Docker Compose

Docker Compose simplifies the management of multi-container applications with Docker. This leaves more time to focus on the applications and not so much on your infrastructure.

Installation

Docker Compose requires both Docker Engine and Docker Compose to be installed. In principle, any server can be used, regardless of whether it is a server in the home network or a rented one in a data center. The installation process varies depending on your operating system.

Container Orchestration Basics

Before we begin with the installation, it’s important to understand some fundamental concepts:

• Containers: Isolated runtime environments for applications
• Images: Templates for containers with pre-configured software
• Compose files: YAML-based configuration files for defining multi-container applications
• Volumes: Persistent data storage for containers
• Networks: Communication between containers

Installation on Different Systems

Arch

Pacman

Install Docker and Docker Compose using Pacman, Arch Linux’s package manager:

sudo pacman -S docker docker-compose
sudo systemctl enable docker

This command will install the necessary packages and enable Docker to start automatically on boot.

Raspberry Pi

Docker Engine

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
rm get-docker.sh

Docker Compose

sudo apt install -y python3-pip libffi-dev
sudo pip3 install docker-compose

Docker Compose may not work yet because it was installed in a different location than the system expected. In this case, a link still needs to be set.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/docker-compose /usr/bin/docker-compose

For detailed Raspberry Pi setup instructions, visit this blogpost.

Synology

Docker Installation

To install Docker on a Synology NAS, all you need to do is to get Docker from the package center.

You can find more information about the setup of a Synology-NAS in this blogpost.

Ubuntu

Docker

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/raspbian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/raspbian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

You can find more information about setting up an Ubuntu-Homeserver in this blogpost.

Windows

Docker Desktop

For Windows (and also macOS), there is the Docker Desktop software, which you can download from Docker.

Note

Depending on whether you install Docker Compose version 1 or 2, the syntax changes. With version 1 it is still docker-compose, with version 2 it is finally docker compose. You always have to keep this in mind.

Caution

If you have a device with an ARM CPU (e.g. Raspberry Pi), only the ARM compatible images will work. All Docker images that are not intended for ARM devices will not work.

On Docker Hub, you can filter operating systems and architectures to identify applications that are fully supported.