Docker

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Docker

Guide on running Lucee with Docker.

Benefits

  • Consistency: Lucee and dependencies packaged together - works the same everywhere
  • Scalability: Lightweight containers scale quickly based on demand
  • Resource Efficiency: Containers share host kernel - better performance than VMs
  • Isolation: No conflicts between applications on same host

Lucee Docker Images

Official images are built on Tomcat. Extend them for your own apps:

FROM lucee/lucee:latest

COPY config/lucee/ /opt/lucee/web/
COPY www /var/www

More examples: Lucee Docker examples repository.

Using Lucee Docker Images

Available on Docker Hub.

Pull

docker pull lucee/lucee:latest

Run

docker run -d -p 8888:8888 lucee/lucee:latest

Runs detached, mapping container port 8888 to host port 8888.

Docker Compose

Example with Nginx reverse proxy:

version: "3"

services:
  lucee:
    image: lucee/lucee:latest
    ports:
      - "8888:8888"
    volumes:
      - ./www:/var/www
      - ./config/lucee:/opt/lucee/web

  nginx:
    image: nginx:latest
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
    depends_on:
      - lucee

Defines two services: lucee runs the server, nginx runs as reverse proxy.

LUCEE_BUILD Environment Variable

Set LUCEE_BUILD=true to prewarm Lucee during image build - loads configurations and prepares for deployment. The onBuild function in Server.cfc runs during this phase for setup tasks (validating configs, copying files, compiling/encrypting source).

Example Dockerfile

FROM lucee/lucee:latest

# Copy your Server.cfc into the appropriate directory
COPY Server.cfc /opt/lucee-server/context/context/Server.cfc

# Set the environment variable to trigger onBuild
ENV LUCEE_BUILD=true

# Expose necessary ports
EXPOSE 8888

# Start Lucee server
COPY supporting/prewarm.sh /usr/local/tomcat/bin/
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/tomcat/bin/prewarm.sh
RUN /usr/local/tomcat/bin/prewarm.sh 6.1

Get prewarm.sh from lucee-dockerfiles.

Example Server.cfc

// lucee-server\context\context\Server.cfc
component {
	public function onBuild() {
		systemOutput("------- Building Lucee (Docker) -----", true);
	}
}

Redirecting Logs to Docker Console

Since Lucee 6.2, redirect logs to Docker console:

ENV LUCEE_LOGGING_FORCE_APPENDER=console
ENV LUCEE_LOGGING_FORCE_LEVEL=info

Or use symlinks:

RUN ln -sf /proc/1/fd/1 /opt/lucee/server/lucee-server/context/logs/application.log \
&& ln -sf /proc/1/fd/1 /opt/lucee/server/lucee-server/context/logs/deploy.log \
&& ln -sf /proc/1/fd/1 /opt/lucee/server/lucee-server/context/logs/exception.log

Or configure via Lucee Admin (Settings > Logging) and select Console appender.

Performance Tips

Avoid configuring directories under lucee-server as docker volumes - the host filesystem overhead causes performance problems.

See also