docker-containers

name	docker-containers
description	Docker containerization best practices. Use when building Docker images, writing Dockerfiles, configuring Docker Compose, or troubleshooting container issues.

Docker Containerization

Comprehensive guide for building, optimizing, and deploying containerized applications with Docker.

When to Use

• Building Docker images for applications
• Writing and optimizing Dockerfiles
• Setting up Docker Compose for local development
• Debugging container issues
• Securing container deployments
• Multi-stage builds for production

Core Concepts

Dockerfile Best Practices

Multi-Stage Build (Recommended):

# Stage 1: Build
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder

WORKDIR /app

# Copy package files first (better caching)
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production

# Copy source and build
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

# Stage 2: Production
FROM node:20-alpine AS production

# Security: Run as non-root user
RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S nodejs && \
    adduser -S nextjs -u 1001

WORKDIR /app

# Copy only what's needed
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY --from=builder --chown=nextjs:nodejs /app/package.json ./

USER nextjs

EXPOSE 3000

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
  CMD wget --no-verbose --tries=1 --spider http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1

CMD ["node", "dist/main.js"]

Layer Optimization:

# BAD - Creates many layers, poor caching
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl
RUN apt-get install -y git
RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# GOOD - Single layer, cleanup in same layer
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
      curl \
      git \
      ca-certificates && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
    apt-get clean

Language-Specific Dockerfiles

Node.js:

FROM node:20-alpine

# Set production environment
ENV NODE_ENV=production

# Create non-root user
RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S app && \
    adduser -S -u 1001 -G app app

WORKDIR /app

# Install dependencies (cached if package.json unchanged)
COPY --chown=app:app package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production && npm cache clean --force

# Copy application
COPY --chown=app:app . .

USER app

EXPOSE 3000

CMD ["node", "src/index.js"]

Python:

FROM python:3.12-slim

# Prevent Python from writing pyc files and buffering stdout/stderr
ENV PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
    PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 \
    PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1 \
    PIP_DISABLE_PIP_VERSION_CHECK=1

# Create non-root user
RUN useradd --create-home --shell /bin/bash app

WORKDIR /app

# Install dependencies
COPY --chown=app:app requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

# Copy application
COPY --chown=app:app . .

USER app

EXPOSE 8000

CMD ["gunicorn", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:8000", "app:app"]

Go:

# Build stage
FROM golang:1.22-alpine AS builder

WORKDIR /app

# Download dependencies
COPY go.mod go.sum ./
RUN go mod download

# Build binary
COPY . .
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -ldflags="-w -s" -o /app/server ./cmd/server

# Production stage - scratch for smallest image
FROM scratch

# Import CA certificates for HTTPS
COPY --from=builder /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt /etc/ssl/certs/

# Copy binary
COPY --from=builder /app/server /server

EXPOSE 8080

ENTRYPOINT ["/server"]

PHP/Laravel:

FROM php:8.3-fpm-alpine

# Install extensions
RUN apk add --no-cache \
    libpng-dev \
    libzip-dev \
    && docker-php-ext-install \
    pdo_mysql \
    gd \
    zip \
    opcache

# Install Composer
COPY --from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer

WORKDIR /var/www/html

# Copy composer files first
COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
RUN composer install --no-dev --no-scripts --no-autoloader

# Copy application
COPY . .

# Generate autoloader
RUN composer dump-autoload --optimize

# Set permissions
RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/storage /var/www/html/bootstrap/cache

USER www-data

EXPOSE 9000

CMD ["php-fpm"]

Docker Compose

Development Stack:

# docker-compose.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
      target: development  # Multi-stage target
    volumes:
      - .:/app
      - node_modules:/app/node_modules
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=development
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@db:5432/app
      - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
      redis:
        condition: service_started
    networks:
      - app-network

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
      - ./init.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/init.sql
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: user
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: pass
      POSTGRES_DB: app
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U user -d app"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    networks:
      - app-network

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    volumes:
      - redis_data:/data
    ports:
      - "6379:6379"
    command: redis-server --appendonly yes
    networks:
      - app-network

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    depends_on:
      - app
    networks:
      - app-network

volumes:
  postgres_data:
  redis_data:
  node_modules:

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

Production Compose:

# docker-compose.prod.yml
version: '3.8'

services:
  app:
    image: ${REGISTRY}/myapp:${VERSION:-latest}
    deploy:
      replicas: 3
      update_config:
        parallelism: 1
        delay: 10s
        failure_action: rollback
      rollback_config:
        parallelism: 1
        delay: 10s
      restart_policy:
        condition: on-failure
        delay: 5s
        max_attempts: 3
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '0.5'
          memory: 512M
        reservations:
          cpus: '0.25'
          memory: 256M
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=production
    secrets:
      - db_password
      - api_key
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "wget", "-q", "--spider", "http://localhost:3000/health"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 40s
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

