How to link multiple docker-compose services via network
New scenario: Sharing a network between services
If you want define services in multiple docker-compose.yml files, and also have network connectivity between the services, you need to configure your services to use the same network.
To create an external network, you can run
docker network create <name>
. -- where<name>
can be a single string without spaces.Creating the network
$ docker network create external-example 2af4d92c2054e9deb86edaea8bb55ecb74f84a62aec7614c9f09fee386f248a6
Modified first docker-compose file with network configured
version: '3' services: service1: image: busybox command: sleep infinity networks: default: external: name: external-example
Restarting the services
$ pwd /tmp/docker-example/compose1 $ docker-compose up -d Creating compose1_service1_1 ... done
Modified second docker-compose file with network configured
version: '3' services: service2: image: busybox command: sleep infinity networks: default: external: name: external-example
Restarting the services
$ pwd /tmp/docker-example/compose2 $ docker-compose up -d Creating compose2_service2_1 ... done
After running
docker-compose up -d
on both docker-compose.yml files, we see that no new networks were created.$ docker network ls NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER SCOPE 25e0c599d5e5 bridge bridge local 2af4d92c2054 external-example bridge local 7df4631e9cff host host local 194d4156d7ab none null local
With the containers using the
external-example
network, they are able to ping one another.Test: Service 1 ping Service 2
# By service name $ docker exec -it compose1_service1_1 ping service2 PING service2 (172.24.0.3): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 172.24.0.3: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.054 ms ^C --- service2 ping statistics --- 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0.054/0.054/0.054 ms # By container name $ docker exec -it compose1_service1_1 ping compose2_service2_1 PING compose2_service2_1 (172.24.0.2): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 172.24.0.2: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.042 ms ^C --- compose2_service2_1 ping statistics --- 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0.042/0.042/0.042 ms
Test: Service 2 ping Service 1
# By service name $ docker exec -it compose2_service2_1 ping service1 PING service1 (172.24.0.2): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 172.24.0.2: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.041 ms ^C --- service1 ping statistics --- 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0.041/0.041/0.041 ms # By container name $ docker exec -it compose2_service2_1 ping compose1_service1_1 PING compose1_service1_1 (172.24.0.3): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 172.24.0.3: seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.042 ms ^C --- compose1_service1_1 ping statistics --- 1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0.042/0.042/0.042 ms