WordPress Multi-Container Setup

A Docker Compose project that runs WordPress and a MySQL database as two isolated containers in the same network. The project served as a hands-on exercise in container orchestration and the interaction of multiple services via Docker Compose.

Tech Stack

Docker Docker Compose WordPress MySQL 8.0 Apache

Project Structure

Wordpress-Multi-Container-Setup/
├── ⚙️ docker-compose.yml   # Orchestration of both services
├── ⚙️ .env                 # Environment variables (not in repo)
├── ⚙️ .env.template        # Template for .env
└── 📄 .gitignore

Quickstart

# Clone repository
git clone git@github.com:EnsslinAdrian/Wordpress-Multi-Container-Setup.git
cd Wordpress-Multi-Container-Setup

# Create and fill .env file
cp .env.template .env

# Start containers
docker compose up -d

WordPress available at: <YOUR_IP>:8000

Architecture

Both services run in the same Docker network wp-net and can reach each other via their service names.

WordPress Service

wordpress:
  image: wordpress:6-php8.4-apache
  restart: on-failure:5
  depends_on:
    - db
  ports:
    - "8000:80"
  networks:
    - wp-net
  environment:
    WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: ${WORDPRESS_DB_HOST}
    WORDPRESS_DB_USER: ${WORDPRESS_DB_USER}
    WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: ${WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD}
    WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: ${WORDPRESS_DB_NAME}
  volumes:
    - wordpress_data:/var/www/html

Configuration	Description
depends_on	Database starts before WordPress
restart	Automatic restart on failure, max. 5×
ports	Host port 8000 → container port 80
volumes	WordPress data persisted at /var/www/html

MySQL Service

db:
  image: mysql:8.0
  restart: on-failure:5
  networks:
    - wp-net
  environment:
    MYSQL_DATABASE: ${MYSQL_DATABASE}
    MYSQL_USER: ${MYSQL_USER}
    MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_PASSWORD}
    MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD}
  volumes:
    - db_data:/var/lib/mysql

Configuration	Description
restart	Automatic restart on failure, max. 5×
volumes	Database data persisted at /var/lib/mysql
MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD	Root password is randomly generated

Useful Docker Commands

docker compose up -d          # Start
docker compose down           # Stop
docker compose down -v        # Stop + delete volumes
docker compose restart        # Restart

docker ps                     # Show running containers
docker logs -f <container>    # Follow logs live

What I Learned

• Multi-Container Orchestration — Starting, stopping and managing multiple services together
• Docker Networking — Connecting services via a shared network
• Volumes — Ensuring data persistence outside of containers
• Environment Variables — Safely externalizing sensitive credentials via .env
• depends_on — Controlling the startup order of services

Links

• GitHub Repository