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Lazytainer

Stack

Docker

Lazytainer monitors network traffic to containers. If there is traffic, the container runs, otherwise the container is stopped/paused.

Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Source
Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Services

lazytainer

Configuration

Image
ghcr.io/vmorganp/lazytainer:master
Ports
81:8182:82
Volumes
/var/run/docker.sock : /var/run/docker.sock
Env vars
PORT=81,82LABEL=lazytainerTIMEOUT=30MINPACKETTHRESH=10POLLRATE=1VERBOSE=trueINTERFACE=eth0

Image details

User: vmorganp

whoami1

Configuration

Image
containous/whoami
Command
--port 81

Image details

Pulls: 108.3M
User: containous
Created: Aug 06, 2018
Updated: 6 years ago
Status: active

whoami2

Configuration

Image
containous/whoami
Command
--port 82

Image details

Pulls: 108.3M
User: containous
Created: Aug 06, 2018
Updated: 6 years ago
Status: active

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying Lazytainer

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select Lazytainer, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  lazytainer:
    container_name: lazytainer
    image: ghcr.io/vmorganp/lazytainer:master
    environment:
      - PORT=81,82          # comma separated list of ports...or just the one
      - LABEL=lazytainer    # value of lazytainer.marker for other containers that lazytainer checks
      - TIMEOUT=30          # OPTIONAL number of seconds to let container idle
      - MINPACKETTHRESH=10  # OPTIONAL number of packets that must be recieved to keepalive/start container
      - POLLRATE=1          # OPTIONAL number of seconds to sleep between polls
      - VERBOSE=true        # probably set this to false unless you're debugging or doing the initial demo
      - INTERFACE=eth0 # OPTIONAL interface to listen on - use eth0 in most cases
    ports:
      - 81:81
      - 82:82
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro

  whoami1:
    container_name: whoami1
    image: containous/whoami
    command: --port 81
    network_mode: service:lazytainer
    depends_on:
      - lazytainer
    labels:
      - "lazytainer.marker=lazytainer"
      - "lazytainer.sleepMethod=pause"  # can be either "stop" or "pause", or left blank for stop

  whoami2:
    container_name: whoami2
    image: containous/whoami
    command: --port 82
    network_mode: service:lazytainer
    depends_on:
      - lazytainer
    labels:
      - "lazytainer.marker=lazytainer"
      - "lazytainer.sleepMethod=stop"  # can be either "stop" or "pause", or left blank for stop

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/lazytainer.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

Container Documentation

whoami1 Documentation

DEPRECATED. use https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/traefik/whoami

whoami2 Documentation

DEPRECATED. use https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/traefik/whoami

Serve Lazytainer on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying lazytainer.example.com to http://lazytainer:81

Add this to your Caddyfile

lazytainer.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://lazytainer:81
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:81 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :81
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 81:81 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: http://your-server-ip:81. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, lazytainer can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 81

Can't reach the Docker socket

lazytainer talks to Docker through /var/run/docker.sock. If the logs show "permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket", the app's user can't access it.

  • Check the socket exists on the host: ls -l /var/run/docker.sock
  • Run the container as root, or add the docker group's id to the container with group_add.

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull ghcr.io/vmorganp/lazytainer:master

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

Lazytainer is a Compose stack, a set of containers (3 of them) defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The services

This stack is built from 3 containers that run side by side. Here's each one, with the image it runs and anything it waits for first:

  • lazytainer runs ghcr.io/vmorganp/lazytainer:master
  • whoami1 runs containous/whoami, starts after lazytainer
  • whoami2 runs containous/whoami, starts after lazytainer

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 81:81 means it's reachable on port 81 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. It opens:

  • 81:81
  • 82:82

Volumes

A volume is where Lazytainer keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /var/run/docker.sock from /var/run/docker.sock on the host (a socket it talks to, not storage)

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. Lazytainer takes 7 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:

  • PORT, defaults to 81,82
  • LABEL, defaults to lazytainer
  • TIMEOUT, defaults to 30
  • MINPACKETTHRESH, defaults to 10
  • POLLRATE, defaults to 1
  • VERBOSE, defaults to true
  • INTERFACE, defaults to eth0

Networking

Portainer puts these services on one shared private network, so they can find each other by name (like lazytainer) while only the ports above are open to you.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set Lazytainer up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying Lazytainer is a click rather than a wall of config.