BookStack on Google Cloud Run

BookStack is a free, open-source, MIT-licensed wiki and documentation platform built on Laravel (PHP), organising content as Shelves → Books → Chapters → Pages with WYSIWYG and Markdown editing, full-text search, page revisions, and granular permissions. This module deploys BookStack on Cloud Run v2 on top of the App_CloudRun foundation, which provisions and manages the shared Google Cloud infrastructure.

This guide focuses on the cloud services BookStack uses and how to explore and operate them from the Google Cloud Console and the command line. For the mechanics common to every Cloud Run application — service identity, ingress and load balancing, scaling and concurrency, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC Service Controls, backups, and the deployment lifecycle — refer to the App_CloudRun foundation guide rather than repeating them here.

---

1. Overview

BookStack runs as a PHP container on Cloud Run v2. The deployment wires together a focused set of Google Cloud services:

Capability	Google Cloud service	Notes
Compute	Cloud Run v2	PHP (LinuxServer) container, 1 vCPU / 2 GiB by default, serverless autoscaling; scale-to-zero supported
Database	Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0	Required — BookStack does not support PostgreSQL or other engines
Object storage	Cloud Storage	A dedicated data bucket (gcs-bookstack<tenant>-data) provisioned automatically
Persistent files	Filestore / NFS	Uploaded images and attachments persisted at /var/lib/bookstack
Cache & sessions	Redis (optional)	Disabled by default; BookStack uses the local cache/session driver
Secrets	Secret Manager	Auto-generated Laravel APP_KEY; database password
Ingress	Cloud Run URL / Cloud Load Balancing	Default run.app URL; optional external HTTPS load balancer + custom domain

Sensible defaults worth knowing up front:

• MySQL 8.0 is mandatory. The database engine is fixed by the shared application layer (database_type = "MYSQL_8_0"); PostgreSQL is not supported and selecting another engine breaks startup.
• The prebuilt linuxserver/bookstack image is used directly. There is no custom Cloud Build for the default deployment; the official LinuxServer.io image is mirrored into Artifact Registry (enable_image_mirroring = true) and deployed as-is.
• The container listens on port 80 (container_port = 80, container_protocol = "http1").
• NFS persistence of uploads is on by default. enable_nfs = true mounts NFS at /var/lib/bookstack so uploaded images and attachments survive restarts, redeploys, and scale events. Disabling it loses uploaded files.
• Scale-to-zero is enabled by default (min_instance_count = 0, max_instance_count = 1). Cold starts add a few seconds of latency to the first request after idle; BookStack is a pure request/response wiki with no background workers, so request-based billing (cpu_always_allocated = false) is correct.
• APP_KEY is immutable after first boot. The Laravel app key is generated once and stored in Secret Manager; rotating it makes all encrypted DB values (two-factor secrets, some settings) undecryptable.
• The image runs php artisan migrate --force automatically on start, so the schema is created on first boot after db-init provisions the database and user — there is no separate migration job.
• A default administrator is seeded by the LinuxServer image: admin@admin.com with password password. Change it immediately on first login.
• Cloud Run connects to Cloud SQL over private-IP TCP. enable_cloudsql_volume = false by default, so DB_HOST is the instance private IP; MySQL over private-IP TCP needs no SSL.

---

2. Google Cloud Services & How to Explore Them

All commands assume PROJECT and REGION are set. Service and resource names are reported in the deployment Outputs.

A. Cloud Run — the BookStack service

BookStack runs as a Cloud Run v2 service that autoscales by request load between the minimum and maximum instance counts. Each deployment creates an immutable revision; traffic can be split across revisions for safe rollouts.

• Console: Cloud Run → select the service for revisions, traffic, logs, and metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run revisions list --service <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

See App_CloudRun for scaling, concurrency, execution environment, and traffic splitting.

B. Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0

BookStack stores all application data (books, pages, users, revisions, permissions) in a managed Cloud SQL for MySQL 8.0 instance. The service connects over the Cloud SQL private IP via VPC egress (enable_cloudsql_volume = false); DB_HOST is set to the instance private IP and no public IP is exposed. On first deploy an initialization Job creates the application database and user.

• Console: SQL → select the instance for connections, backups, flags, metrics.
• CLI:

  gcloud sql instances list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql instances describe <instance-name> --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud sql connect <instance-name> --user=bookstack --database=<db-name> --project "$PROJECT"

The instance name, database, user, and password secret are in the Outputs. See App_CloudRun for the connection model, backups, and password rotation.

C. Cloud Storage

A dedicated Cloud Storage bucket (storage_buckets default: name_suffix = "data", resulting in gcs-bookstack<tenant>-data) is provisioned automatically. Additional buckets can be declared via storage_buckets.

