with Container Manager, Portainer, or Dockhand working
2. A folder for CrossWatch config data

   • Example: /volume1/docker/crosswatch
3. Your Synology user ID and group ID
4. A free port for the web UI

   • Default: 8787

Installation

1. Create a folder for CrossWatch data on your NAS.
2. Find your Synology UID and GID.
3. Create a new stack in Portainer or Dockhand.
4. Use the official CrossWatch image.
5. Mount your Synology folder to /config.
6. Set the container user to your Synology UID:GID.
7. Expose port 8787.
8. Deploy the stack.

Use a stack like this as the baseline:

services:
  crosswatch:
    image: cenodude/crosswatch:latest
    container_name: crosswatch
    user: "1000:100"  # This forces the container to start as this user, change to your values
    environment:
      - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
      - PUID=1000 # changeme
      - PGID=100 # changeme
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/crosswatch:/config:rw # Added :rw for explicit Read/Write
    ports:
      - 8787:8787 
    restart: unless-stopped

After deployment completes, open CrossWatch in your browser:

http://<synology-ip>:8787

Recommended container settings

Use these values unless you have a reason to change them:

1. Network port, 8787
2. Persistent config path, /config
3. Restart policy, unless-stopped
4. Container user, your Synology UID:GID

Important paths

1. Synology config folder, /volume1/docker/crosswatch example
2. Container config path, /config

Notes

This is a container deployment, not a native Synology package.

Permission issues are the most common problem on Synology.

If CrossWatch cannot write to /config, check the folder owner, ACLs, and the container user.

Use Installation if you want the official baseline first.