Docker Guide

Non-Docker Guides

We only publish and maintain self hosting guides using Docker as this removes many environment-specific configuration problems. If you can't or don't want to use Docker, we also publish an npm package without guides.

d9 is published to Docker Hub under directus/directus. To use the latest d9 image from Docker Hub, run:

# Make sure to change sensitive values (KEY, SECRET, ...) in production
docker run \
  -p 8055:8055 \
  -e KEY=255d861b-5ea1-5996-9aa3-922530ec40b1 \
  -e SECRET=6116487b-cda1-52c2-b5b5-c8022c45e263 \
  directus/directus

Installing Specific Versions

To stick to a more specific version of d9 you can use one of the following tags:

• Full version, e.g. 9.0.0
• Minor releases, e.g. 9.0
• Major releases, e.g. 9

To use a specific version of d9, run:

# Make sure to change sensitive values (KEY, SECRET, ...) in production
docker run \
  -p 8055:8055 \
  -e KEY=255d861b-5ea1-5996-9aa3-922530ec40b1 \
  -e SECRET=6116487b-cda1-52c2-b5b5-c8022c45e263 \
  directus/directus:9.0.0

Configure Admin User

The published Docker image will automatically populate the database and create an admin user. To configure the email/password for this first user, pass the following env vars:

ADMIN_EMAIL="admin@example.com"
ADMIN_PASSWORD="d1r3ctu5"

Persistence

Containers are ephemeral, and this means that whenever you stop a container, all the data associated with it is going to be removed unless you persist them when creating your container.

d9 image by default will use the following locations for data persistence (note that these can be changed through environment variables)

• /directus/uploads for uploads
• /directus/database (only when using SQLite and not configured to a different folder)
• /directus/extensions for loading extensions

Docker Compose

When using Docker Compose, you can use the following setup to get you started - make sure to change all sensitive values (SECRET, DB_PASSWORD, ...) in production:

version: '3'
services:
  database:
    container_name: database
    image: postgis/postgis:13-master
    # Required when running on platform other than amd64, like Apple M1/M2:
    # platform: linux/amd64
    volumes:
      - ./data/database:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    networks:
      - directus
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: 'directus'
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: 'directus'
      POSTGRES_DB: 'directus'

  cache:
    container_name: cache
    image: redis:6
    networks:
      - directus

  directus:
    container_name: directus
    image: directus/directus:latest
    ports:
      - 8055:8055
    volumes:
      # By default, uploads are stored in /directus/uploads
      # Always make sure your volumes matches the storage root when using
      # local driver
      - ./uploads:/directus/uploads
      # Make sure to also mount the volume when using SQLite
      # - ./database:/directus/database
      # If you want to load extensions from the host
      # - ./extensions:/directus/extensions
    networks:
      - directus
    depends_on:
      - cache
      - database
    environment:
      KEY: '255d861b-5ea1-5996-9aa3-922530ec40b1'
      SECRET: '6116487b-cda1-52c2-b5b5-c8022c45e263'

      DB_CLIENT: 'pg'
      DB_HOST: 'database'
      DB_PORT: '5432'
      DB_DATABASE: 'directus'
      DB_USER: 'directus'
      DB_PASSWORD: 'directus'

      CACHE_ENABLED: 'true'
      CACHE_STORE: 'redis'
      CACHE_REDIS: 'redis://cache:6379'

      ADMIN_EMAIL: 'admin@example.com'
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: 'd1r3ctu5'

      # Make sure to set this in production
      # (see https://github.com/LaWebcapsule/directus9/tree/main/docs/self-hosted/config-options#general)
      # PUBLIC_URL: 'https://directus.example.com'

networks:
  directus:

Updating With Docker Compose

If you are not using the latest tag for the d9 image you need to adjust your docker-compose.yml file to increment the tag version number, e.g.:

-   image: directus/directus:9.0.0-rc.101
+   image: directus/directus:9.0.0

You can then issue the following two commands (from your docker-compose root):

docker-compose pull
docker-compose up -d

The images will be pulled and the containers recreated. Migrations will happen automatically so once the containers have started you will be on the latest version (or the version you specified).

Supported Databases

The d9 Docker Image contains all optional dependencies supported in the API. This means the Docker image can be used with most of the supported databases and storage adapters without having to create a custom image.

To run d9, you currently need one of the following databases:

Database	Version
PostgreSQL	10+
MySQL [1]	5.7.8+ / 8+
SQLite	3+
MS SQL Server	13+
MariaDB [2]	10.2.7+
CockroachDB [2]	21.1.13+
OracleDB[2] [3]	19+

^[1] MySQL 8+ requires mysql_native_password to be enabled
^[2] Older versions may work, but aren't officially supported. Use at your own risk.
^[3] Make sure to install node-oracledb and it's system dependencies when using OracleDB

OracleDB

OracleDB's Node client (node-oracledb) requires a couple more native dependencies, and specific configurations in order to run. The official d9 Docker image does not include these dependencies. See https://blogs.oracle.com/opal/dockerfiles-for-node-oracledb-are-easy-and-simple for more information on what to include for OracleDB.