How to Self-Host your Headless CMS using Docker-Compose

Strapi is a self-hosted Headless CMS. It means that you can run and maintain it on your own private servers. Several solutions are available for you to get started. You can use the CLI, one of our one click buttons or use Docker compose.

The last solution will allow you to create your self-hosted strapi project with any database and will be compatible on any OS.

What is Docker compose

Docker Compose is a command-line tool that uses a specially formatted descriptor file to take multiple docker containers and assemble them into applications which can then be run on a single host.

Our VP Marketing Victor Coisne wrote a full article about it: What is Docker Compose? All you need to know!

Get started with Docker compose

• Create a docker-compose.yaml file in an empty folder. This docker-compose.yaml file will define your database, your Strapi service and links them. This will create a fresh new Strapi application where the docker-compose.yaml file is located.

However you may want to use a specific database. Find below all the possibilities:

SQLite

This will just create a simple Strapi project using an SQLite database.

1version: '3'
2services:
3  strapi:
4    image: strapi/strapi
5    volumes:
6      - ./app:/srv/app
7    ports:
8      - '1337:1337'

PostgreSQL

This will create a postgresql database, a Strapi project and link it to the database.

1version: '3'
2services:
3  strapi:
4    image: strapi/strapi
5    environment:
6      DATABASE_CLIENT: postgres
7      DATABASE_NAME: strapi
8      DATABASE_HOST: postgres
9      DATABASE_PORT: 5432
10      DATABASE_USERNAME: strapi
11      DATABASE_PASSWORD: strapi
12    volumes:
13      - ./app:/srv/app
14    ports:
15      - '1337:1337'
16    depends_on:
17      - postgres
18
19  postgres:
20    image: postgres
21    environment:
22      POSTGRES_DB: strapi
23      POSTGRES_USER: strapi
24      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: strapi
25    volumes:
26      - ./data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

MongoDB

This will create a Mongodb database, a Strapi project and link it to the database.

1version: '3'
2services:
3  strapi:
4    image: strapi/strapi
5    environment:
6      DATABASE_CLIENT: mongo
7      DATABASE_NAME: strapi
8      DATABASE_HOST: mongo
9      DATABASE_PORT: 27017
10      DATABASE_USERNAME: strapi
11      DATABASE_PASSWORD: strapi
12    volumes:
13      - ./app:/srv/app
14    ports:
15      - '1337:1337'
16    depends_on:
17      - mongo
18
19  mongo:
20    image: mongo
21    environment:
22      MONGO_INITDB_DATABASE: strapi
23      MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME: strapi
24      MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD: strapi
25    volumes:
26      - ./data:/data/db

MySQL

This will create a MySQL database, a Strapi project and link it to the database.

1version: '3'
2services:
3  strapi:
4    image: strapi/strapi
5    environment:
6      DATABASE_CLIENT: mysql
7      DATABASE_HOST: mysql
8      DATABASE_PORT: 3306
9      DATABASE_NAME: strapi
10      DATABASE_USERNAME: strapi
11      DATABASE_PASSWORD: strapi
12      DATABASE_SSL: 'false'
13    volumes:
14      - ./app:/srv/app
15    ports:
16      - '1337:1337'
17    depends_on:
18      - mysql
19
20  mysql:
21    image: mysql
22    command: mysqld --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password
23    volumes:
24      - ./data:/var/lib/mysql
25    environment:
26      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: strapi
27      MYSQL_DATABASE: strapi
28      MYSQL_USER: strapi
29      MYSQL_PASSWORD: strapi

MariaDB

This will create a MariaDB database, a Strapi project and link it to the database.

1version: '3'
2services:
3  strapi:
4    image: strapi/strapi
5    environment:
6      DATABASE_CLIENT: mysql
7      DATABASE_HOST: mariadb
8      DATABASE_PORT: 3306
9      DATABASE_NAME: strapi
10      DATABASE_USERNAME: strapi
11      DATABASE_PASSWORD: strapi
12      DATABASE_SSL: 'false'
13    volumes:
14      - ./app:/srv/app
15    ports:
16      - '1337:1337'
17    depends_on:
18      - mariadb
19
20  mariadb:
21    image: mariadb
22    volumes:
23      - ./data:/var/lib/mysql
24    environment:
25      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: strapi
26      MYSQL_DATABASE: strapi
27      MYSQL_USER: strapi
28      MYSQL_PASSWORD: strapi

Start your containers

You are now ready to start a Strapi project using Docker compose! First you want to pull the latest images.

• Pull the latest image by running the following command in your terminal:

1docker-compose pull

By default, running the docker-compose up command for the first time automatically pull the images so this command is quite optionnal. This shoud take a moment, you'll be able to get a coffee ;)

• Run your stack by running the following command:

1docker-compose up # Executes Docker images without detaching the terminal
2# or
3docker-compose up -d # Executes Docker images detaching the terminal:

You database should have been created and your Strapi project must be installing dependencies, building and then start!

Please note: Since we initially published this blog post, we released new versions of Strapi and tutorials may be outdated. Sorry for the inconvenience if it's the case. Please help us by reporting it here.

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