How do I set up linkage between Docker containers so that restarting won't break it?

Question

I have a few Docker containers running like:

• Nginx
• Web app 1
• Web app 2
• PostgreSQL

Since Nginx needs to connect to the

Answer 1

with OpenSVC approach, you can workaround by :

• use a service with its own ip address/dns name (the one your end users will connect to)
• tell docker to expose ports to this specific ip address ("--ip" docker option)
• configure your apps to connect to the service ip address

each time you replace a container, you are sure that it will connect to the correct ip address.

Tutorial here => Docker Multi Containers with OpenSVC

don't miss the "complex orchestration" part at the end of tuto, which can help you start/stop containers in the correct order (1 postgresql subset + 1 webapp subset + 1 nginx subset)

the main drawback is that you expose webapp and PostgreSQL ports to public address, and actually only the nginx tcp port need to be exposed in public.