Docker - Create MySQL Container

A guide to understand how to install MySQL using Docker, creating a MySQL container using Docker Compose, connecting database from command line and Adminer. The following setup done in Ubuntu.

1. Install MySQL Server using Docker

We need to pull down the correct MySQL image and docker pull mysql/mysql-server:tag is the command to be used. The tag is the label for the image version you want to pull (for example, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 8.0, or latest). If :tag is omitted, the latest label is used, and the image for the latest GA version of MySQL Community Server is downloaded.

$ sudo docker pull mysql/mysql-server:8.0

Verify MySql image :

$ docker images – List out all images.

$ docker images
REPOSITORY           TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
mysql/mysql-server   8.0                 716286be47c6        3 weeks ago         381MB

2. Create MySQL Docker Container

Following is the command to create MySQL docker container.

--name=mysql-docker – To Specify Container name.
-p 3306:3306 – Port Binding -p <host_port>:<container_port> , if would like to access form different port (ex: 3309) then command would be -p 3309:3306
-e MYSQL_ROOT_HOST='%' – to specify host to access MySQL DB for root user. '%' is to allow to access from any other containers. You can change this to specific host.
-e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=password – To set root user password.
-e MYSQL_DATABASE=docker_db – Name of the Database to be created.
-d mysql/mysql-server:8.0 – To Specify image name (which is created in previous step), -d means containers starts in detached mode.

docker run --name=mysql-docker -p 3306:3306 -e MYSQL_ROOT_HOST='%' -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=password -e MYSQL_DATABASE=docker_db -d mysql/mysql-server:8.0

Verify created Container :

$ docker ps -a – List out all containers.

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID        IMAGE                    COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS                    PORTS                               NAMES
60881813f5d3        mysql/mysql-server:8.0   "/entrypoint.sh mysq…"   41 seconds ago      Up 39 seconds (healthy)   0.0.0.0:3306->3306/tcp, 33060/tcp   mysql-docker

Stop MySQL Container :

$ docker stop mysql-docker

Start MySQL Container :

$ docker start mysql-docker

3. Connecting MySQL server from within container

You can run MySQL client using command $ docker exec -it mysql-docker mysql -uroot -p . It asks user password, enter password that used to create container.

Show the Database names to verify Setup :

Issue mysql command show databases; to list out all the database names.

mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| docker_db          |
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| sys                |
+--------------------+
5 rows in set (0.12 sec)

Your setup is done. If you are using Docker-Compose, now same setup Let’s configure using Docker-Compose.

4. Setup MySQL server and create a container using Docker-Compose

Make sure you already install Docker-Compose. Before starting Docker Compose remove previous setup,

$ docker stop mysql-docker – Stop container

$ docker container rm mysql-docker – Remove container

$ docker image rm mysql/mysql-server:8.0 – Remove Image

4.1. Create a Directory

$ mkdir mysql-db

4.2. Create a docker compose .yml file

$ cd mysql-db – Navigate to directory which is created in previous step

$ touch docker-compose.yml and $ sudo nano docker-compose.yml – Add the following lines and save the file.

version: '3'

services:

  mysql-docker:
    image: mysql/mysql-server:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_HOST: "%"
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: docker_db
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"

4.3. Once you created docker-compose.yml run the following command in the same directory where .yml is created.

$ docker-compose up

4.4. Verify docker container

You can verify created container and images using $ docker-compose ps and $ docker-compose images

$ docker-compose ps
         Name                    Command             State                     Ports              
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mysql-db_mysql-docker_1   /entrypoint.sh mysqld   Up (healthy)   0.0.0.0:3306->3306/tcp, 33060/tcp

4.4. You can follow Step 3 to connect your database from mysql container (mysql-db_mysql-docker_1). If you want to connect your database from Adminer follow the next steps.

5. Configuring Adminer for MySQL Container

Adminer is a simple and lightweight php web application to work with your databases like mysql, it’s pretty easier to work with SQL and DB operations in DEV environment using Adminer.

5.1. Before update Adminer setup, first we need to down the previous setup, to do that run following command.

$ docker-compose down

5.2. Add the following configuration in docker-compose.yml file

version: '3'

services:

  mysql-docker:
    image: mysql/mysql-server:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_HOST: "%"
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: docker_db
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
      
  adminer:
    image: adminer:latest
    environment:
      ADMINER_DEFAULT_SERVER: mysql-docker
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

5.2. Run $ docker-compose up command

After running $ docker-compose up command Adminer will be pulled and mysql and adminer containers will be started. You can verify them using command $ docker-compose ps

$ docker-compose ps
         Name                        Command                  State                     Ports              
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mysql-db_adminer_1        entrypoint.sh docker-php-e ...   Up             0.0.0.0:8080->8080/tcp           
mysql-db_mysql-docker_1   /entrypoint.sh mysqld            Up (healthy)   0.0.0.0:3306->3306/tcp, 33060/tcp

5.3. Go to your web browser and enter URL http://localhost:8080

You will see following Login screen. Database field is optional. Enter your root user and password details and Login.

Once you login you will see following screen, here you can connect to specific DB and even you can create new Databases.

docker-compose mysql container adminer database select

5.4. Docker Compose useful commands

Following are some useful docker compose commands to work with containers.

$ docker-compose start – To start all the containers based on .yml configuration.
$ docker-compose stop – To stop all the containers based on.yml configuration.
$ docker-compose down – To stop all running containers and remove them based on .yml configuration.
$ docker-compose ps – To show List of all active containers, $ docker-compose ps -a to show all containers.
$ docker-compose images – To show list of all images.

6. Conclusion

In this guide we have covered 1. How to install MySql Server and container using Docker, 2. How to setup MySql Server and container using Docker-Compose, 3. Setting up Adminer to connect your mysql database.

You also might be interested in Spring Boot + Docker Example.

Docker – Create MySQL Container