How to Start Docker Compose on Boot with systemd

Alex included in category DevOps

2023-10-08 2023-10-08 142 words One minute

Learn how to automatically start Docker Compose services on system boot using systemd. Step-by-step guide to create a systemd service for your Docker Compose project.

Contents

🚀 How to Start Docker Compose on Boot Using systemd

Want your Docker containers to start automatically on boot? Here’s a clean way to run Docker Compose projects as services with systemd.

🛠 Example Project Structure

Suppose your project is located at:

/opt/myapp/docker-compose.yml

🧩 Step 1: Create a systemd service unit

Create a new file:

/etc/systemd/system/docker-compose-myapp.service

Paste the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Docker Compose Application Service
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/myapp
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker compose up
ExecStop=/usr/bin/docker compose down
TimeoutStartSec=0
Restart=on-failure
StartLimitIntervalSec=60
StartLimitBurst=3

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

🚦 Step 2: Enable and start the service

Run the following commands:

sudo systemctl enable docker-compose-myapp
sudo systemctl start docker-compose-myapp

✅ Check service status

sudo systemctl status docker-compose-myapp
journalctl -u docker-compose-myapp

🧠 Notes

Replace /opt/myapp with your actual project path.
Make sure Docker and Docker Compose are properly installed.
You can stop the service with:

sudo systemctl stop docker-compose-myapp