CODEWITHSUNDEEP
docker
Jay
Jay

Reputation: 782

Docker based Web Hosting

I am posting this question due to lack of experience and I need professional suggestions. The questions in SO are mainly on how to deploy or host multiple websites using Docker running on a single Web Host. This can be done, but is it ideal for moderate traffic websites.

I deploy Docker based Containers in my local machine for development. A software container has a copy of the primary application, as well all dependencies — libraries, languages, frameworks, and everything else.

It becomes easy for me to simply migrate the “docker-compose.yml” or “dockerfile” into any remote Web Server. All the softwares and dependencies get installed and will run just like my local machine.

(Say) I have a VPS and I want to host multiple websites using Docker. The only thing that I need to configure is the Port, so that the domains can be mapped to port 80. For this I have to use an extra NGINX for routing.

But VPS can be used to host multiple websites without the need of Containerisation. So, is there any special benefit of running Docker in Web Servers like AWS, Google, Hostgator, etc., OR Is Docker best or idle for development only in local machine and not to be deployed in Web Servers for Hosting.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 17135

Answers (1)

Leo
Leo

Reputation: 1830

The main benefits of docker for simple web hosting are imo the following:

  • isolation each website/service might have different dependency requirements (one might require php 5, another php 7 and another nodejs).

  • separation of concerns if you split your setup into multiple containers you can easily upgrade or replace one part of it. (just consider a setup with 2 websites, which need a postgres database each. If each website has its own db container you won't have any issue bumping the postgres version of one of the websites, without affecting the other.)

  • reproducibility you can build the docker image once, test it on acceptance, promote the exact same image to staging and later to production. also you'll be able to have the same environment locally as on your server

  • environment and settings each of your services might depend on a different environment (for example smtp settings or a database connection). With containers you can easily supply each container it's specific environment variables.

  • security one can argue about this one as containers itself won't do much for you in terms of security. However due to easier dependency upgrades, seperated networking etc. most people will end up with a setup which is more secure. (just think about the db containers again here, these can share a network with your app/website container and there is no need to expose the port locally.)

    Note that you should be careful with dockers port mapping. It uses the iptables and will override the settings of most firewalls (like ufw) per default. There is a repo with information on how to avoid this here: https://github.com/chaifeng/ufw-docker

Also there are quite a few projects which automate the routing of requests to the applications (in this case containers) very enjoyable and easy. They usually integrate a proper way to do ssl termination as well. I would strongly recommend looking into traefik if you setup a webserver with multiple containers which should all be accessible at port 80 and 443.

Upvotes: 6

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