How to set up a MariaDB Database with Docker Compose

If you’re looking to create a simple blog or website, having a reliable database management system is crucial. In this guide, we’ll walk you through setting up a MariaDB database using Docker Compose, and we’ll even throw in phpMyAdmin for easy database management.

Getting Started

Before we dive in, make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your system. These tools will allow us to easily manage and deploy our database and web applications.

Docker Compose Configuration

Let’s start by creating a docker-compose.yml file in your project directory. This file will contain the configuration for both MariaDB and phpMyAdmin services.

version: '3.8'

services:
  mariadb:
    image: mariadb:latest
    container_name: my-mariadb-container
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: your_root_password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: your_database_name
      MYSQL_USER: your_database_user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: your_database_password
    volumes:
      - ./data:/var/lib/mysql
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"

  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin:latest
    container_name: my-phpmyadmin-container
    restart: always
    environment:
      PMA_HOST: mariadb
      PMA_PORT: 3306
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    depends_on:
      - mariadb

Change the image line to specify the desired version of MariaDB. For example, if you want to use version 10.6.5, replace latest it with 10.6.5 as shown above.

By specifying a version number in this way, Docker Compose will pull and use that specific version of the MariaDB image instead of the latest one. This can be useful for ensuring consistency and compatibility with your application requirements.

MariaDB Service

We define a mariadb service using the latest MariaDB image from Docker Hub. This service will create a MariaDB container with the specified environment variables for the root password, database name, user, and password. We also mount a volume to persist the database data.

phpMyAdmin Service

The phpmyadmin service uses the phpMyAdmin image and sets up environment variables to connect to the MariaDB service. We expose a port 8080 on the host to access phpMyAdmin via the web browser.

Running the Services

To start the services, navigate to the directory containing the docker-compose.yml file and run:

docker compose up -d

If you want to watch the log files just skip the -d param at the end:

docker compose up

Both MariaDB and phpMyAdmin containers will start up, allowing you to manage your database easily.

Accessing phpMyAdmin

Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080. You’ll be greeted with the phpMyAdmin login page, where you can log in using the credentials specified in the docker-compose.yml file.

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