Customising Docker Compose Stack in EasyEngine v4

⚠️ For a better experience, consider using Custom Docker Compose released in version 4.6.0.

Starting from EasyEngine v4.2.0, we have given the feature to update the docker-compose stack of an EasyEngine site or that of global service.

This means now it’s possible to change the way the docker container works on a site. One popular use case would be to change the docker images that EasyEngine uses for a site. By changing the docker image of let’s say a PHP container, you can do things like adding your own site-specific PHP extensions to EasyEngine, or you can even add other software/runtime like NodeJS etc…

You can change the stack of a site, or you can even change the global service stack.

How it works

The way it works is quite simple, you just have to define a docker-compose-custom.yml file in your site/service root, and EasyEngine will use that file along with the default docker-compose.yml like:

docker-compose -f docker-compose.yml docker-compose-custom.yml <command>

How to Change Stack of a Site

To change the stack of a site, go to site root i.e. /opt/easyengine/sites/example.com and create a file named docker-compose-custom.yml, and add your changes to it. Here is an example:

version: '3.5'

services:

  php:
    image: php:fpm-alpine

    environment:
      - CUSTOM_VAR=value
    volumes:
      - "./images:/var/www/htdocs/app/images"

Once you’ve done those changes, you can run the below command to apply your changes:

ee site enable --force

How to Change the Service Stack

You can even change the global service stack to do things like using a newer version of DB/Redis then shipped by EasyEngine or use MySQL instead of MariaDB etc…

Go to /opt/easyengine/services/ and create a file named docker-compose-custom.yml, and add your changes to it. Here is an example:

version: '3.5'

services:

  db:
    image: mysql:latest

    environment:
      - CUSTOM_VAR=value
    volumes:
      - "./scripts:/scripts"

Once you’ve done those changes, you can run the below command to apply your changes:

ee site enable --force

Limitations

Currently, the only limitation is that you can only modify the existing services defined in default docker-compose.yml, you cannot add a new service in it, i.e. you cannot add a node service to run alongside your PHP container. This support will be added in near future.