Inception

Infrastructure with Docker and Docker Compose for deploying a complete web application in containers.

Description

Project that configures a complete development and production environment using Docker and Docker Compose. It implements a stack of modern technologies to serve scalable web applications with multiple services (web server, database, application).

Architecture

The project implements a microservices architecture with the following components:

• Web Server (Nginx): Reverse proxy and web server
• Database (MariaDB): Relational database
• Application (WordPress): Content management system or custom web application

Features

• Isolated Docker containers for each service
• Orchestration with Docker Compose
• Docker networks for inter-service communication
• Persistent volumes for data
• Configurable environment variables
• SSL/TLS configuration

Inception

Docker Compose stack to deploy a WordPress site with MariaDB, Nginx and several optional (bonus) services.

This README documents the actual commands and configuration used by the Makefile and srcs/docker-compose.yml in this folder.

Key points:

• The project uses srcs/docker-compose.yml as the compose file and reads runtime variables from the repository .env file.
• There are core services (WordPress, MariaDB, Nginx, Redis) and bonus services (FTP, static site, Adminer, Portainer). Bonus services are activated with Docker Compose profiles.

Project structure

inception/
├── Makefile
├── srcs/
│   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   ├── requirements/
│   │   ├── nginx/
│   │   ├── mariadb/
│   │   └── wordpress/
│   └── bonus/
└── .env              # environment variables used by the stack

Services (as defined in srcs/docker-compose.yml)

• wordpress — PHP/WordPress (build: ./requirements/wordpress). Uses wordpress_data volume and depends on db and redis.
• db — MariaDB (build: ./requirements/mariadb). Uses db_data volume.
• nginx — Reverse proxy (build: ./requirements/nginx). Exposes port 443.
• redis — Redis cache (built from ./bonus/redis). Included as a dependency for WordPress.

Bonus (profile-protected) services — started only when profiles are enabled (see Makefile all target):

• ftp — FTP server (build: ./bonus/ftp). Binds host folder /home/jeandrad/data/wordpress into the container and exposes ports 21 and passive range 21100-21110.
• static_site — Static site container (build: ./bonus/static-site).
• adminer — DB admin tool exposed on port 8080.
• portainer — Portainer UI exposed on port 9443 and using portainer_data volume.

Makefile targets (exact commands)

• make all — Start all services, including bonus ones: docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml --profile "*" up --build -d
• make up — Start only core services (no profiles): docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml up --build -d
• make down — Stop and remove all containers (core + bonus): docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml --profile "*" down --volumes
• make clean — Stop and remove containers, volumes and images: docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml --profile "*" down --volumes --rmi all
• make logs — Follow logs for all services: docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml logs -f

Run these targets from the inception/ repository root.

Required environment variables

Place a .env file in the inception/ folder. The compose files reference these variables (example names used in docker-compose.yml):

MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=your_root_password
MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress_db
MYSQL_USER=wp_user
MYSQL_PASSWORD=wp_pass
MARIADB_ADMIN_USER=admin_user
MARIADB_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin_pass
DOMAIN_NAME=example.com
WP_ADMIN_USER=admin
WP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin_password

Adjust values to your environment before running make up or make all.

Volumes and host paths

The compose file uses bind-mounted local volumes. By default the following host paths are referenced:

• wordpress_data -> host: /home/jeandrad/data/wordpress (bind mounted)
• db_data -> host: /home/jeandrad/data/mariadb (bind mounted)
• portainer_data -> host: /home/jeandrad/data/portainer (bind mounted)

If you run this on another machine, either create these host directories with appropriate permissions or edit srcs/docker-compose.yml to point the volumes to locations that exist on your host.

Note: the ftp bonus service also mounts /home/jeandrad/data/wordpress directly to serve site files over FTP.

Ports

• Core services:

  • nginx: 443:443 (HTTPS). Nginx serves the site and should be configured with certificates via the Nginx requirement folder.
  • MariaDB: not published to host (internal network only)

• Bonus services (only when started via make all / profiles):

  • ftp: 21 and passive range 21100-21110
  • adminer: 8080
  • portainer: 9443
  • redis : 6379
  • static-site

Profiles and bonus services

The compose file uses Docker Compose profiles for optional services. The Makefile's all target runs with --profile "*" to enable those services. If you use make up, only core services (no profiles) are started.

Useful commands (manual Docker Compose equivalents)

• Start core services: docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml up --build -d
• Start core + bonus services: docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml --profile "*" up --build -d
• Stop and remove (including volumes): docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml --profile "*" down --volumes
• View logs: docker compose --env-file .env -f srcs/docker-compose.yml logs -f

Notes and recommendations

• Ensure the .env file is present and contains all variables referenced by the compose file before launching the stack.
• Create the host directories used by bind mounts (/home/jeandrad/data/...) and set correct permissions for your UID/GID.
• When moving the project to another host, update the device paths in the volumes section of srcs/docker-compose.yml or create matching directories.
• Use make logs to follow combined service logs and troubleshoot issues.

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Last updated: 2025