Use this information to quickly start up Content Services using Docker Compose.

Note: While Docker Compose is often used for production deployments, the Docker Compose file provided is recommended for development and test environments only. Customers are expected to adapt this file to their own requirements, if they intend to use Docker Compose to deploy a production environment.

To deploy Content Services using Docker Compose, download and install Docker, then follow the steps below. Make sure that you’ve reviewed the prerequisites before continuing.

1. Download the docker-compose.yml file by accessing the Content Services Download Trial page, which will give you a 30-day license.

   If you already have a valid license file for Content Services 23.1, you can apply it directly to the running system. See Uploading a new license for more details.

   Note: Make sure that exposed ports are open on your host computer. Check the docker-compose.yml file to determine the exposed ports - refer to the host:container port definitions. You’ll see they include 5432, 8080, 8083 and others.

   Note: The Download Trial is usually updated to the most recent version of Content Services. The latest published version on our website is labelled Version 23.1.1 - November 2023.

2. Save the docker-compose.yml file in a local folder.

   For example, you can create a folder acs_trial.

3. Change directory to the location of your docker-compose.yml file.

4. Log in to Quay.io using your credentials:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    docker login quay.io
   

   Alfresco customers can request Quay.io credentials by logging a ticket with Alfresco Support. These credentials are required to pull private (Enterprise-only) Docker images from Quay.io.

5. Deploy Content Services, including the repository, Share, Postgres database, Search Services, etc.:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    docker-compose up
   

   This downloads the images, fetches all the dependencies, creates each container, and then starts the system:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    ...
    Creating network "acs_trial_default" with the default driver
    Creating volume "acs_trial_shared-file-store-volume" with default driver
    Creating acs_trial_control-center_1     ... done
    Creating acs_trial_activemq_1           ... done
    Creating acs_trial_sync-service_1       ... done
    Creating acs_trial_solr6_1              ... done
    Creating acs_trial_digital-workspace_1  ... done
    Creating acs_trial_share_1              ... done
    Creating acs_trial_postgres_1           ... done
    Creating acs_trial_alfresco_1           ... done
    Creating acs_trial_shared-file-store_1  ... done
    Creating acs_trial_proxy_1              ... done
    Creating acs_trial_transform-router_1   ... done
    Creating acs_trial_transform-core-aio_1 ... done
    Attaching to acs_trial_postgres_1, acs_trial_control-center_1, acs_trial_sync-service_1, acs_trial_share_1, acs_trial_digital-workspace_1, acs_trial_alfresco_1, acs_trial_solr6_1,    acs_trial_activemq_1, acs_trial_shared-file-store_1, acs_trial_proxy_1, acs_trial_transform-router_1, acs_trial_transform-core-aio_1
    ...
   

   Note that the name of each container begins with the folder name you created in step 2.

   As an alternative, you can also start the containers in the background by running docker-compose up -d.

6. Wait for the logs to complete, showing messages:

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    ...
    alfresco_1 | ...  INFO  ... Starting 'Transformers' subsystem, ID: [Transformers, default]
    alfresco_1 | ...  INFO  ... Startup of 'Transformers' subsystem, ID: [Transformers, default] complete
    ...
   

   See Troubleshooting if you encounter errors whilst the system is starting up.

7. Open your browser and check everything starts up correctly:

   Service	Endpoint
   Administration and REST APIs	http://localhost:8080/alfresco
   Digital Workspace	http://localhost:8080/workspace
   Share	http://localhost:8080/share
   Search Services administration	http://localhost:8083/solr
   Sync Service health check	http://localhost:9090/alfresco/healthcheck
   Admin Console	http://localhost:8080/alfresco/s/enterprise/admin

   If Docker is running on your local machine, the IP address will be just localhost.

   If you’re still using the Docker Toolbox, you’ll need to switch to Docker Desktop as Docker Toolbox is deprecated.

   For more information on Search Services administration, see Search Services administration

8. Log in as the admin user. Enter the default administrator password admin.

Search Services administration

To get to the Solr Admin UI it’s necessary to add a header with a secret.

For Safari:

1. Go to Develop > Show Web Inspector > Sources.
2. Click on the + next to Local Overrides and select Local Overrides….
3. Configure URL with regular expression, using Solr host and port (e.g http://localhost:8983/solr/*), and add the X-Alfresco-Search-Secret header with the secret value.

For Chrome, FireFox, Opera, and Edge:

1. Install the ModHeader extension.
2. Add the X-Alfresco-Search-Secret header with the secret value, as seen in the image.
   
