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Install WordPress with Docker Compose

Updated by Linode Written by Nathan Melehan

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Install WordPress with Docker Compose

What Are Docker and Docker Compose?

Docker is a system that provides pre-configured, self-contained applications, frameworks, and software stacks, such as WordPress, Golang, or LAMP. Even entire Linux distributions can be run in Docker. When deployed, these software packages are referred to as containers. Docker also allows you to create your own containers that include any custom software you’d like.

Docker Compose is a complementary system which helps you link together individual Docker containers so they can work together. This guide walks through the deployment of a WordPress container and another MySQL container that WordPress will use to store its data. Docker Compose will facilitate the networking between them.

Containers for WordPress and MySQL are available from Docker Hub in the form of images. A Docker image is a static snapshot of a container which is used to create new container instances. Docker Hub is an official repository where individuals and organizations can upload Docker images for public consumption.

Why Use Docker to Run WordPress?

The WordPress and MySQL images are maintained on Docker Hub by their respective organizations, and using them offers the following benefits:

  • The configuration of the software has been done for you, which means that you don’t need to follow a step-by-step process for each application to get them running on your system.
  • Updating your software is as simple as downloading the latest images from Docker Hub.
  • Images and containers are self-contained, which means that they are easy to clean up if you decide to remove them.

Installation

Install Docker

These steps install Docker Community Edition (CE) using the official Ubuntu repositories. To install on another distribution, or to install on Mac or Windows, see the official installation page.

  1. Remove any older installations of Docker that may be on your system:

    sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io

  2. Make sure you have the necessary packages to allow the use of Docker’s repository:

    sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common gnupg

  3. Add Docker’s GPG key:

    curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

  4. Verify the fingerprint of the GPG key:

    sudo apt-key fingerprint 0EBFCD88

    You should see output similar to the following:

      
pub   rsa4096 2017-02-22 [SCEA]
      9DC8 5822 9FC7 DD38 854A  E2D8 8D81 803C 0EBF CD88
uid           [ unknown] Docker Release (CE deb) 
sub   rsa4096 2017-02-22 [S]

  5. Add the stable Docker repository:

    sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable"
    Note

    For Ubuntu 19.04, if you get an E: Package 'docker-ce' has no installation candidate error, this is because the stable version of docker is not yet available. Therefore, you will need to use the edge / test repository.

    sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable edge test"

  6. Update your package index and install Docker CE:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce

  7. Add your limited Linux user account to the docker group:

    sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
    Note
    After entering the usermod command, you will need to close your SSH session and open a new one for this change to take effect.

  8. Check that the installation was successful by running the built-in “Hello World” program:

    docker run hello-world

Install Docker Compose

  1. Download the latest version of Docker Compose. Check the releases page and replace 1.25.4 in the command below with the version tagged as Latest release:

    sudo curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.25.4/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

  2. Set file permissions:

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

Set Up WordPress

  1. Create a new directory in your home folder called my_wordpress and cd into it:

    mkdir ~/my_wordpress/
cd ~/my_wordpress/

  2. Create a file named docker-compose.yml in this folder and add the following contents. Set your own passwords for the WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD, MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD, and MYSQL_PASSWORD environment options. The password entered for WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD and MYSQL_PASSWORD should be the same.

    docker-compose.yml 
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    version: '3.3'

services:
   wordpress:
     depends_on:
       - db
     image: wordpress:latest
     volumes:
       - wordpress_files:/var/www/html
     ports:
       - "80:80"
     restart: always
     environment:
       WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db:3306
       WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wordpress
       WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: my_wordpress_db_password

   db:
     image: mysql:5.7
     volumes:
       - db_data:/var/lib/mysql
     restart: always
     environment:
       MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: my_db_root_password
       MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
       MYSQL_USER: wordpress
       MYSQL_PASSWORD: my_wordpress_db_password
volumes:
    wordpress_files:
    db_data:

  3. From the my_wordpress directory, start your Docker containers:

    docker-compose up -d

  4. The Docker containers will take a minute or two to start up WordPress and MySQL. Afterwards, you can visit your Linode’s IP address in your web browser and you should be directed to the WordPress setup form.

    WordPress setup screen in the web browser

  5. You can optionally set up a domain for your WordPress site. Our DNS Manager Overview guide includes instructions for associating your domain with your Linode’s IP address.

    Once you set up your DNS records, you should also replace your IP address with your domain in the WordPress Settings screen:

    WordPress settings screen in the web browser

Usage and Maintenance

You do not need to manually start your containers if you reboot your Linode, because the option restart: always was assigned to your services in your docker-compose.yml file. This option tells Docker Compose to automatically start your services when the server boots.

To stop your WordPress application:

cd ~/my_wordpress/
docker-compose down

When a Docker container is stopped, it is also deleted; this is how Docker is designed to work. However, your WordPress files and data will be preserved, as the docker-compose.yml file was configured to create persistent named volumes for that data.

If you want to remove this data and start over with your WordPress site, you can add the --volumes flag to the previous command. This will permanently delete the WordPress posts and customizations you’ve made so far.

docker-compose down --volumes

Update WordPress

The docker-compose.yml specifies the latest version of the WordPress image, so it’s easy to update your WordPress version:

docker-compose down
docker-compose pull && docker-compose up -d

Next Steps

More extensive documentation on Docker is available in the Containers section of the Linode Guides & Tutorials site.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

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This guide is published under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.