I'm new to Docker and trying to set up a few services: Vaultwarden, AdGuard Home, Nextcloud, and Caddy. I'm wondering whether I should place all of these services into a single Docker Compose file or if there's a way to create separate files for each. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
3 Answers
You can go either way! Sticking everything in one Compose file is the standard approach, especially if the services need to talk with each other. This setup allows for a clearer overview of which containers share networks and volumes. Plus, if you later decide to use Docker Swarm, you can deploy it all together! Alternatively, if your services are mostly independent, using separate files works well too.
Yeah, you can absolutely make separate Docker Compose files for each service if that suits your needs. Just keep in mind that if a service in one of those files needs to access a shared network, you'll have to declare that network as 'external'. In many situations, having a unified Compose file can make things simpler, especially when services need to communicate with each other.
It's generally a good idea to keep logically related containers together in one Compose file, like if you're working on an app stack. For services that don’t need to interact, feel free to keep them in their own files. Just remember, if you want to use Caddy as a reverse proxy for Vaultwarden and Nextcloud, those might need to be in the same file to function properly with the shared network.
Got it! So since Caddy is a reverse proxy for Vaultwarden and Nextcloud, it’s best to keep those together in one file. Thanks for the advice!