Communication between multiple docker-compose projects

I have two separate docker-compose.yml files in two different folders:

• ~/front/docker-compose.yml
• ~/api/docker-compose.yml

How can I make sure that a container in front can send requests to a container in api?

I know that --default-gateway option can be set using docker run for an individual container, so that a specific IP address can be assigned to this container, but it seems that this option is not available when using docker-compose.

Currently I end up doing a docker inspect my_api_container_id and look at the gateway in the output. It works but the problem is that this IP is randomly attributed, so I can't rely on it.

Another form of this question might thus be:

• Can I attribute a fixed IP address to a particular container using docker-compose?

But in the end what I'm looking after is:

• How can two different docker-compose projects communicate with each other?

Solution 1:

You just need to make sure that the containers you want to talk to each other are on the same network. Networks are a first-class docker construct, and not specific to compose.

# front/docker-compose.yml
version: '2'
services:
  front:
    ...
    networks:
      - some-net
networks:
  some-net:
    driver: bridge

...

# api/docker-compose.yml
version: '2'
services:
  api:
    ...
    networks:
      - front_some-net
networks:
  front_some-net:
    external: true

Note: Your app’s network is given a name based on the “project name”, which is based on the name of the directory it lives in, in this case a prefix front_ was added

They can then talk to each other using the service name. From front you can do ping api and vice versa.

Solution 2:

UPDATE: As of compose file version 3.5:

This now works:

version: "3.5"
services:
  proxy:
    image: hello-world
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    networks:
      - proxynet

networks:
  proxynet:
    name: custom_network

docker-compose up -d will join a network called 'custom_network'. If it doesn't exist, it will be created!

root@ubuntu-s-1vcpu-1gb-tor1-01:~# docker-compose up -d
Creating network "custom_network" with the default driver
Creating root_proxy_1 ... done

Now, you can do this:

version: "2"
services:
  web:
    image: hello-world
    networks:
      - my-proxy-net
networks:
  my-proxy-net:
    external:
      name: custom_network

This will create a container that will be on the external network.

I can't find any reference in the docs yet but it works!

Solution 3:

Just a small adittion to @johnharris85's great answer, when you are running a docker compose file, a "default" network is created so you can just add it to the other compose file as an external network:

# front/docker-compose.yml 
version: '2' 
  services:   
    front_service:
    ...

...

# api/docker-compose.yml
version: '2'
services:
  api_service:
    ...
    networks:
      - front_default
networks:
  front_default:
    external: true

For me this approach was more suited because I did not own the first docker-compose file and wanted to communicate with it.

Solution 4:

All containers from api can join the front default network with following config:

# api/docker-compose.yml

...

networks:
  default:
    external:
      name: front_default

See docker compose guide: using a pre existing network (see at the bottom)

Solution 5:

The previous posts information is correct, but it does not have details on how to link containers, which should be connected as "external_links".

Hope this example make more clear to you:

• Suppose you have app1/docker-compose.yml, with two services (svc11 and svc12), and app2/docker-compose.yml with two more services (svc21 and svc22) and suppose you need to connect in a crossed fashion:

• svc11 needs to connect to svc22's container

• svc21 needs to connect to svc11's container.

So the configuration should be like this:

this is app1/docker-compose.yml:

version: '2'
services:
    svc11:
        container_name: container11
        [..]
        networks:
            - default # this network
            - app2_default # external network
        external_links:
            - container22:container22
        [..]
    svc12:
       container_name: container12
       [..]

networks:
    default: # this network (app1)
        driver: bridge
    app2_default: # external network (app2)
        external: true

this is app2/docker-compose.yml:

version: '2'
services:
    svc21:
        container_name: container21
        [..]
        networks:
            - default # this network (app2)
            - app1_default # external network (app1)
        external_links:
            - container11:container11
        [..]
    svc22:
       container_name: container22
       [..]

networks:
    default: # this network (app2)
        driver: bridge
    app1_default: # external network (app1)
        external: true