Uninstall the Watchflare Hub

Before removing the Hub, decide whether you want to preserve your data. The Hub stores everything — metrics history, host registrations, users, alert rules, TLS certificates, and package inventory — in two Docker named volumes: pgdata (TimescaleDB) and pki_data (PKI certificates).

Back up your data first

If there is any chance you will reinstall later, export a database dump before proceeding:

docker exec watchflare-postgres pg_dump -U watchflare watchflare > watchflare-backup.sql

Store the dump somewhere outside the Docker host. The pki_data volume is equally important — agents are registered against the CA it contains. Without the original CA, re-registered agents must be re-enrolled from scratch.

To back up the PKI volume:

docker run --rm -v pki_data:/data -v $(pwd):/backup alpine \
  tar czf /backup/pki-backup.tar.gz -C /data .

Stop and remove containers

This stops and removes the containers and network, but keeps all data intact (database and TLS certificates stay in their Docker volumes):

docker compose down

You can bring the Hub back up at any time with docker compose up -d — all hosts, metrics, and configuration will still be there.

Remove everything including data

This removes containers, network, and all Docker volumes:

docker compose down -v

What each volume contains:

Remove the Docker image

docker rmi ghcr.io/watchflare-io/watchflare:latest
docker rmi timescale/timescaledb:latest-pg16

Clean up config files

Remove the .env and docker-compose.yml from the server:

rm docker-compose.yml .env

If you opened ports in a firewall for the Hub (8080, 50051), close them:

# ufw example
sudo ufw delete allow 8080/tcp
sudo ufw delete allow 50051/tcp

Verify removal

Confirm no Hub containers or volumes remain:

docker ps -a | grep watchflare
docker volume ls | grep -E 'pgdata|pki_data'

Both commands should return no output.

Binary install (Linux — systemd)

Back up your data

pg_dump -h localhost -U watchflare watchflare > watchflare-backup.sql

If TimescaleDB runs in Docker:

docker exec watchflare-postgres pg_dump -U watchflare watchflare > watchflare-backup.sql

Stop and remove the service

sudo systemctl stop watchflare-hub
sudo systemctl disable watchflare-hub
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/watchflare-hub.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Remove the binary and config

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/watchflare-hub
sudo rm -rf /etc/watchflare
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/watchflare

Remove the system user (optional)

sudo userdel watchflare

Close firewall ports

# ufw example
sudo ufw delete allow 8080/tcp
sudo ufw delete allow 50051/tcp

Uninstall agents

Removing the Hub does not uninstall agents running on monitored hosts. Their service will keep trying to reconnect until stopped. To remove agents:

• Uninstall on Linux or macOS