Docker Updating Question

1

I’ve been testing/running a few docker containers/services and Caddy for reverse proxying to them.

I’m a Docker n00b, but have been reading about it lately. Trying to figure out the correct/a good way of updating these Docker based services/images/containers.

As far as I can tell, the regular/recommended way is to delete the container, pull latest images and recreate the container (obviously making sure setting/files/data) is not lost/on internal volumes.

But, since I’m using a reverse proxy to get HTTPS, it’s a bit tedious, as I have to figure out the new allocated IP and change Caddy’s config and restart it.

Any obvious approach/method I’m missing? :slight_smile: :thinking:

(Not so sure how I feel about docker, but wanted to give it a try before deciding …) :innocent:

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2

You can setup Caddy to point to your containers name instead of it’s IP address (e.g. http://caddy). Docker uses an internal DNS that resolves the hostnames of the containers if they’re on the same network (if you don’t specify a network specifically, they’ll all be on the same default network).

Also, you may want to look into docker-compose. I’m in a bit of a hurry as I write this, but you can create a YAML file that will hold all your containers and configuration. Updating is then a matter of pulling the new image and running docker-compose up -d <container_name>. Environmental variables, volumes, and all other things are all handled by docker-compose which means it’s a lot less effort to maintain.

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3

I don’t have to do docker-compose down with the option to delete container/image before doing a new up command? :thinking:
(I am using docker-compose)

4

Nope, just run up and it’ll recreate the container for you if a new image has been pulled.

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5

Good to know :sweat_smile:
My Docker book is old, it seems, pre v1.9.
I don’t think it mentions docker-compose …

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6

You can use container_name:80 to proxy your containers.

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7

This sounded good:

and

… But I guess that would assume I’m running the Docker version Caddy. I guess I should … :laughing: (I’m running it natively, installed through apt I think, so the resolver will not resolve the DNS names internal to Docker.) I guess I should switch … :sweat_smile:

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8

Why not use something like nginx-proxy? GitHub - nginx-proxy/nginx-proxy: Automated nginx proxy for Docker containers using docker-gen

9

Wouldn’t Caddy be “something like nginx-proxy”? :grin:
At the moment I set ut up, it looked like the config syntax and getting the Let’s Encrypt certificate was a bit quicker and easier …

nginx or ha-proxy will be considered more closely if I move any of this into production. :slight_smile: (I was testing media servers using Docker. Ended up using Plex non-docker.)