Docker Compose on Plesk

Docker Compose allows you to define and run multi-container applications (e.g. an application and its dependencies). In particular, you might find third party applications packaged in this manner.

Plesk enables you to easily utilise the Docker Compose file provided by those applications (or to write your own, for your own applications).

You can write/paste a Docker Compose file directly in the editor, upload one from your computer, or use one that's already located in a webspace on the server.

Click the Stacks tab and then the blue + (add stack) icon to get started:

After saving your Docker Compose file, Plesk will execute it, and if all containers are declared Healthy, the project will be listed in the Stacks page as Running. You can expand the project to see

the status of each individual container:

You can paste, upload or select the file depending upon your needs. Set the name, it must be in lower case but can container '-' and numbers

Troubleshooting

If your Stack doesn't launch smoothly: Review the docker compose up output

Start the problem container (if it fails to start it may output an error)

Review the container's console log

Port Conflicts

One possible scenario, especially with third party Docker Compose files - since they don't know the rest of your setup, is that your Docker Compose is attempting to use a port that's already in use by another service or container.

We can see in the image above that the container is stopped, and by going into the highlighted Settings we can edit the container and fix it.

We can see that there is a clash since something is already using port 80. So we can edit to a different port, save and restart the container. Click on Stopped and select Start.

If it fails, you will receive an error message in the top right corner of your dashboard.