• Console: Cloud Storage → Buckets.
• CLI:

  gcloud storage buckets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud storage ls gs://<uploads-bucket>/       # bucket name is in the Outputs

See App_CloudRun for GCS Fuse and CMEK options.

D. Redis (optional cache & sessions)

Redis is disabled by default (enable_redis = false); BookStack uses its local cache and session drivers. When enable_redis = true is set, the shared layer injects REDIS_HOST and REDIS_PORT so BookStack can use Redis for cache and sessions. When redis_host is left empty and enable_nfs is true, the NFS server VM's co-hosted Redis IP is used.

• Console: Memorystore → Redis (if using a managed instance).
• CLI:

  redis-cli -h <redis-host> ping
  redis-cli -h <redis-host> info keyspace
  # Confirm the DB wiring in the running revision:
  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" \
    --format='value(spec.template.spec.containers[0].env)' | tr ',' '\n' | grep -E 'DB_|REDIS_'

E. Secret Manager

One cryptographic secret is generated automatically and stored in Secret Manager: the Laravel APP_KEY (base64:<44-char base64>), used to encrypt all application data that BookStack stores encrypted. The database password is managed separately by the foundation.

• Console: Security → Secret Manager.
• CLI:

  gcloud secrets list --project "$PROJECT"
  gcloud secrets versions access latest --secret=<secret-name> --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun for injection and rotation details.

F. Networking & ingress

The service is reachable at its run.app URL by default (ingress_settings = "all"), which allows the public access expected of a shared wiki. An external HTTPS load balancer with a custom domain, Cloud CDN, and Cloud Armor can be layered on; ingress settings and VPC egress control connectivity.

• Console: Cloud Run (service URL); Network services → Load balancing.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services describe <service-name> --region "$REGION" --format='value(status.url)'
  gcloud compute addresses list --project "$PROJECT"

See App_CloudRun.

G. Cloud Logging & Monitoring

Container logs flow to Cloud Logging; Cloud Run and Cloud SQL metrics flow to Cloud Monitoring, with optional uptime checks and alert policies.

• Console: Logging → Logs Explorer; Monitoring → Dashboards / Alerting.
• CLI:

  gcloud run services logs read <service-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION" --limit 50

---

3. BookStack Application Behaviour

• First-deploy database setup. An initialization Job runs db-init.sh using mysql:8.0-debian. It detects the Cloud SQL socket or TCP endpoint, waits for MySQL to be reachable, creates the application database and user, grants privileges, verifies the app user can connect, and gracefully shuts down the Cloud SQL Auth Proxy sidecar. The job is idempotent and safe to re-run (max_retries = 3).
• Schema auto-migration on start. The LinuxServer BookStack image runs php artisan migrate --force automatically on every container start, so the schema is created on first boot and upgraded on later boots — there is no separate migration job.
• APP_KEY is immutable after first boot. The Laravel app key is generated once and written to Secret Manager. Rotating it makes all encrypted DB values (two-factor secrets, some settings) permanently undecryptable. Only rotate during a planned maintenance window with a re-encryption plan.
• First-run administrator. The image seeds a default admin account, admin@admin.com / password. Change the password (and ideally the email) immediately after the first login.
• Uploaded files live on NFS. Images, attachments, and other uploads are stored on the filesystem under /var/lib/bookstack, which is NFS-backed by default so they survive restarts, redeploys, and scale-to-zero.
• Health path. The liveness probe targets /status — BookStack's unauthenticated JSON health endpoint that reports app/database/cache/session status. The startup probe is a TCP check on port 80. Allow a generous first-boot window: the liveness probe has a 300-second initial delay to accommodate the automatic migrations.
• Inspect job execution:

  gcloud run jobs list --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"
  gcloud run jobs executions list --job <job-name> --project "$PROJECT" --region "$REGION"

---

4. Configuration Variables

Variables are grouped exactly as they appear on the deployment platform. Only settings specific to or notable for BookStack are listed; every other input is inherited from App_CloudRun with its standard behaviour.

Group 1 — Project & Identity

Variable	Default	Description
project_id	(required)	Target Google Cloud project.
region	us-central1	Region for the service and regional resources.

Group 2 — Deployment Environment

Variable	Default	Description
tenant_deployment_id	demo	Short suffix that makes resource names unique per environment.
support_users	[]	Emails granted project access and monitoring alerts.
resource_labels	{}	Labels applied to all resources.

Group 3 — Application Identity

Variable	Default	Description
application_name	bookstack	Base name for resources. Do not change after first deploy.
display_name	BookStack	Human-readable name shown in the Console.
description	BookStack wiki on Cloud Run	Service description.
application_version	latest	linuxserver/bookstack image tag; pin (e.g. version-v24.10) in production.
php_memory_limit / upload_max_filesize / post_max_size	512M / 64M / 64M	PHP tuning hints; inert for the LinuxServer image by default.

