Alfresco Docker Compose Best Practices

Alfresco Platform provides flexibility in deployment, accommodating various infrastructures and operational preferences.

Below are several deployment approaches:

ZIP Distribution files

Deploying Alfresco using ZIP distribution files involves manually configuring and installing Alfresco on servers. This approach allows for detailed customization of the installation process, making it suitable for environments where specific configurations or integrations are required.

Ansible

Ansible automation simplifies the deployment and management of Alfresco across multiple servers. Ansible playbooks automate the installation and configuration tasks, ensuring consistency and reducing deployment time. This method is ideal for environments requiring rapid deployment and scalability.

Containers

Containerization of Alfresco leverages Docker and Kubernetes technologies, offering a modern approach to deployment:

• Docker Compose: Docker Compose simplifies the orchestration of multiple Alfresco services, such as Alfresco Content Repository, ActiveMQ, Elasticsearch, and others, defined in a single YAML file. It facilitates deployment in development, testing, and small-scale production environments.

• Helm: Helm charts streamline the deployment of Alfresco on Kubernetes clusters. Helm manages Kubernetes applications through easy-to-use templates (charts) and package management. It enables scalability, version control, and rollback capabilities, making it suitable for production-grade deployments.

This project provides a sample Docker Compose configuration designed to apply best practices for deploying the Alfresco Platform in production environments:

• Dependencies for service startup are clearly defined using healthcheck and depends_on clauses
• Resource limits and reservations are appropriately configured for each service using deploy clause
• Sensitive information is managed in a separate file (such as .env)
• Persistent volumes are configured to ensure reliable storage

Contents

The project includes two Docker Compose templates:

• community folder provides a compose.yaml file to deploy Alfresco Community 23.2

• enterprise folder provides a compose.yaml file to deploy Alfresco Enterprise 23.2
  • Docker Images from quay.io are used, since this product is only available for Alfresco Enterprise customers. If you are Enterprise Customer or Partner but you are still experimenting problems to download Docker Images, contact Alfresco Hyland Support in order to get required credentials and permissions.

Basic Operations with Docker Compose

Ensure you are in the correct folder (either 'community' or 'enterprise') before executing the following commands.

Starting the Docker Compose Environment

To start the Docker Compose environment defined in compose.yaml file, use the following command:

docker compose up -d

• -d flag runs containers in the background (detached mode), but they can also be run in foreground mode by omitting this flag.

Stopping the Docker Compose Environment

To stop the Docker Compose environment and all its running containers, use:

docker compose down

• This command stops containers and removes containers and networks created by docker compose up.

Removing Volumes

To remove volumes associated with the Docker Compose environment, add the -v flag to the down command:

docker compose down -v

• This command stops containers, removes containers, networks, and volumes created by docker compose up.

Adjusting Resources (CPU and Memory)

In your compose.yml, resource limits and reservations are defined under the deploy section for each service. To adjust these resources:

• Modify the limits and reservations for each service as needed.

Example If you want to adjust resources for a service like alfresco, you can edit the deploy section in compose.yaml:

services:
  alfresco:
    ...
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '2'
          memory: 4g  # Increase memory limit to 4 GB
        reservations:
          cpus: '1'
          memory: 2g  # Increase memory reservation to 2 GB

• After modifying resource settings, restart the Docker Compose environment to apply changes:

  docker compose up -d

Changing Docker Volumes to Local Volumes

By default, Docker Compose uses Docker-managed volumes. To switch to local volumes where host directories are mounted into containers, modify your compose.yaml

Replace Docker volume definitions like - volume_name:/path/in/container with local paths on the host machine, ensuring permissions are set correctly:

services:
  postgres:
    ...
    volumes:
      - /path/on/host:/var/lib/postgresql/data  # Example of using a local volume instead of Docker volume

Ensure that the directory /path/on/host on the host machine has appropriate permissions for the Docker containers to read and write data.

Additional Operations

Viewing Logs To view logs from all containers managed by Docker Compose:

docker-compose logs

Checking Status of Services To check the status of services managed by Docker Compose:

docker-compose ps

Scaling Services If configured in compose.yaml, you can scale services:

docker-compose up -d --scale SERVICE=NUM

Replace SERVICE with the service name and NUM with the number of instances.