directus/docs/self-hosted/docker-guide.md

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How to host Directus on Docker.	3 min read

Docker Guide

::: info Non-Docker Guides

We only publish and maintain self-hosting guides using Docker as this removes many environment-specific configuration problems. If you can't or don't want to use Docker, we also publish an npm package without guides.

:::

Directus is published to Docker Hub under directus/directus. If you're just getting started, check out our Self-Hosting Quickstart.

Installing Specific Versions

To stick to a more specific version of Directus you can use one of the following tags:

• Full version, e.g. 10.0.0
• Minor releases, e.g. 10.0
• Major releases, e.g. 10

It is recommended to explicitly specify a Directus version in your docker-compose.yml file. Include the version number in your services.directus.image value:

services:
  directus:
    image: directus/directus:latest // [!code --]
    image: directus/directus:10.0.0 // [!code ++]

Configure Admin User

The ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD variables, while shown in the quickstart, are optional. If omitted, the published Docker image will automatically populate the database and create an admin user, and these will only be shown in the Docker bootstrap logs when starting Directus for the first time. To configure the email/password for this first user, include the following environment variables:

ADMIN_EMAIL="admin@example.com"
ADMIN_PASSWORD="d1r3ctu5"

Once you've started Directus for the first time, assuming your database is persisted, you can remove these values from your compose file.

Persistence

Containers are ephemeral, and this means that whenever you stop a container, all the data associated with it is going to be removed unless you persist them when creating your container.

Directus image by default will use the following locations for data persistence (note that these can be changed through environment variables):

• /directus/uploads for uploads
• /directus/database (only when using SQLite and not configured to a different folder)
• /directus/extensions for loading extensions

The services.directus.volumes section in your docker-compose.yml is optional. To persist data to your local machine, include a list of persisted directories:

services:
  directus:
    volumes:
      - ./database:/directus/database
      - ./uploads:/directus/uploads
      - ./extensions:/directus/extensions

Example Docker Compose

While the Self-Hosting Quickstart aims to show you the minimum-viable docker-compose.yml file, here is a more complete one that spins up a Postgres database, Redis cache, and Directus project:

version: '3'
services:
  database:
    image: postgis/postgis:13-master
    # Required when running on platform other than amd64, like Apple M1/M2:
    # platform: linux/amd64
    volumes:
      - ./data/database:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: 'directus'
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: 'directus'
      POSTGRES_DB: 'directus'

  cache:
    image: redis:6

  directus:
    image: directus/directus:10.4.0
    ports:
      - 8055:8055
    volumes:
      - ./uploads:/directus/uploads
      # If you want to load extensions from the host
      # - ./extensions:/directus/extensions
    depends_on:
      - cache
      - database
    environment:
      KEY: '255d861b-5ea1-5996-9aa3-922530ec40b1'
      SECRET: '6116487b-cda1-52c2-b5b5-c8022c45e263'

      DB_CLIENT: 'pg'
      DB_HOST: 'database'
      DB_PORT: '5432'
      DB_DATABASE: 'directus'
      DB_USER: 'directus'
      DB_PASSWORD: 'directus'

      CACHE_ENABLED: 'true'
      CACHE_STORE: 'redis'
      REDIS: 'redis://cache:6379'

      ADMIN_EMAIL: 'admin@example.com'
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: 'd1r3ctu5'

      # Make sure to set this in production
      # (see https://docs.directus.io/self-hosted/config-options#general)
      # PUBLIC_URL: 'https://directus.example.com'

Updating With Docker Compose

If you are not using the latest tag for the Directus image you need to adjust your docker-compose.yml file to increment the tag version number, e.g.:

-   image: directus/directus:10.0.0
+   image: directus/directus:10.1.0

Then run the following from your docker-compose root:

docker compose up

The specified image will be pulled and the containers recreated. Migrations will happen automatically so once the containers have started you will be on the latest version (or the version you specified).

Adding Packages to Use in Flows Scripts

If you need third-party packages in a script of one of your flows, the recommended way is to create a new Docker image extending from the official image and installing the packages there.

First create a file called Dockerfile with a content like this:

FROM directus/directus:10.0.0

USER root
RUN corepack enable \
  && corepack prepare pnpm@8.3.1 --activate

USER node
RUN pnpm install moment uuid

Then build the image based on that file:

docker build -t my-custom-directus-image .

And update the image reference in the docker-compose.yml file:

-    image: directus/directus:latest
+    image: my-custom-directus-image:latest

:::tip Don't forget to provide FLOWS_EXEC_ALLOWED_MODULES variable

In your docker-compose.yml file, you will need to add:

    environment:
+     FLOWS_EXEC_ALLOWED_MODULES=array:moment,uuid

For more information, please see the config section on Flows

:::

Supported Databases

The Directus Docker Image contains all optional dependencies supported in the API. This means the Docker image can be used with most of the supported databases and storage adapters without having to create a custom image.

To run Directus, you currently need one of the following databases:

Database	Version
PostgreSQL	10+
MySQL [1]	5.7.8+ / 8+
SQLite	3+
MS SQL Server	13+
MariaDB [2]	10.2.7+
CockroachDB [2]	21.1.13+
OracleDB[2] [3]	19+

^[1] MySQL 8+ requires mysql_native_password to be enabled
^[2] Older versions may work, but aren't officially supported. Use at your own risk.
^[3] Make sure to install node-oracledb and it's system dependencies when using OracleDB

::: warning OracleDB

OracleDB's Node client (node-oracledb) requires a couple more native dependencies, and specific configurations in order to run. The official Directus Docker image does not include these dependencies. See https://blogs.oracle.com/opal/dockerfiles-for-node-oracledb-are-easy-and-simple for more information on what to include for OracleDB.

:::

Requirements

It can be easy to under-provision resources to run a self-hosted instance of Directus. For Directus' container resources, the required minimum system requirements are 1x 0.25 vCPU / 512 MB, although the recommended minimum is 2x 1 vCPU / 2GB.