Group 4 — Runtime & Scaling

Variable	Default	Description
deploy_application	true	Set false to provision infrastructure only.
container_image_source	prebuilt	Deploy the mirrored LinuxServer image directly — no custom build.
container_image	""	Override image reference; leave empty to use the mirrored default.
cpu_limit	1000m	CPU per instance; 1 vCPU by default.
memory_limit	2Gi	Memory per instance.
min_instance_count	0	0 enables scale-to-zero.
max_instance_count	1	Keep at 1 — BookStack has no multi-instance queue coordination.
container_port	80	BookStack listens on port 80.
container_protocol	http1	HTTP/1.1.
execution_environment	gen2	Gen2 required for NFS and GCS Fuse mounts.
timeout_seconds	300	Maximum request duration (0–3600 seconds).
enable_cloudsql_volume	false	Connect over Cloud SQL private-IP TCP (correct for MySQL on Cloud Run).
enable_image_mirroring	true	Mirror the LinuxServer image into Artifact Registry.
max_revisions_to_retain	7	How many old revisions to keep.

Group 5 — Ingress & VPC

Variable	Default	Description
ingress_settings	all	all allows public access for the wiki.
vpc_egress_setting	PRIVATE_RANGES_ONLY	Route only RFC 1918 traffic via VPC.
enable_iap	false	Require Google sign-in. Blocks anonymous readers.
iap_authorized_users / iap_authorized_groups	[]	Who may access through IAP.

Group 6 — Environment Variables & Secrets

Variable	Default	Description
environment_variables	{}	Extra non-secret settings (e.g. APP_URL, mail config). Do not set APP_KEY or DB_* here.
secret_environment_variables	{}	Map of env var → Secret Manager secret name.
secret_propagation_delay	30	Seconds to wait after secret creation before proceeding.
secret_rotation_period	2592000s	Secret Manager rotation notification frequency.

Group 7 — Backup & Maintenance

Variable	Default	Description
backup_schedule	0 2 * * *	Automated backup cron (UTC).
backup_retention_days	7	Retention; raise for production/compliance.
enable_backup_import / backup_source / backup_uri / backup_format	restore options	Restore from a backup on deploy.

Group 8 — CI/CD & Binary Authorization

Standard App_CloudRun Cloud Build / Cloud Deploy integration — see App_CloudRun. Key inputs: enable_cicd_trigger, github_repository_url, github_token, enable_cloud_deploy, enable_binary_authorization.

Group 9 — Custom SQL Scripts

enable_custom_sql_scripts, custom_sql_scripts_bucket, custom_sql_scripts_path, custom_sql_scripts_use_root — run SQL from a GCS bucket after provisioning. See App_CloudRun.

Group 10 — Cloud Armor, CDN & Custom Domain

Variable	Default	Description
enable_cloud_armor	false	Provision Global HTTPS LB + Cloud Armor WAF.
admin_ip_ranges	[]	CIDR ranges exempted from WAF rules.
application_domains	[]	Custom domain names for the HTTPS LB.
enable_cdn	false	Enable Cloud CDN on the HTTPS LB backend.
max_images_to_retain / delete_untagged_images / image_retention_days	7 / true / 30	Artifact Registry cleanup policy.

Group 11 — Cloud Storage & NFS

Variable	Default	Description
create_cloud_storage	true	Create the default data bucket and any in storage_buckets.
storage_buckets	[{ name_suffix="data" }]	GCS buckets to provision.
enable_nfs	true	Persist uploaded images/attachments on NFS.
nfs_mount_path	/var/lib/bookstack	Mount path where BookStack stores uploads.
gcs_volumes	[]	GCS Fuse volume mounts (requires gen2).
manage_storage_kms_iam / enable_artifact_registry_cmek	false	CMEK options.

Group 12 — Database

Variable	Default	Description
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Fixed — BookStack requires MySQL 8.0.
db_name	bookstack	MySQL database name (tenant-prefixed). Immutable after first deploy.
db_user	bookstack	Application database user (tenant-prefixed). Password auto-generated in Secret Manager.
database_password_length	32	Generated password length.
enable_auto_password_rotation / rotation_propagation_delay_sec	false / 90	DB password rotation.

Group 13 — Workload Automation

Variable	Default	Description
initialization_jobs	[]	Leave empty to use the built-in db-init job.
cron_jobs	[]	BookStack has no platform-scheduled recurring tasks.

Group 14 — Observability & Health

Variable	Default	Description
startup_probe	TCP port 80, 30s delay	Startup probe (port-listening check).
liveness_probe	HTTP /status, 300s delay	Liveness probe against the unauthenticated health endpoint.
uptime_check_config	{ enabled=false, path="/status" }	Optional Cloud Monitoring uptime check.
alert_policies	[]	Metric alert policies.