   

Check system start up

Use this information to verify that the system started correctly, and to clean up the deployment.

1. Open a new terminal window.

2. Change directory to the docker-compose folder that you created in the deployment steps.

3. Verify that all the services started correctly.

   1. List the images and additional details:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose images
      

      You should see a list of the services defined in your docker-compose.yml file (below are the tags used in the latest 23.x release):

      Code copied to clipboard.
       Container                        Repository                                                     Tag                       Image Id       Size
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       acs_trial-activemq-1              alfresco/alfresco-activemq                                   5.18-jre11-rockylinux8    c983f8c439f4   645 MB
       acs_trial-alfresco-1              quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-content-repository                 23.2.1                    d543f50c8a7b   1.12 GB
       acs_trial-control-center-1        quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-control-center                     8.4.1                     65e05f14d4a3   43.6 MB
       acs_trial-digital-workspace-1     quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-digital-workspace                  4.4.1                     42bf20815997   47.8 MB
       acs_trial-elasticsearch-1         elasticsearch                                                7.10.1                    558380375f1a   774 MB
       acs_trial-postgres-1              postgres                                                     14.4                      e09e90144645   376 MB
       acs_trial-proxy-1                 alfresco/alfresco-acs-nginx                                  3.4.2                     f9c4519b7920   23.4 MB
       acs_trial-search-1                quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-elasticsearch-live-indexing        4.0.1                     cfd3f6ef7139   596 MB
       acs_trial-search-reindexing-1     quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-elasticsearch-reindexing           4.0.1                     e5eb14f75825   602 MB
       acs_trial-share-1                 quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-share                              23.2.1                    2692e8fa81e3   691 MB
       acs_trial-shared-file-store-1     quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-shared-file-store                  4.1.1                     b0e701edeb6a   540 MB
       acs_trial-sync-service-1          quay.io/alfresco/service-sync                                4.0.1                     cb8e65443e11   719 MB
       acs_trial-transform-core-aio-1    alfresco/alfresco-transform-core-aio                         5.1.1                     ab05c7e4d20a   1.65 GB
       acs_trial-transform-router-1      quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-transform-router                   4.1.1                     fe8db4219e45   564 MB
      

   2. List the running containers:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose ps
      

      You should see a list of the services defined in the docker-compose.yml file.

   3. View the log files for each service <service-name>, or container <container-name>:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose logs <service-name>
       docker container logs <container-name>
      

      For example, to check the logs for Share, run any of the following commands:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose logs share
       docker container logs acs_trial-share-1
      

      You can add an optional parameter --tail=25 before <container-name> to display the last 25 lines of the logs for the selected container.

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose logs --tail=25 share
       docker container logs --tail=25 acs_trial-share-1
      

      Check for a success message:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       Successfully retrieved license information from Alfresco.
      

   Once you’ve tested the services, you can clean up the deployment by stopping the running services.

4. Stop the session by using CONTROL+C in the same window as the running services:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    Gracefully stopping... (press Ctrl+C again to force)
    Container acs_trial-transform-router-1   ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-proxy-1              ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-transform-core-aio-1 ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-postgres-1           ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-alfresco-1           ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-shared-file-store-1  ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-share-1              ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-sync-service-1       ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-control-center-1     ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-digital-workspace-1  ... Stopped
    Container acs_trial-activemq-1           ... Stopped
   

5. Alternatively, you can open a new terminal window, change directory to the docker-compose folder, and run:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    docker-compose down
   

   This stops the running services, as shown in the previous example, and removes them from memory:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    Container acs_trial-transform-core-aio-1 ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-sync-service-1       ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-proxy-1              ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-search-1             ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-search-reindexing-1  ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-shared-file-store-1  ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-transform-router_1   ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-postgres-1           ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-activemq-1           ... Stopping
    Container acs_trial-elasticsearch-1      ... Removed
    Container acs_trial-control-center-1     ... Removed
    Container acs_trial-alfresco-1           ... Removed
    Container acs_trial-digital-workspace-1  ... Removed
    Container acs_trial-share-1              ... Removed
    Network acs_trial_default                ... Removed
   

6. You can use a few more commands to explore the services when they’re running. Change directory to docker-compose before running these:

   1. Stop all the running containers:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose stop
      

   2. Restart the containers (after using the stop command):

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose restart
      

   3. Starts the containers that were started with docker-compose up:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose start
      

   4. Stop all running containers, and remove them and the network:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose down [--rmi all]
      

