Thinking about moving my instance to docker.

@chad I can't speak directly to running a Mastodon as a container but I use Docker extensively in my homelab for everything else. Generally speaking, there is a small amount of overhead that's added on vs running it natively, but its negligible. Updates are way easier since you're just updating the Docker image. Backups are easier since you only need to backup whatever files you you mount to the container (plus the database you tie to it).

1/2

@chad The only real downsides I've experienced with Docker (and this could be a skill issue) is that sometimes an app will misbehave and dump logs into your Docker image and it can be a pain to figure out what's going on. And depending on how stripped down the Linux distro that the image ships with is, you might not have all the tools you'd like/expect to have in the shell for the image.

Overall though, the trade off it worth it. IMHO

@tylxr Ya, I’ve been using docker for years, too. It’s greatly simplified my setup, so I’m very fond of it. I just haven’t migrated my Masto instance yet. I work as a Rails dev, so I’m really familiar with managing it, but I’d still rather avoid managing dependencies if I can avoid it.

I set up a new host this morning and configured it in Komodo, so I think I’m ready to migrate. After looking at the compose file that they offer, it should be a pretty straightforward process.

@chad There are some notable differences. A few of the integrations (Whisper, for example) can't be installed directly from the web interface in a Docker container. You have to install some containers alongside HA. Overall I've never run into a serious roadblock, but just be aware you might need to spend more time researching how to set up some things.

@Nundrum Gotcha. My server is vanilla so far, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Appreciate the heads up, though!

@chad it'll be the best move you'll make. 0 downtime upgrades (if you take appropriate steps) and no dependency hell.

The downside is if you want to alter the source code at all, rebuilding the docker image is a bit of a pain.

@chad I can't think of any beyond needing to wait for the newer docker images to be generated when a new release is made, but that's generally really quick and upgrading to newer versions is a breeze. Highly recommended.