Group 21 — Redis Cache & Sessions

Variable	Default	Description
enable_redis	false	Inject REDIS_HOST/REDIS_PORT so BookStack can use Redis for cache/sessions.
redis_host	""	Redis endpoint. Leave empty to use the NFS server IP (requires enable_nfs = true).
redis_port	6379	Redis port.
redis_auth	""	Optional Redis auth password (sensitive).

Group 22 — VPC Service Controls & Audit Logging

Variable	Default	Description
enable_vpc_sc	false	Enforce a VPC-SC perimeter (requires organization_id).
vpc_cidr_ranges / vpc_sc_dry_run	(set)	Access level CIDRs / dry-run mode.
enable_audit_logging	false	Detailed Cloud Audit Logs.

---

5. Outputs

Returned on a successful deployment — the quickest way to locate and explore the running resources.

Output	Description
service_name	Cloud Run service name.
service_url	Default run.app URL of the service.
service_location	Region the service runs in.
stage_services	Stage-specific service URLs (Cloud Deploy).
load_balancer_ip / load_balancer_url	External HTTPS load balancer IP / URL (when enabled).
database_instance_name	Cloud SQL instance name.
database_name / database_user	Application database name / user.
database_password_secret	Secret Manager secret holding the DB password.
database_host / database_port	DB endpoint (private IP, sensitive) / port.
storage_buckets	Created Cloud Storage buckets.
network_name / network_exists / regions	VPC network, presence, regions.
container_image / container_registry	Deployed image and Artifact Registry repo.
monitoring_enabled / monitoring_notification_channels / uptime_check_names	Monitoring status, channels, uptime checks.
initialization_jobs	Names of the setup jobs.
deployment_id / tenant_id / resource_prefix	Naming identifiers.
project_id / project_number	Project identifiers.
cicd_enabled / github_repository_url / github_repository_owner / github_repository_name / cicd_configuration	CI/CD status and details.
artifact_registry_repository / cloudbuild_trigger_name / cloudbuild_trigger_id	Registry and build trigger.
vpc_sc_enabled / vpc_sc_perimeter_name / vpc_sc_dry_run_mode	VPC-SC status.
audit_logging_enabled / artifact_registry_cmek_enabled	Audit logging and CMEK status.

---

6. Configuration Pitfalls & Sensible Defaults

Risk: Critical (data loss / outage / security) — High (service degraded) — Medium (cost or partial degradation) — Low (minor).

Inherited plan-time validation. This module passes its configuration through the App_CloudRun foundation engine, which validates values and combinations at plan time — a read replica without its primary, IAP with no authorized identities, a gen1 runtime with NFS/GCS mounts, a database_type that does not match the engine BookStack requires, an out-of-range redis_port/backup_retention_days. Invalid configuration fails the plan with a clear, named error before any resource is created, so most mistakes below are caught up front rather than at apply or runtime.

Setting	Sensible value	Risk	Consequence if wrong
APP_KEY (auto-generated)	Never rotate after first boot	Critical	Rotating it makes all encrypted DB values (two-factor secrets, some settings) permanently undecryptable.
db_name / db_user	Set once	Critical	Immutable after first deploy; renaming recreates the DB/user and destroys all data.
enable_backup_import	false unless restoring	Critical	Enabling without a valid backup_uri fails the import job.
database_type	MYSQL_8_0	Critical	BookStack requires MySQL; any other engine breaks startup.
APP_URL (via environment_variables)	Actual service URL	High	A wrong base URL breaks asset loading, links, and login redirects.
enable_nfs	true	High	Disabling loses all uploaded images and attachments on redeploy or scale-to-zero.
memory_limit	2Gi	High	Lower values risk OOM kills under concurrent editing and full-text indexing.
enable_cloudsql_volume	false (private-IP TCP)	High	On Cloud Run, BookStack connects over private-IP TCP; forcing the socket path is unnecessary and can break DB connectivity.
ingress_settings	all	High	Setting to internal blocks all external readers of the wiki.
enable_iap	only when readers must authenticate	High	IAP blocks all anonymous access, including public documentation readers.
max_instance_count	1	Medium	BookStack has no multi-instance coordination; scaling out risks cache/session inconsistency.
min_instance_count	0 (CR)	Medium	Scale-to-zero adds a cold-start delay on the first request after idle.
admin@admin.com default password	Change on first login	Medium	Leaving the default password lets anyone with the URL log in as admin.
backup_retention_days	7 (raise for prod)	Medium	Too short for compliance retention.

---

For the foundation behaviour referenced throughout — service identity, scaling and concurrency, ingress and load balancing, CI/CD, Cloud Armor, IAP, Binary Authorization, VPC-SC, backups, and image mirroring — see App_CloudRun. BookStack-specific application configuration shared with the GKE variant is described in BookStack_Common.