Docker setup for nodejs microservices with nginx and rethinkdb

1_docker-micro-services.txt

# This shows the setup for two services, an accounts service which connects to a database and a pagerduty service which connects to the pagerduty api
# Directory structure
accounts/
  |_ Dockerfile
pagerduty/
  |_ Dockerfile
nginx/
  |_ conf/
    |_ sites.conf
  |_ .htpasswd
  |_ Dockerfile
docker-compose.yml

# You can start your service with
PAGERDUTY_TOKEN={TOKEN} docker-compose up -d

# Stop services
docker-compose stop

# Rebuild service(s)
docker-compose build
docker-compose build accounts

2_docker-compose.yml

web:
  build: nginx/
  ports: 
    - "80:80"
  links: 
    - pagerduty
    - accounts
    - db

pagerduty:
  build: pagerduty/
  environment:
    - PAGERDUTY_TOKEN

accounts:
  build: accounts/
  links:
    - db

db:
  image: rethinkdb
  volumes_from:
    - dbData

# It is recommended to use a separate container for data volumes. 
# This provides some benefits, for e.g., the db container can be upgraded without affecting the data
dbData:
  image: busybox
  volumes:
    - /data
  command: echo Data Volume for db

3_nginx_Dockerfile

FROM nginx
ADD conf/sites.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/sites.conf
ADD .htpasswd /etc/nginx/.htpasswd

# For htpasswd generation help, follow this tutorial
# https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-http-authentication-with-nginx-on-ubuntu-12-10

4_nginx_conf_sites.conf

server {
    listen 80;

    server_name accounts.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://accounts:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;

    server_name pagerduty.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://pagerduty:4000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}
server {
    listen 80;

    server_name db.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://db:8080;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        auth_basic "Restricted";
        auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
    }
}

5_accounts_Dockerfile

FROM dockerfile/nodejs

# Bundle app source
COPY . /repo

WORKDIR /repo

# Install app dependencies
RUN npm install

# Build the web app
RUN npm run build

ENV PORT 3000
ENV NODE_ENV production
EXPOSE 3000

CMD ["npm", "start"]

6_pagerduty_Dockerfile

FROM iojs

ADD . /repo
WORKDIR /repo
RUN npm install

ENV PORT 4000
ENV NODE_ENV production
EXPOSE 4000

CMD iojs bin/www

7_extending

This can be extended to add a lot more services. It is a great setup to start out with and can be improved very easily as your service matures.

Instead of building from folders, you would build your images from your github repositories directly using docker hub and your docker-compose.yml would just contain all images. This will allow you to version them and make it easier to revert your setup.

There are a few more things to do here
 - Adding ssl support in nginx
 - backing up the database volume
 
I will add them separately to keep this simple.