Docker Healthcheck Examples

Docker Health check instructions are defined inside the Dockerfile or in Docker-Compose files. For bettering here we defining a sample healthcheck in a Dockerfile, for a docker container that running a web server.

  • Here, The health check instruction runs for every 30seconds of intervals ( –interval=30s ) , With a timeout of 10seconds ( –timeout=10s ) and retries of 3 times. It will check the reachability of the NGINX server using `curl` option, if the it fails ( i.e., unreachability ) then it will exits with status of 1.
 FROM nginx:latest

# Define a healthcheck command
HEALTHCHECK --interval=30s --timeout=10s --retries=3 CMD curl -f http://localhost/ || exit 1

What is Docker Health Check ?

Docker Healthcheck instruction facilitates maintaining optimal docker container performance. It watchfully makes your container well-maintained by letting them know the status of the container. This article demonstrates the health check usage and its significance through a practical go-through using a Nginx container in the docker environment.

Table of Content

  • What Is HEALTHCHECK Instruction In Docker?
  • Docker HealthCheck
  • Syntax 1 Of Docker HealthCheck
  • Syntax 2 Of Docker Health Check
  • Understanding Interval, timeout, start-period and retires options Of Health Check Instructions | Health Check Configurations
  • Docker Healthcheck Examples
  • How to Write a Custom Health Check Scripts
  • Writing a Custom Health Check in Nodejs
  • Common Usages For Docker Health Checks
  • How To Use And Run Docker’s Health Check Command: A Step-By-Step Guide
  • Docker HealthCheck Commands
  • Docker HealthCheck Docker-Compose
  • Docker HealthCheck curl
  • Docker health Check Logs
  • Docker Health Check Ports
  • Docker Health Check Scripts
  • Docker Health Check Status
  • Conclusion
  • Docker HealthCheck Instruction – FAQ’s

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What Is HEALTHCHECK Instruction In Docker?

The HEATHCHECK instruction is a feature in Docker that determines the state of a Docker Container. It determines whether the Container is running in a normal state or not. It performs health checks at regular intervals. The initial state is starting and after a successful checkup, the state becomes healthy. If the test remains unsuccessful, it turns into an unhealthy state....

Docker HealthCheck

Docker Healthcheck is an instruction that comes with 2 forms of commands. Those syntaxes are specified below. Mainly this instruction is used as a command to know the status of the container and verify whether it is still working or not. The status of the container’s health becomes healthy to unhealthy after certain number of failures....

Health Check Configurations

Some options provided by the HEALTHCHECK instruction are as follows:...

Docker Healthcheck Examples

Docker Health check instructions are defined inside the Dockerfile or in Docker-Compose files. For bettering here we defining a sample healthcheck in a Dockerfile, for a docker container that running a web server....

How to Write a Custom Health Check Scripts

For writing a custom health check, you can go for shell scripting in that you can write the code for performing necessary checks and returns. If status is healthy then exit value is 0 or if status is unhealthy then the exit value is non-zero. Here is an example using a shell script....

Writing a Custom Health Check in Nodejs

We can a custom health checks in Nodejs by creating a simple Node.js script. Here’s an example for this:...

Common Usages For Docker Health Checks

Let’s start with discussing the docker health check instruction usage in the docker environment before diving into the practical exposure, The following are a few wider uses of the health check instruction....

How To Use And Run Docker’s Health Check Command: A Step-By-Step Guide

The following are the step-by-step guidelines for the implementation of the health check in docker using Nginx Image:...

Docker HealthCheck Commands

On using the `docker inspect` command we can check the status of a container:...

Docker HealthCheck Docker-Compose

We can define the health checks in Docker-Compose yaml file under a service as follows:...

Docker HealthCheck curl

We can use the curl command inside the Dockerfile for performing the HealthChecks....

Docker health Check Logs

We can view the Docker health check logs with the following command:...

Docker Health Check Ports

On using the following command we can see the exposed ports and its respective mapping:...

Docker Health Check Scripts

On creating the custom healthcheck scripts and including them in your Dockerfile....

Docker Health Check Status

On using the following command you can check the status of a container....

Conclusion

To conclude, in this article we discussed what is HEALTHCHECK instructions, what are its uses, the various options you can use along with it. We used the nginx container to demonstrate the same with practical examples. It’s usage is crucial for monitoring and maintaining the health of containerized applications. Implementation of health checks with Docker applications will be an effective practice for ensuring reliability and stability to the containerized applications....

Docker HealthCheck Instruction – FAQ’s

What Is The Healthcheck In Docker?...