Docker container for DreamFactory 7.x using Ubuntu 24.04, PHP 8.3 and NGINX.
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- Prerequisites
- Installation
- Environment Variables
- DreamFactory Licensed Edition
- Persisting Data
- Testing Data
- Documentation
- Commercial Licenses
- Feedback
The easiest way to configure the DreamFactory application is to use docker-compose. This will automatically spin up 4 containers, the DreamFactory application, MySQL container for the system database, Redis container for caching, and a Postgres database with over 100k records preconfigured for testing.
cd ~/repos (or wherever you want the clone of the repo to be)
git clone https://github.com/dreamfactorysoftware/df-docker.git
cd df-docker
If TLS is terminated in front of the container (reverse proxy, load balancer, or CDN), uncomment HTTPS_HEADER: "on" in the web service environment so DreamFactory generates https:// URLs — without it, OAuth discovery metadata and other absolute URLs come out as http://. The quotes are required, since a bare on is parsed as a YAML boolean.
docker compose build
docker compose up -d
NOTE: volume df-storage:/opt/dreamfactory/storage is created to store all file based (apps, logs etc.) data from DreamFactory.
This basically stores all data written by DreamFactory (at /opt/dreamfactory/storage location) in the df-storage volume. This
way if you delete your DreamFactory container your data will persist as long as you don't delete the df-storage volume.
to stop and remove all containers you can use the command
docker compose down
to stop and remove all containers including volumes use
docker compose down -v
Go to 127.0.0.1 in your browser. It will take some time upon building, but you will be asked to create your first admin user.
docker-entrypoint.sh copies these container environment variables into /opt/dreamfactory/.env on every start (php-fpm and cron do not see the container environment, so .env is the single source of truth). Unset variables leave the image defaults in place.
| Variable | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
SERVERNAME |
dreamfactory.app |
nginx server_name |
HTTPS_HEADER |
off |
set to "on" behind a TLS-terminating proxy so Laravel emits https:// URLs |
APP_KEY |
generated on first start | Laravel encryption key. Pin it (see Persisting System Database Configs) or encrypted service credentials break when the container is re-created |
DB_DRIVER / DB_CONNECTION |
sqlite |
system database driver (mysql, pgsql, sqlsrv, sqlite) |
DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD |
– | system database connection. With DB_DRIVER=sqlite, DB_DATABASE may be an absolute path (put it under /opt/dreamfactory/storage/ so it lives in the volume); the file is created if missing |
CACHE_DRIVER |
file |
cache store, written to both CACHE_DRIVER (legacy) and CACHE_STORE (7.x) |
CACHE_HOST, CACHE_PORT, CACHE_DATABASE, CACHE_USERNAME, CACHE_PASSWORD, CACHE_WEIGHT, CACHE_PERSISTENT_ID |
– | cache connection (Redis / Memcached) |
REDIS_HOST, REDIS_PORT |
– | Redis connection for the redis cache/session stores |
SESSION_DRIVER |
file |
Laravel session driver |
ADMIN_EMAIL, ADMIN_PASSWORD |
– | create the first admin on start (runs df:setup --force, so it also works with APP_ENV=production). ADMIN_PASSWORD must be at least 16 characters |
ADMIN_FIRST_NAME, ADMIN_LAST_NAME |
– | optional admin name |
ADMIN_PHONE |
not-provided |
optional admin phone (required by df:setup, defaulted when omitted) |
PACKAGE |
– | path/URL of a .dfpkg to import after df:setup |
LICENSE |
– | tier name under /opt/dreamfactory/license/<tier>/composer.* to install at start (needs internet) |
DF_LICENSE_KEY |
– | commercial license key |
DF_REGISTER_CONTACT |
– | registration contact e-mail |
DF_INSTALL |
Docker |
install type reported to /status, system/environment and the fresh-instance phone-home. Images built for other channels bake their own value (e.g. docker_trial) |
DF_TRIAL_TOKEN |
– | trial image only: signed trial token from your dashboard at https://portal.dreamfactory.com. No effect on this image |
DF_TRIAL_PORTAL_URL, DF_IS_TRIAL, DF_TRIAL_HEARTBEAT, DF_TRIAL_PROXY |
– | trial image only: heartbeat target, trial flag, heartbeat on/off, outbound proxy for the heartbeat (e.g. http://proxy.corp:3128). Passed through to .env when set; no effect on this image |
JWT_TTL, JWT_REFRESH_TTL, ALLOW_FOREVER_SESSIONS |
– | session token lifetimes (DF_JWT_TTL, ...) |
APP_LOG_LEVEL |
warning |
Laravel log level |
LOG_TO_STDOUT |
– | also tail storage/logs/dreamfactory.log to the container output |
EXTERNAL_IP |
– | public IP/hostname for generated URLs |
LOGSDB_HOST, LOGSDB_PORT, LOGSDB_DATABASE, LOGSDB_USERNAME, LOGSDB_PASSWORD, LOGSDB_ENABLED |
– | Logs DB (MongoDB) for the logger service |
SENDMAIL_DEFAULT_COMMAND, SSMTP_* |
– | outbound mail via ssmtp (SSMTP_mailhub, SSMTP_AuthUser, ...) |
ENABLE_MCP_DAEMON, ENABLE_SYSTEM_MCP_DAEMON |
– | start the MCP daemons (df-mcp-server, df-system-mcp-server) |
On start the entrypoint also recreates the storage/ directory tree (app, logs, databases, framework/{cache,sessions,views}) when the mounted volume is empty, creates the sqlite file when DB_CONNECTION=sqlite, and fixes ownership to www-data.
2) Uncomment the COPY composer.* and composer config --global --auth lines of Dockerfile (lines 25 and 28) and put your GitHub access key in the latter
docker compose build
docker compose up -d
Go to 127.0.0.1 in your browser. It will take some time upon building, but you will be asked to create your first admin user.
After you have spun up your DreamFactory instance, take the APP_KEY value from the .env file in /opt/dreamfactory. This can be done with the following command:
docker-compose exec web cat .env | grep APP_KEY
Set this value as the APP_KEY value in the docker-compose.yml file (line 28), encapsulating it in single quotes, to avoid receiving "The MAC is invalid" errors within your instance should you ever need to rebuild.
We mount a Postgres container that contains over 100k records to test without connecting your own data sets. To generate a REST API for this database, login to your DreamFactory instance and click the Connect to Database button on the home page. Choose PostgreSQL, then add an easily recalled namespace such as pgsql. You can enter anything you'd like into the description field. Click Next and enter the below connection details and then press the Create & Test button:
- Host: example_data
- Port: 5432
- Database Name: dellstore
- Username: postgres
- Password: root_pw
This will generate a fully documented and secure API from the Postgres container. To use this API you'll next need to create a role-based access control (RBAC) and API key. Head over to the documentation (see below) for instructions.
Learn more about DreamFactory's many features by reading our Getting Started Guide. Additional platform documentation can be found on the DreamFactory wiki.
In need of official technical support? Desire access to REST API generators for SQL Server, Oracle, SOAP, or mobile push notifications? Require API limiting and/or auditing? Schedule a demo with our team!
Feedback is welcome on our forum or in the form of pull requests and/or issues. Contributions should follow the strategy outlined in "Contributing to a project".