Metabase

What is Metabase?

Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool: connect it to a database, and non-technical users can build charts and dashboards without writing SQL (though you still can, if you want to). Laradock runs it from the official metabase/metabase:latest image.

Start Metabase

Laradock CLI

./laradock start metabase

Docker Compose

docker compose up -d metabase

Its own application data is created on first start and kept between restarts. Name any other services alongside it to start them together, for example ./laradock start metabase mysql.

Stop Metabase

Stopping just pauses the container; your dashboards and questions are safe:

Laradock CLI

./laradock stop metabase

Docker Compose

docker compose stop metabase

To delete the container entirely (the data on disk is still untouched, it lives under DATA_PATH_HOST):

Laradock CLI

./laradock remove metabase

Docker Compose

docker compose rm -sf metabase

Configuration

Settings live in metabase/defaults.env and can be overridden in your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
METABASE_PORT	3030	Host port Metabase is published on (container always listens on 3000 internally).
METABASE_DB_FILE	metabase.db	Filename for Metabase's own application database (an embedded H2 file, stores dashboards/questions/users, not your app data).

Metabase's application data persists under DATA_PATH_HOST/metabase-data, mounted into the container. Connecting Metabase to your actual app database (MySQL, Postgres, etc.) is done from Metabase's own admin UI after first boot, not via .env.

First-time setup

Start Metabase (see above), then open http://localhost:3030 and follow the setup wizard to create an admin account, then add a database connection. Inside Laradock, other containers are reachable by name (mysql, postgres, etc.), use those as the host, not localhost.

See Running Metabase on Docker for the full range of configuration options (email, SSO, embedding) beyond what Laradock wires up by default.

Backup and restore

Metabase stores everything it knows, dashboards, saved questions, users, and your database connections, in its own embedded H2 file under DATA_PATH_HOST/metabase-data. It has no mysqldump-style export command; back it up by copying that folder while Metabase is stopped, so the file isn't being written to mid-copy.

Back up:

Laradock CLI

./laradock stop metabase

Docker Compose

docker compose stop metabase

cp -r "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/metabase-data" ~/metabase-backup

Restore by copying a saved backup back into place before starting Metabase again:

rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/metabase-data"
cp -r ~/metabase-backup "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/metabase-data"

Then start Metabase normally. This backs up Metabase's own configuration and saved dashboards only, it does not back up the app databases Metabase connects to, back those up separately (see the relevant database's own doc page).

Start completely fresh (reset all dashboards, questions, and users)

To throw away Metabase's admin account, connections, dashboards, and questions and go through the setup wizard again (⚠️ this permanently deletes everything above, back up first if you need anything):

Laradock CLI

./laradock stop metabase
./laradock remove metabase
rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/metabase-data"
./laradock start metabase

Docker Compose

docker compose stop metabase
docker compose rm -sf metabase
rm -rf "${DATA_PATH_HOST:-~/.laradock/data}/metabase-data"
docker compose up -d metabase

This only resets Metabase itself, none of the app databases it was connected to are touched.

Common issues

• Setup wizard runs again after a restart. Confirm DATA_PATH_HOST/metabase-data actually persisted, if that folder was deleted or DATA_PATH_HOST changed, Metabase starts with a fresh application database.
• Can't connect to your app's database from Metabase. Use the container name (mysql, postgres, ...) as the host in Metabase's connection form, localhost from inside the metabase container refers to the Metabase container itself.
• Port already in use on your host. Change METABASE_PORT in .env and restart: ./laradock restart metabase.
• Metabase feels slow on first load. This is normal, Metabase's JVM-based backend takes a bit longer to start than most containers; check ./laradock logs metabase for Metabase Initialization COMPLETE before assuming it's stuck.

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Need the database Metabase is reporting on? See the Databases guide. New to Laradock? Start at Getting Started.