DOCKER_SETUP.md

Docker Setup & Autoscaling Guide for AshtaPashaka

This document provides comprehensive instructions for running AshtaPashaka with Docker and Docker Compose, including autoscaling, health checks, resource limits, and troubleshooting.

Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────┐
│   Frontend      │ (Port 3000)
│  (React/Vite)   │
└────────┬────────┘
         │
┌────────▼────────┐
│   Nginx         │ (Port 8080)
│  Load Balancer  │
└────────┬────────┘
         │
    ┌────┴─────┬──────────┐
    │           │          │
┌───▼──┐   ┌───▼──┐  ┌───▼──┐
│Backend│   │Backend│  │Backend│
│  #1   │   │  #2   │  │  #3  │ (Scalable)
└───────┘   └───────┘  └───────┘
    (Port 3001)

Optional:
┌──────────────────┐
│  Prometheus      │ (Port 9090)
└──────────────────┘

Prerequisites

• Docker Engine 20.10+
• Docker Compose 2.0+
• Git
• 2GB RAM minimum (4GB+ recommended)

Quick Start

# Clone and navigate to project
cd /path/to/AshtaPashaka

# Build and start services
docker-compose up -d --scale backend=2

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop services
docker-compose down

Accessing Services

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• Backend (Direct): ws://localhost:3001
• Backend (Via Nginx): http://localhost:8080
• Prometheus Metrics: http://localhost:9090

Scaling & Load Balancing

To scale backend replicas:

docker-compose up -d --scale backend=5

Nginx load balances using the least_conn algorithm. Update nginx.conf to add more backend servers if needed.

Health Checks

All services include health checks. View status:

docker ps --format "table {{.Names}}\t{{.Status}}"

Resource Limits

Resource constraints are set in docker-compose.yml. Adjust as needed for your hardware.

Monitoring & Metrics

Prometheus is included for monitoring (optional). Access at http://localhost:9090

Production Deployment

• Use Docker Swarm or Kubernetes for production autoscaling and orchestration.
• See Docker Documentation and Kubernetes Documentation.

Environment Variables

Create a .env file for configuration. See examples in the original compose file.

Common Commands

# Start services
docker-compose up -d

# Scale backend
docker-compose up -d --scale backend=5

# View running containers
docker-compose ps

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f

# Stop and remove
docker-compose down -v

Troubleshooting

• Check logs: docker-compose logs
• Verify ports: lsof -i :3000, lsof -i :3001, etc.
• Restart: docker-compose restart

Cleanup

docker-compose down
docker image prune
docker system prune --all --volumes