Networking

Secure your application architecture by isolating services in separate networks. Not every service needs to talk to every other service! Default behavior: All connected By default, all services share the same network: # All services can communicate services: web: image: nginx api: image: myapi database: image: postgres Problem: web can directly access database - potential security risk! Network isolation pattern Create separate networks for different tiers: ...

Choose the right networking mode for your containers. Understand when isolation matters and when performance is key. Bridge mode (default) The default and most secure option - containers get their own network namespace: services: web: image: nginx ports: - "8080:80" # Port mapping required networks: - app_network db: image: postgres:15 networks: - app_network networks: app_network: driver: bridge Containers can communicate using service names (web, db) within the network. ...

Need your frontend project to talk to a backend in another Compose project? External networks let you connect containers across different stacks. The problem Two separate Compose projects need to communicate: frontend/compose.yml - React app backend/compose.yml - API service By default, each creates its own isolated network. The solution Create a shared external network: # Create the network once docker network create shared-network Then reference it in both projects: backend/compose.yml: ...

Hardcoding IP addresses in your containers? Docker Compose provides automatic DNS-based service discovery. Each service can reach another using just the service name. How it works Docker Compose creates a default network and registers each container with an internal DNS server. The DNS name matches the service name in your compose.yml. services: web: image: nginx environment: # Just use the service name! API_URL: http://api:3000 DB_HOST: postgres api: image: myapi environment: DATABASE_URL: postgres://user:pass@postgres:5432/mydb postgres: image: postgres:15 No configuration needed. The web service connects to api using http://api:3000, and api connects to postgres using the hostname postgres. ...