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Using Liferay Docker Images

Docker Hub hosts Liferay DXP and Liferay Portal Docker images, bundled with Tomcat on Linux. The Liferay Docker Hub pages provide image details and tags for the different releases.

These containers are standard Docker containers that can be started and stopped as such. The following examples use Docker CLI (docker), but you can use whatever Docker container tools you like.

Starting a Container for the First Time

The containers listens on port 8080 and starts like all Docker containers.

  1. Run a container that maps a host port (e.g., 8080) to the container’s 8080 port.

    docker run -it -m 8g -p 8080:8080 liferay/portal:7.4.3.55-ga55

    The container runs and prints log messages, including this Tomcat startup completion message:

    INFO [main] org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start Server startup in [xx,xxx] milliseconds

    Note

    Memory, CPUs, and other Docker container resources are configurable. The -m 8g command arguments above set the container’s memory limit to eight gigabytes. See the Docker runtime options for details.

  2. Sign in to Liferay at <http://localhost:8080> using the email address test@liferay.com and the password test. When prompted, change your password.

    Here is Liferay's landing page.

Liferay is ready to use.

Note

docker container ls lists each running container, including its ID and name. docker container ls -a lists all of your containers, including ones that aren’t running.

Viewing Logs

Liferay log messages and log files are available to view live and to copy to your host.

docker logs commands

The docker logs command prints container log messages.

Command

Result

docker logs [container]

Outputs all of the current log messages

docker logs -f [container]

Streams new log messages, like tail -f [file] does

docker logs -t [container]

Appends a time stamp to each log message

docker cp command

You can use a docker cp command like the one below to copy a log file to your host machine.

docker cp [container]:/opt/liferay/logs/liferay.[timestamp].log .

Stopping a Container

Here are two ways to stop the container.

Method

Pros

Cons

docker exec [container] /opt/liferay/tomcat/bin/shutdown.sh

Allows Liferay, Tomcat, and other apps to free resources. The container entry point runs any post-shutdown scripts.

Ctrl-C in the terminal session where you are running with the -i argument.

Note, this sends a SIGINT or SIGKILL signal to the attached container.

Fastest method to stop the container.

Liferay, Tomcat, and the container entry point stop immediately, without freeing resources. The entry point’s post-shutdown phase is skipped. Don’t use this method in production environments

Restarting a Container

The containers can be restarted like all Docker containers.

docker start [container]

Warning

When a container is restarted, its entry point runs again (Please see Container Lifecycle and API). Make sure any scripts you’re executing via the entry point can run again safely.

Tip

Run docker container ls -a to look up your container’s name or ID.

Now you know the basics of starting, stopping, and monitoring a Liferay container.

What’s Next

If you want to know what the container entry point does and learn the container’s API, see the Container Lifecycle and API. If you want to start using the containers, exercise one of the following use cases:

Not finding what you're looking for?

Pardon our dust as we revamp and transition our product documentation to this site. If something seems missing, please check Liferay Help Center documentation for Liferay DXP 7.2 and previous versions.

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