Docker image available at: https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/calibre-web

Use Stacks in Portainer for easy installation,

version: "2.1"
services:
  calibre-web:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/calibre-web
    container_name: calibre-web
    environment:
      - PUID=998
      - PGID=100
      - TZ=America/Toronto
    volumes:
      - /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-4154932d-19c8-4da9-9f47-ab5119d6a980/config/calibre:/config
      - /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-4154932d-19c8-4da9-9f47-ab5119d6a980/eBook_library:/books
    ports:
      - 8083:8083
    restart: unless-stopped

Ensure any volume directories on the host are owned by the same user you specify and any permissions issues will vanish like magic.

In this instance PUID=998 and PGID=100, to find yours use id user as below:

  $ id username
    uid=1000(dockeruser) gid=1000(dockergroup) groups=1000(dockergroup)

At this point you may want to verify if the docker container is installed properly and running. You can try logging into Calibre-Web.

Webui can be found at http://your-ip:8083

Default admin login: Username: admin Password: admin123

You will be asked to locate the metadata.db file.

On the initial setup screen, enter /books as your calibre library location. But you will not find the database file. There is an easy work around. You need to copy an empty database Ref

Download an empty database from here

The dowloaded file will be metadata.db.empty

Remove the .empty from file name and upload to the /books folder (which is the same as - /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-4154932d-/eBook_library:/books in the above configuration example. So, you can use Samba mount to upload the metadata.db file (or use an sftp client).

In my case, the file was uploaded without write permission, this had to be fixed.

Login into Portainer. Using that get into the console of the docker container. Go to the /books folder and fix the file permission.

Now, in the web interface if you select /books for your metadata location, you will see the empty file there and everything should work fine.

You will not be able to bulk upload your book collection and get them into calibre database by scanning for metadata. The books need to be uploaded one by one. In order to do that,

Go to the Admin Panel > Settings > Basic Configuration > Features

Check and opt to enable upload books and save the settings. Now you will see the upload enabled in the menu at the top. Use that to upload your book (and fix metadata if needed by searching at google or amazon). That’s it.