Share Volume Between Multiple Containers in Docker Compose: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Introduction:
In Docker Compose, sharing volumes between multiple containers is a powerful feature that allows seamless data exchange and collaboration within containerized applications. This tutorial will guide you through the process of sharing volumes between multiple containers in Docker Compose, ensuring efficient communication and data consistency across your containers.

Prerequisites:

• Basic understanding of Docker and Docker Compose
• Docker installed on your machine
• Docker Compose installed on your machine

Step 1: Set Up Your Docker Compose File
First, create a Docker Compose file (docker-compose.yml) in your project directory or use an existing one. Ensure that you define all the services (containers) that need to share the volume.

version: '3'

services:
  service1:
    image: your_image1
    volumes:
      - shared_volume:/path/to/shared/directory

  service2:
    image: your_image2
    volumes:
      - shared_volume:/path/to/shared/directory

volumes:
  shared_volume:

In this example, service1 and service2 are two services that share the same volume named shared_volume.

Step 2: Define Volume Mounts in Docker Compose
Next, specify the volume mounts for each service in the Docker Compose file. This tells Docker which directories in the container should be mounted to the shared volume.

version: '3'

services:
  service1:
    image: your_image1
    volumes:
      - shared_volume:/path/to/shared/directory

  service2:
    image: your_image2
    volumes:
      - shared_volume:/path/to/shared/directory

volumes:
  shared_volume:

Ensure that the paths specified after the colon (:) are the same for all services sharing the volume.

Step 3: Start Your Docker Containers
Once you have defined the volume sharing configuration in your Docker Compose file, you can start your containers using the docker-compose up command.

docker-compose up -d

This command will start all the services defined in your Docker Compose file in detached mode, allowing you to continue working in your terminal.

Step 4: Verify Volume Sharing
To verify that the volume sharing is working as expected, you can create files in the shared directory from one container and check if they are accessible from the other container.

# Access service1 container
docker-compose exec service1 sh

# Create a file in the shared directory
echo "Hello from service1" > /path/to/shared/directory/file.txt
exit

# Access service2 container
docker-compose exec service2 sh

# Check if the file created in service1 is accessible
cat /path/to/shared/directory/file.txt

If you see the contents of the file printed in the terminal, it means that the volume sharing between the containers is successful.

Conclusion:
In this tutorial, you learned how to efficiently share volumes between multiple containers in Docker Compose. By following these steps and using the appropriate volume configurations in your Docker Compose file, you can streamline your containerized development workflow and facilitate seamless data exchange within your Dockerized applications.