secrets:
  db_password:
    external: true
  api_key:
    external: true

Security Best Practices

1. Non-Root User:

# Create user
RUN addgroup -g 1001 -S appgroup && \
    adduser -S -u 1001 -G appgroup appuser

# Switch to non-root
USER appuser

2. Minimal Base Images:

# Size comparison (Node.js example):
# node:20        ~1GB
# node:20-slim   ~200MB
# node:20-alpine ~150MB

# Use distroless for production
FROM gcr.io/distroless/nodejs20-debian12

3. Pin Versions:

# BAD - Unpredictable
FROM node:latest

# GOOD - Pinned
FROM node:20.11.0-alpine3.19

4. Scan for Vulnerabilities:

# Using Docker Scout
docker scout cves myimage:latest

# Using Trivy
docker run --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  aquasec/trivy image myimage:latest

# Using Snyk
docker scan myimage:latest

5. Don't Store Secrets in Images:

# BAD - Secret baked into image
ENV API_KEY=secret123

# GOOD - Use build args for non-sensitive, runtime env for secrets
ARG BUILD_VERSION
ENV APP_VERSION=${BUILD_VERSION}
# API_KEY provided at runtime via -e or secrets

6. Use .dockerignore:

# .dockerignore
.git
.gitignore
.env
.env.*
node_modules
npm-debug.log
Dockerfile*
docker-compose*
.dockerignore
README.md
.vscode
.idea
*.md
tests/
coverage/
.nyc_output/

Health Checks

HTTP Health Check:

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
  CMD curl -f http://localhost:3000/health || exit 1

TCP Health Check:

HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=3s --start-period=5s --retries=3 \
  CMD nc -z localhost 3000 || exit 1

Custom Script:

COPY healthcheck.sh /usr/local/bin/
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --start-period=30s --retries=3 \
  CMD /usr/local/bin/healthcheck.sh

Networking

Network Types:

networks:
  # Bridge (default) - Isolated network
  frontend:
    driver: bridge

  # Host - Use host networking
  hostnet:
    driver: host

  # Overlay - Multi-host (Swarm)
  backend:
    driver: overlay
    attachable: true

  # External - Pre-existing network
  existing:
    external: true
    name: my-pre-existing-network

DNS Resolution:

services:
  app:
    # Can reach db at 'db' hostname
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    # Accessible as 'db' within network
    hostname: db

Volume Management

Named Volumes:

volumes:
  postgres_data:
    driver: local

  # NFS volume
  shared_data:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=nfs-server.local,rw
      device: ":/path/to/share"

Bind Mounts:

services:
  app:
    volumes:
      # Bind mount (development)
      - ./src:/app/src:ro
      # Named volume (persistent data)
      - data:/app/data
      # tmpfs (in-memory, ephemeral)
      - type: tmpfs
        target: /app/tmp

Commands Reference

# Build
docker build -t myapp:latest .
docker build -t myapp:latest --target production .
docker build --no-cache -t myapp:latest .

# Run
docker run -d --name myapp -p 3000:3000 myapp:latest
docker run -it --rm myapp:latest /bin/sh
docker run -d --env-file .env myapp:latest

# Compose
docker compose up -d
docker compose up -d --build
docker compose down -v  # Remove volumes too
docker compose logs -f app
docker compose exec app /bin/sh
docker compose ps

# Images
docker images
docker image prune -a  # Remove unused
docker tag myapp:latest registry.com/myapp:v1.0.0
docker push registry.com/myapp:v1.0.0

# Containers
docker ps -a
docker logs -f container_name
docker exec -it container_name /bin/sh
docker stats
docker inspect container_name

# Cleanup
docker system prune -a --volumes  # Remove everything unused
docker volume prune
docker network prune

# Debug
docker logs container_name --tail 100
docker exec -it container_name /bin/sh
docker inspect container_name
docker events --filter container=container_name

Performance Optimization

Build Cache:

# Order matters! Least changing first
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci

COPY . .
RUN npm run build

BuildKit Features:

# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1

# Cache mounts (persistent cache across builds)
RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/root/.npm \
    npm ci

# Secret mounts (not stored in image)
RUN --mount=type=secret,id=npmrc,target=/root/.npmrc \
    npm ci

Enable BuildKit:

# Environment variable
DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build .

# Or in docker daemon config
# /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
  "features": {
    "buildkit": true
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Build slow	Use .dockerignore, optimize layer order
Image too large	Multi-stage build, alpine base, remove dev deps
Container exits immediately	Check logs, verify CMD/ENTRYPOINT
Permission denied	Check USER directive, volume permissions
Network issues	Check network mode, expose ports correctly
Cannot connect to services	Use service names as hostnames in compose

Checklist

Before building:

• .dockerignore is comprehensive
• Using specific version tags (not latest)
• Multi-stage build for smaller images
• Non-root user configured
• Health check defined
• No secrets in Dockerfile
• Layers optimized for caching
• Security scan passed

Integration

Works with:

• /devops - Container deployment pipelines
• /k8s - Kubernetes deployments
• ci-templates skill - CI/CD with Docker
• /security - Container security scanning