Running redis on nodejs Docker image - docker

Question

I have a Docker image which is a node.js application. The app retrieves some configuration value from Redis which is running locally. Because of that, I am trying to install and run Redis within the same container inside the Docker image.
How can I extend the Docker file and configure Redis in it?
As of now, the Dockerfile is as below:
FROM node:carbon
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json /app
RUN npm install
COPY . /app
EXPOSE 3011
CMD node /app/src/server.js

Answer 1

The best solution would be to use docker compose. With this you would create a redis container, link to it then start your node.js app. First thing would be to install docker compose detailed here - (https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/).
Once you have it up and running, You should create a docker-compose.yml in the same folder as your app's dockerfile. It should contain the following
version: '3'
services:
myapp:
build: .
ports:
- "3011:3011"
links:
- redis:redis
redis:
image: "redis:alpine"
Then redis will be accessible from your node.js app but instead of localhost:6379 you would use redis:6379 to access the redis instance.
To start your app you would run docker-compose up, in your terminal. Best practice would be to use a network instead of links but this was made for simplicity.
This can also be done as desired, having both redis and node.js on the same image, the following Dockerfile should work, it is based off what is in the question:
FROM node:carbon
RUN wget http://download.redis.io/redis-stable.tar.gz && \
tar xvzf redis-stable.tar.gz && \
cd redis-stable && \
make && \
mv src/redis-server /usr/bin/ && \
cd .. && \
rm -r redis-stable && \
npm install -g concurrently
EXPOSE 6379
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json /app
RUN npm install
COPY . /app
EXPOSE 3011
EXPOSE 6379
CMD concurrently "/usr/bin/redis-server --bind '0.0.0.0'" "sleep 5s; node /app/src/server.js"
This second method is really bad practice and I have used concurrently instead of supervisor or similar tool for simplicity. The sleep in the CMD is to allow redis to start before the app is actually launched, you should adjust it to what suits you best. Hope this helps and that you use the first method as it is much better practice

Answer 2

My use case was to add redis server in alpine tomcat flavour:
So this worked:
FROM tomcat:8.5.40-alpine
RUN apk add --no-cache redis
RUN apk add --no-cache screen
EXPOSE 6379
EXPOSE 3011
## Run Tomcat
CMD screen -d -m -S Redis /usr/bin/redis-server --bind '0.0.0.0' && \
${CATALINA_HOME}/bin/catalina.sh run
EXPOSE 8080

Answer 3

If you are looking for a bare minimum docker with nodejs and redis-server, this works :
FROM nikolaik/python-nodejs:python3.5-nodejs8
RUN apt-get update
apt-get -y install redis-server
COPY . /app
WORKDIR /app
nohup redis-server &> redis.log &
and then you can have further steps for your node application.