      The --rmi all option also removes the images created by docker-compose up, and the images used by any service. You can use this, for example, if any containers fail and you need to remove them:

      Code copied to clipboard.
       docker-compose down --rmi all
      

      Code copied to clipboard.
       Container acs_trial-transform-core-aio-1                           Removed
       Container acs_trial-transform-router-1                             Removed
       Container acs_trial-search-reindexing-1                            Removed
       Container acs_trial-proxy-1                                        Removed
       Container acs_trial-search-1                                       Removed
       Container acs_trial-sync-service-1                                 Removed
       Container acs_trial-postgres-1                                     Removed
       Container acs_trial-elasticsearch-1                                Removed
       Container acs_trial-activemq-1                                     Removed
       Container acs_trial-share-1                                        Removed
       Container acs_trial-digital-workspace-1                            Removed
       Container acs_trial-alfresco-1                                     Removed
       Container acs_trial-control-center-1                               Removed
       Image quay.io/alfresco/service-sync:4.0.1                          Removed
       ...                               
       Image quay.io/alfresco/alfresco-content-repository:23.2.1          Stopping                               
       ...
       Network acs_trial_default                                           Stopping
      

See the Docker documentation for more on using Docker.

Deployment project in GitHub

See the Alfresco/acs-deployment GitHub project for more details.

• In this project, you’ll find several Docker Compose files. The default docker-compose.yml file contains the latest work-in-progress deployment scripts, and installs the latest development version of Content Services.
• To deploy a specific released version of Content Services, several major.minor Docker Compose files are provided in the docker-compose folder of the project.
• To modify your development environment, for example to change or mount files in the existing images, you’ll have to create new custom Docker images (recommended approach). The same approach applies if you want to install AMP files into the repository and Share images. See the Customization guidelines for more.

Using one of the Docker Compose - Enterprise files in this project deploys the following system:

Configure

The Docker Compose file provides some default configuration. This section lists the full set of environment variables exposed by each of the containers in the deployment.

Alfresco Content Repository (alfresco)

Alfresco Share (share)

Alfresco Digital Workspace (digital-workspace)

Alfresco Content App (content-app)

This app is deployed by default only with the Community Compose file, community-docker-compose.yml.

Alfresco Control Center (control-center)

Alfresco Search Services (solr6)

Alfresco Transform Router (transform-router)

Alfresco Transform Core AIO (transform-core-aio)

Alfresco Shared File Store (shared-file-store)

Alfresco Sync Service (sync-service)

Alfresco Proxy (proxy)

Customize

To customize the Docker Compose deployment, for example applying AMPs, we recommend following the best practice of creating your own custom Docker image(s). The Customization guidelines walks you through this process.

Cleanup

To bring the system down and cleanup the containers run the following command:

Code copied to clipboard.
docker-compose down

Troubleshooting

1. If you have issues running docker-compose up after deleting a previous Docker Compose cluster, try replacing step 5 in the initial Docker Compose instructions with:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    docker-compose down && docker-compose build --no-cache && docker-compose up
   

2. If you’re having issues running docker-compose up on Windows environments due to unavailable or reserved ports, and get errors such as: bind: An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions which means that the Windows NAT (WinNAT) service has reserved the port range that Docker Compose is trying to use.

   To remedy this issue, run the following in a terminal:

   Code copied to clipboard.
    net stop winnat
    docker-compose up
    net start winnat
   

3. Stop the session by using CONTROL+C.

4. Remove the containers (using the --rmi all option):

   Code copied to clipboard.
    docker-compose down --rmi all
   

5. Try allocating more memory resources to Docker, as advised in docker-compose.yml.

   For example, in Docker, change the memory setting in Preferences (Mac) or Settings (Windows) > Resources > Advanced > Memory to at least 13 GB. If you make changes, click Apply & Restart and wait for the process to finish before continuing.

   Go back to step 5 in the initial Docker Compose instructions to start the deployment again.

When using Linux as Docker host, all the memory in the computer is available to Docker Compose. So no additional actions are required.

When using Docker with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 Backend in Windows, use the .wslconfig file to increase the memory available for Docker Compose.

Note: In order to deploy onto Docker Desktop you need to allocate at least 13 GB (preferably 16 GB) to the Docker Engine on the Resources tab in Docker Desktop’s preferences pane as shown in the screenshot below. This is required because insufficient memory will cause containers to exit without warning.

Reference

The table below shows the location of the publicly available Dockerfile for the containers used in the Community deployment.