Getting started with Docker and Glesys File Storage

You can use Glesys File Storage as a persistent storage solution in Docker.

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Glesys's File Storage is a reliable and straightforward solution for storing persistent data in Docker. Because Docker volumes can easily use NFS when it’s installed on the Docker worker, you’re up and running in no time.

Preparation

Start by creating a virtual machine in Glesys Cloud and granting it access to the file storage. It’s essential that your virtual machine—where your Docker containers will run—can reach the storage volume. You don’t need to mount the file system on the server.

Installing the necessary packages

We assume that you are using Debian here.

Start by installing the package for NFS:

Command

sudo apt install nfs-common

Installing Docker

Next, you'll need to install Docker. To get the latest version, it's better to install Docker directly from Docker's own repository.

Run the following commands to add Docker's repository to your virtual machine:

Multiple commands

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Then, copy and paste this long command:

Command

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/debian
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")
Components: stable
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

Finally, install Docker by running:

Multiple commands

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Trying out an NFS volume in Docker

Create the volume. NfsVolume1 in the example is the volume's name. Also, replace fs-vdwx4.cloud.glesys.net with the URL to your File Storage instance.

Command

sudo docker volume create --driver local \
    --opt type=nfs \
    --opt o=addr=fs-vdwx4.cloud.glesys.net,rw,vers=4.2 \
    --opt device=:/dpool/nfs \
    NfsVolume1

Start a Docker container that utilizes the volume. The container is a simple Bash shell:

Command

sudo docker run -it -v NfsVolume1:/mnt/nfs bash

Now, while you're still running the container, create a file with some content:

Multiple commands (inside container)

cd /mnt/nfs
echo "Hello world" > myfile.txt

Exit the container:

Command (inside container)

exit

Let's re-run the container:

Command

sudo docker run -it -v NfsVolume1:/mnt/nfs bash

And check out the file you created earlier:

Command (inside container)

cat /mnt/nfs/myfile.txt

The output should be:

Output

Hello world

Exit the container again with exit.

Using NFS volumes in Docker Compose

Create the following docker-compose.yml file. Remember to replace fs-vdwx4.cloud.glesys.net with the URL to your File Storage instance. And set a real password for MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD.

docker-compose.yml

volumes:
  mysql_data:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: nfs
      o: addr=fs-vdwx4.cloud.glesys.net,rw,vers=4.2
      device: ":/dpool/nfs/mysql-data"
services:
  mysql:
    image : mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: super-secret-password
    volumes:
      - type: volume
        source: mysql_data
        target: /var/lib/mysql

Before we can start this compose project, we need to create the mysql-data directory in our File Storage. The easiest way to do this is to mount it on the server and create the directory (replace fs-vdwx4.cloud.glesys.net with the URL to your File Storage):

Multiple commands

sudo mount -t nfs fs-vdwx4.cloud.glesys.net:/dpool/nfs /mnt
sudo mkdir /mnt/mysql-data
sudo umount /mnt

Now, you can bring up the Docker Compose project with MySQL:

Command

sudo docker compose up -d

Check out its log to make sure everything is working:

Command

sudo docker compose logs